Letter: Advertising for good health

Sir: We should be concerned that the Government has rejected plans for a healthy eating campaign for the poor. As a local GP I arranged classes in the village hall, paying the rent and the fee of a nutritionist to give individual advice. Two restaurateurs offered cookery demonstrations, the greengrocer displayed fruit and vegetables, we printed recipes and the newspaper gave us publicity. Classes were free. Despite the weather and occasional guard dog I put a lot of posters through the doors of council houses.

Two years, eight classes and several hundred audiences later, who actually came? Only the already healthy, wealthy and wise.

Poor people need education but they won't come to classes. The best way to reach them is to buy daily prime advertising time on television and learn from the advertisers. Governments can afford it. Doctors can't.

Jean Coope

Bollington,

Macclesfield