The British Medical Association’s Annual Conference of Public Health Medicine has called on the government to ban junk food manufacturers from targeting unhealthy products at children and has condemned the use of sporting celebrities to advertise such products.

Public health doctors at the conference recommended that the government banned tv advertising of junk foods before the watershed and halted it outright on any channels aimed at children.

Dr Peter Tiplady, chair of the BMA’s Public Health Committee, said: “It’s easy to say that obesity is a matter of personal choice but often that’s not true for children.

“They are being bombarded with adverts for products that are extremely bad for their health. Food manufacturers are deliberately targeting them by using sports personalities to send out the message that junk food and fizzy drinks will make them more popular.”

Chair of the conference, Dr Kailash Agrawal, added: “Childhood obesity is a public health time bomb. If the government ignores it, we will see huge increases in diabetes, strokes, cancer and heart disease – obesity has the potential to cause the same devastation as smoking.” Details: www.bma.org.uk