Health chiefs in Greater Manchester want to bring in a tax on fatty foods – and promote the sale of healthy snacks.

They plan to lobby the government to increase the prices of unhealthy foods to encourage people to eat better.

Researchers will evaluate fast foods linked to obesity – such as chips, burgers, sausages and pizza – to see which should be taxed as part of a strategy to improve health in Greater Manchester.

Top doctors also want to make it easier for people to eat healthily and have pledged to hand out 30 street vending licences to businesses selling healthy snacks such as jacket potatoes and barbecued sweetcorn by April next year.

The ideas form part of a hard-hitting new strategy to detect cancer early and cut the high proportion of people suffering from the disease in this region.

Across Greater Manchester and Cheshire more people suffer from cancer than in other parts of the country and there are 460 excess deaths from the disease in the area every year.

The majority, 318, are from lung cancer but health bosses also believe they can prevent cancers by tackling diet and obesity along with further action on smoking, alcohol consumption and sunburn.

Obesity has been linked to cancer of the kidney and uterus for women and liver cancer in men is particularly associated with obesity.

The report, The Greater Manchester and Cheshire Cancer Network Prevention, Early Detection and Inequalities strategy, which has been adopted by all primary care trusts in Greater Manchester, suggests they should use tactics which have helped cut smoking over the last few years to tackle poor diets and obesity.

They want to cut obesity and they recommend advocating for taxes on fattening food, put graphic, put simple labels on the front of packaged food showing its nutritional value and require restaurants to give similar information on menus. They also want to restrict adverts for fatty foods.

They have already brought out a strategy to improve the quality of food served in workplaces.

The report, by Dr Anthony Threlfall from the Greater Manchester Public Health Unit, says reducing body and abdominal fat will help reduce cancer risk.

It says: “Health education alone is unlikely to have a major impact. It must be backed up with real changes that make healthy choices easier.

“Its should be recognised that it is harder to eat well if local shops do not sell healthy food, if outlets are off-licences and fast food takeaways.

It adds: “It is not possible to stop all cancer but many of the main causes of cancer such as smoking, unhealthy diets, being overweight and having a sedentary lifestyle are amenable to change.

“If everyone adopted healthy lifestyles the falls in colon cancer and lung cancer would be dramatic and there would also be noticeable falls in other types of cancer.”

  • HEALTH chiefs are to set to launch a new campaign to lobby for an increase in tobacco tax and a ban on smoking in cars where children are passengers within months.

    And they want to make it easier for people to walk and cycle by creating five bike hire schemes before April 2011.

    Andy Walker, from Our Life heath pressure group, said: “We are pleased to see that this report addresses the urgent need to tackle obesity and poor diet. It is not as easy as it should be to access healthy food and this is a significant barrier to better wellbeing and health.

    “It can be no coincidence that in the north west our health statistics are worse than the national average. We should not accept that this situation is in any way automatic or the 'way that things are'.

    “The time has come to address these levels of poor health that are, bluntly, killing people across our region.”