Healthy eating campaign branded a failure

AN expensive and high-profile campaign by the Scottish Executive to improve diet and help banish the "sick man of Europe" tag has failed to win widespread public support.
New statistics show only 0.5% of Scots have called the Healthy Living advice helpline in the nine months since Jack McConnell launched the initiative, describing it as a "long-term commitment to improve our nation's health".
Despite a multi-million-pound TV, radio, and newspaper advertising campaign featuring celebrity chef Nick Nairn, figures show the number of calls to the helpline has slumped dramatically...

The executive has already begun a second phase of promotional multi-media advertising, estimated to cost more than £1m in what is expected to be a three-year campaign.
However, Tommy Sheridan, convener of the Scottish Socialist party, said the healthy living campaign was "as useful as a chocolate teapot".
Mr Sheridan, whose free school meals bill was defeated in the Scottish Parliament last year, said: "They should stop wasting our money. If they were serious about tackling this health timebomb, they would adopt universal, nutritional and free school meals. The key to changing attitudes is through the schools." The Herald