Marketing junk food

Sir, – Chris Macey is right to be sceptical about the new measures to curb junk food marketing ("Code of practice on junk food marketing worthless", Opinion & Analysis, February 28th). Voluntary codes don't work; they are simply a sop to industry.

Chris Macey and his colleagues in the Irish Heart Foundation are among the few voices of reason in a debate dominated by an industry that routinely blames its victims for the obesity crisis.

Instead of banning advertising to under-16s, we are told that if only kids would get out more – stretch those legs! – the problem would go away.

After decades of listening to this drivel, Ireland is on course to become one of the most obese nations in the developed world.

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One day all of us will realise that the obligation to protect our children is greater than the so-called freedom to peddle junk food. In the meantime, Chris Macey’s courage and moral clarity deserve support. – Yours, etc,

TREVOR WHITE,

SUSAN JANE WHITE,

Dublin 6.