Childhood obesity is on the rise,
and with it long-term conditions like diabetes and heart disease
that can plague adult health.
But maps like these could help us turn the tide
by helping us understand how influences from our environment
shape what we buy and eat.
Junk food is in the spotlight in many places
where children and families spend their time.
The reality is that unhealthy food is sometimes much cheaper
and much more available, especially
in areas of low income.
It's not only schools, it's not on at home.
Children might hang around with their friends
around the schools, so the environment around schools
is extremely important.
Researchers at Guy's and St Thomas' Charity are gathering
social, demographic, and economic data
at the neighbourhood level and then mapping it against obesity
rates across two London boroughs.
The result is a clear picture of what's really behind childhood
obesity numbers.
Most people think that childhood obesity
is about poor parenting and a lack of individual willpower,
when rather this is a societal issue.
Kids from a lower income background
are about three times more likely to be obese than kids
from a wealthier background.
Indeed, when you plot childhood obesity on a map,
it tracks one to one with areas of lower average income.
Healthier food costs more than unhealthy food.
But that's not the only reason income
and obesity are so closely linked.
Those who earn less have less access
to transport so they're more reliant on the shops
nearest to home.
And because some shops stock more healthy food than others
the type of shop available on people's doorsteps
will determine what they can buy.
Even in neighbourhoods where household incomes are roughly
the same.
In Peckham Rye, 65 per cent of shops
were displaying fresh produce, whereas it was 23
per cent in Camberwell Green.
I guess that's just one example of how one area might have
an abundance of nutritious food versus unhealthy
and another might have the reverse.
Which again will be one factor driving a difference
in child obesity rates.
And if you compared them again to an area which
had higher average income you'd probably
see an even bigger change in the food options available.
Where fresh food just isn't an option for the poorest
families, local schemes can be supported
to make it more accessible and affordable.
Guys and St Thomas' Charity approached us
because we work with local children's centres
to identify families who could benefit from free vouchers
to go and buy more fruit and veg.
For one voucher you get two mango, like one pound.
We accept that as a currency.
So just bring one voucher.
We give you two mango.
And it's really good.
We eat more fruits and vegetables daily so
that's the best advantage of the voucher.
We're seeing around about a 65 per cent increase
in the amount of meals that people
cook from scratch using the raw ingredients that they
can buy here from the market.
So that means they're eating less unhealthy food,
they're spending more time cooking
and eating together as a family, and all of that
has got to help them and benefit them in the long term.
Providing easier access to fresh food will work for some
neighbourhoods but not all of them.
Another data set reveals where parents are working the most
hours over a given week.
Time pressure affects almost every household
but for some it can be the last hurdle that prevents parents
cooking healthy meals at home.
If you're time constrained and you have less time
to travel to that supermarket, is the beef more further away
from your home to outsource healthier foods.
You also don't have time to cook at home.
So you will rely on ready-made meals,
on things that you can easily buy at the end of the day
if you're working two shifts.
And again this is going to impact
more disproportionately the households on lower incomes.
Healthier takeaways could soon offer more nutritious
meals for homes where fast food has become a necessity rather
than a luxury.
But changing what kids eat at home can only help so much.
Children buy their own food before and after school.
And in many cases, this is where they're
most at risk from unhealthy influences on our high streets.
If you take the bus home from school, where the bus stop is
might be where you also socialise
with people which might be where you also have something to eat.
So whatever happens to be there providing
food in an attractive way really influences what you eat there.
Teenagers, particularly in the bit of London where we work,
don't have a great deal of spaces to hang out.
Fast food takeaways are a place where teenagers hang out.
So that's another area to focus on, as well.
So these are all the different parties,
the different partners, that we need to be involved.
Reining in unhealthy advertising and providing more safe spaces
for teenagers after school would mean redesigning the towns
and cities we live in.
It's a massive task that won't be possible without government
intervention.
But there's already evidence of how small design tweaks can
change shopper behaviour, particularly in the grocery
stores and supermarkets where families spend the majority
of their food budgets.
Chocolates, things that are bad for you,
are really the things that you see first
when you go into a corner shop.
So those are the things that pop up first into your mind.
So they are going to influence your decisions.
You do really struggle to find a healthy product.
Sometimes its shelved at the back
and it's not at your height, it's not really at the bottom
or at the top.
So you know, your access to not only
it's less salient visually, but also it's harder for you
to reach out for those things.
If they come to pick up nuts or the salt-free on the top,
it's sold down the bottom.
But it keeps improving sales, specifically
for the cereal bars.
So when we change the cereal bars here, the sales nearly 50
per cent up.
You got to keep trying to do it.
I lost it, still I make money so I'm happy to do that.
The results from these schemes could persuade big businesses
and policymakers to take action against childhood obesity
at a national level.
If that's by changing our urban environments
to make healthy food the easiest option,
data could be the tool to show us how.