The report also proposes that schools should offer pupils free fresh fruit and avoid putting sweet machines on the premises. They should also promote parenting and relationship classes and programmes on substance abuse and sex education. It says children from disadvantaged backgrounds achieve less at school than other children and are more likely to go on to get badly paid jobs or be unemployed. This leads to a vicious circle of health problems associated with low income and a perpetuation of the poverty trap. The report says reduced entitlement to free school meals and the selling off of school playing fields have have a bad impact on children's health.
Entitlement is based on whether their parents are on benefits.
These are deprived estates where access to affordable fresh food is difficult because of poor public transport links. The report says babies whose fathers are in lower social groups are on average 130 grams lighter than those with fathers in the top social groups. Low-weight babies are more likely to suffer from heart disease and related illnesses in later life. Children of women who are overweight are also at increased rate of coronary heart disease as adults. The report says poor women are more likely to be obese than the rich.