Blue Blood and Red Sauce: young people and public health

A blog writer’s life can at times, be quite unpredictable. I had been thinking of writing a blog about the apparent world shortage of tomato ketchup. Yes, it’s true. The supply of tomato ketchup has dried up, yet another victim of the pandemic. Covid restrictions have meant that bottles of the red stuff found on restaurant and pub tables could no longer be shared, so individual sachets were being used instead. Heinz announced last week that they were stepping up production by 25%.

Now you might be wondering why I wanted to write about tomato ketchup. It’s simple; public and population health. There is a connection I promise you. Last week I attended a couple of meetings where public and population health were the focus. In one meeting I heard about how young children in a North West community were being taught how to brush their teeth properly. It’s a small intervention that has surprisingly big benefits. Poor dental health in children is both costly to the NHS and of course very unpleasant and distressing for the child. What I didn’t know was that just five years ago, tooth decay was the most common reason for hospital admission for children aged between 5-9. Although improvements in child oral health continue to be made, today there are still too many children of a similar age who, on average, require 3-4 teeth extractions because of tooth decay.  Every tooth extracted costs the NHS £184, and in total the NHS is spending £3.4 billion each year on children’s dental care. It is an opportunity cost we need to tackle more urgently.

But of course, it’s not just poor oral hygiene that can cause tooth decay. What children eat will also have an impact. Much has been written about the so-called ‘free sugars’ that can be found in the food and drinks many children and young people eat and drink. Once upon a time I would drink a litre of strawberry milkshake each day thinking that, as it came from M&S (there are other food outlets) and was basically flavoured milk, it must be healthy for me. That was until I discovered just how much sugar it contained. I don’t drink it at all now. If you need reminding of the range of food and drinks that contain these ‘hidden’ sugars, have a look here.

Eating unhealthy food doesn’t just lead to tooth decay, it of course can lead to obesity. Which was the subject of the other public health meeting I attended. Today, lots of children, young people and many adults have grown up with fast food takeaways as part of their everyday diet. I’m constantly surprised at the queues of cars at nearly every drive-through McDonald’s I see. I simply don’t see what the attraction of a Big Mac or chicken nuggets is and I certainly would not sit in my car queueing up for one in any event. I’m not saying that I don’t like the odd pizza or cheese pie and chips, but I do at least walk to the takeaway to get it. However, true confession time, in my youth I did go to the forerunner of McDonald’s, the ‘Wimpy bar’. These were places to go to have a coffee (or a milkshake), share a portion of chips and meet up with your friends. As a young person, they were the place to be seen. In the early days, (before my time) as well as burgers, it was possible to buy ham or sardine rolls and cold frankfurter and pickled cucumber sandwiches! In the 1970s, it was possible to buy egg and chips, fabulous grills and the burgers only cost 21p. It was a wild time to be eating out.   

Sadly, by the mid-1970s, McDonald’s had started to take the market share away from Wimpy and many of the sit down to eat Wimpy bars were converted to counter service only. It didn’t halt the decline and today there are only around 70 Wimpy bars left in the UK. You can still find one in Huddersfield, Clacton, Dartford, and Porthcawl, but you won’t find one in Manchester these days. After the IRA bombing in 1996 Wimpy’s presence in the city disappeared. I was reminded of this on Friday when I saw some of the TV coverage following the announcement of Prince Philip’s death. The film showed him and the Queen visiting Manchester city centre in the aftermath of the bombing and there in the background was one of Manchester’s Wimpy bars.

I will return to the tomato ketchup story later, but clearly today I couldn’t post a blog without acknowledging the huge contribution Prince Philip made to the UK. It was, as others have testified, truly magnificent and far reaching. I first saw Prince Phillip 54 years ago. I was a Boy Scout and took part in an archery display in front of both the Queen and Prince Phillip. I next came across him when the Queen and Prince Philip opened the Geoffrey Manton Building at Manchester Metropolitan University (MMU) in 1996. I worked as a Senior Lecturer at the university and had been invited to take lunch with the royal party – well not at their table, but at least in the same room. When I moved to the University of Salford, it was to find out he had been their first Chancellor, from 1967-1991. Apart from a quick glimpse of him opening the MediaCityUK campus in 2017, I never saw him in real life again.

His legacy will live on. J is justifiably proud of achieving her Duke of Edinburgh’s Gold Award, awarded to her by Prince Philip, something she is quick to remind me of as we walk around Lancashire and the Fylde Coast using Google maps now to find our way around. Some 3 million young people have gained one of the three Duke of Edinburgh awards since the scheme was started in 1956. Providing opportunities for so many young people to learn about themselves, acquire new skills, build long lasting relationships and develop their resilience store is a legacy to be proud of for sure.

And finally, back to the tomato ketchup story line. We do know that, like many others, both the Queen and Prince Philip liked Heinz baked beans and their tomato ketchup. However, when I saw that picture of the Wimpy bar in Manchester, I remembered those little red plastic tomato shaped containers that were used to dispense ketchup onto your plate of egg and chips. I doubt they were ever washed out before being refilled each day. It’s a wonder we didn’t get food poisoning or even something far worse. As I noted above, it was a wild time to be eating out back then, and I am so looking forward to doing so again in the very near future.