Olympian James Cracknell concurs with the idea of a sugar tax and yearly body checks for kids. The two-time Olympic gold medalist calls for government intervention in the matter of obesity.
Ben Quinn of The Guardian reported that Cracknell's voice added more pressure on the British government to act on the clamor.
"The human misery and drain on the public finances is so great that the government has no option but to intervene to give people who are severely obese the help they desperately need," Cracknell said in The Guardian article.
Cracknell's main concern are primary school children in the age range of four to 11. He is advocating for annual BMI checks for kids in school and calls obesity as a "national crisis" for the country.
According to BT, Cracknell wants heavy taxes levied on sugary food and drinks where the money goes to prevention of diseases rather than treatment. The same BT article lists the calorie intake of school age kids is at an alarming 14.7% purely made up of sugar.
Because of that, the champion athlete also calls for a simple standard of measurement, like the teaspoon, in order to educate buyers about the level of sugar in the food product they are buying. The teaspoon is a clear and unambiguous indicator that will help the buyers make an educated decision to pick up the products or not.
The Sun reported that one in five kids leave primary school obese. The current system in Great Britain is to weigh kids aged four or five and at ten or 11, which Cracknell criticizes as "rife with error," according to The Sun.
Cracknell is not the only famous personality calling for a sugar tax and improve testing. Celebrity chef Jamie Oliver started the movement. Oliver also posited the idea of clear labeling in food and drinks using the teaspoon as measurement.
