Britain has one of the worst obesity rates in Europe. Why?
For years, Alice Ingman’s favourite foods were takeaway curries, pizza, fried chicken, kebabs, and fish and chips. The 59-year-old gained weight steadily until one day she could not even fit into a size 20. She was 115kg and mortified.
“At the beginning I thought, ‘Oh, it’s because it’s a pencil skirt,’” says Ingman, from Cambridgeshire, calling it one of many excuses she had relied on to make herself feel better. “But there’s no getting away from it when a size 20 doesn’t fit.”
This was a wake-up call for her to change her diet. She joined a weight-loss group and started cooking meals from scratch for the first time in her life. She says she has maintained a weight of 60kg for five years since.
Ingman’s back-to-basics approach worked for her. But the arrival of the weight-loss jab Wegovy to the NHS last month has been heralded as a game-changer in the fight against obesity by using a hormone to suppress appetite.
While health experts and charities welcome the development of new drugs, they argue that a broader conversation is needed about the UK’s approach to food, and want industry and the government to take more definitive action.
Obesity, defined as having a body mass index equal to or greater than 30, is one of the most serious public health crises around the world. The UK, where 27.8 per cent of population is obese, has one of the obesity highest rates in Europe.
An increased reliance on cheap, ultra-processed food, which accounts for 57% of what Britons eat according to a 2019 study conducted by researchers at the University of São Paulo, suggests that the health crisis is unlikely to change anytime soon without intervention, argue campaigners.
“There is a very strange imbalance [in] that the foods that are most appealing, affordable and available just happen to be those that are the least healthy” says Katharine Jenner, nutritionist and director of the Obesity Health Alliance, a coalition of more than 50 public health organisations.
“The food system in this country is broken” she adds. “It’s not serving society nor our health system, and certainly not individuals.”
The poverty health tax
The effects of obesity are widespread.
It causes severe health conditions including heart disease, diabetes and cancer, costing about £6.5 billion in the UK every year, according to the NHS. Globally, the World Health Organization says at least 2.8mn people die each year as a result of being overweight or obese.
Many health professionals point to the severe dietary changes over the past 50 years.
Data of family eating habits shows that more of us are consuming less healthy food, usually high in fat, sugar or salt. The average consumption of takeaway chicken has increased by 613% from 1974, ready meals and convenience meat products by 549% and crisps and potato snacks by 226%.
Meanwhile, households buy less non-processed food. Consumption of beef and veal has decreased by 55%, consumption of fresh cabbages decreased by 67%, consumption of fresh apples declined by 44%.
Health experts say the affordability of processed foods is a significant driver of these dietary patterns.
Fruits and vegetables are the most expensive category in the government’s recommended Eatwell Guide, costing on average £11.79 per 1,000kcal, compared with food and drink high in fat and sugar costing just £5.82 per 1,000kcal, according to the Food Foundation, a UK charity.
This is partly because fruits and vegetables have a lower energy density, fewer calories per gramme, than processed foods. But this price disparity explains why obesity is more prominent among the most vulnerable households.
The King’s Fund, through its analysis of the Office for Health Improvement and Disparities data, last year found that inequalities in obesity prevalence between the least and most deprived areas widened to nearly 18 points in 2020.
“Poverty is a driver of poor eating behaviours, because choice is not there” says Paul Gately, professor of exercise and obesity at Leeds Beckett University. “Food retailers and the food industry would be able to fight against obesity by making healthy products more affordable.”
There are other changes that could be beneficial. Human behavior is driven by incentives. Unhealthy food is often heavily advertised. A third of food and soft drink advertising spend in the UK goes towards snacks, desserts and soft drinks, compared with only 1% for fruit and vegetables, the Food Foundation has found.
“Many people think that obesity levels are very much about individual responsibility” says Shona Goudie, the charity’s policy and advocacy manager. “But what we can see from the research is actually that the system is not set up to help us eat well”.
Decades of policy
The UK government set its first strategy focused on reducing obesity in 1992 and other efforts have followed with mixed success.
One of its key policies was a soft drinks levy introduced in 2018 to push manufacturers to add less sugar to their products. This step may have prevented more than 5,000 cases of obesity every year among girls in their final year of primary school, according to research from the University of Cambridge.
Last October, the government barred large stores from placing items high in fat, sugar or salt in prominent positions, but health campaigners say too many of its obesity policies lack urgency.
Henry Dimbleby, co-founder of fast-food restaurant chain Leon who quit his role as a UK government adviser in March, wrote in his book Ravenous, published this year, that the government’s strategy was “far too scant, fragmented, and cautious to meet the scale of the problem”. He recommended taxing salt and sugar to encourage manufacturers to produce healthier products, a proposal rejected by ministers.
There have been other setbacks. The government announced in June that rules banning multi-buy deals on food and drinks high in salt and sugar, such as “buy one, get one free”, will be delayed until October 2025. The decision, taken amid a cost of living crisis, came after the policy had already been delayed once before.
The government has also pushed back proposed restrictions on unhealthy food advertising.
Companies producing healthier alternatives of sweets and snacks, especially small businesses, had been counting on receiving more funding from investors off the back of the legislation.
“The more the implementation got delayed, the less interested investors became. By the time the restrictions on product placement happened, the spark had gone and lots of those small businesses hadn’t been able to raise money and died” says Louis Bedwell, managing director at venture capital firm Mission Ventures.
The government is also scaling back public health grants to support services such as weight management. Data compiled by the Health Foundation shows that public-health spending on adult obesity by local authorities this year is estimated at £132mn, down 27 per cent from 2015. Although the government in March 2021 announced £100mn of new funding — a large part of which was invested in weight-management services through the NHS and local authorities — it was scrapped the year after.
Carolyn Pallister, the head of nutrition, research and health at Slimming World — which helped Ingman lose weight — says choosing healthy food is not just about how and where products are placed or advertised. “What we see from members is that people need support to be able to [make better choices],” she says, adding that there’s a “real kind of postcode lottery” based on where you live.
The Department of Health and Social Care says the government continues to take “action to help more people make healthier choices and tackle obesity”.
“The launch of Wegovy in the UK has also paved the future of weight management in England,” it adds.
Ingman, who jokes that she is now half the person she was, credits the first cookbook she bought from her slimming club with teaching her “what a healthy balanced plate should look like”. That was a big change, she explains, for someone who previously thought it was “quite acceptable to pick up something that you pop in the microwave”.
Eri Sugiura in London, The Financial Times
I eat more meats, fats and vegetables. Less refined processed carbs.
The answers kebabs and stellah bruv
[deleted]
because of your “food”:
Because people seem to be determined to follow in North Americas footsteps.
Lazy
20 day old account with 5k karma, where do these bots spawn?
Americanization of English food, same in Ireland. Fast “food” everywhere and quality food is expensive
Junk food and body positivity.
From dawn of time people in shape where symbol of health and now you have stuff “you are 1.80 and 150kg and you are beautiful”.
Also living large on junk and fast food.
I mean that is most realistic reason, i can wrap it up to sound bit of “diplomatic” but stuff like that lead to obesity epidemic in many western countries.
They eat too much and don’t exercise.
I’ve noticed Anglos have a thing for processed foods
Chips with every single meal
Have you seen the stores? 80% of food is processed and pre-packaged. Does no one cook?
Microwave ready mac and cheese, a bag of crisp, a bottle of coke and a Twix chocolate bar. Traditional English lunch.
Worst is, instead of addressing the root of the problem, they will start making doors wider so they can fit through them.
Didn‘t someone post this chart with Britain having better eating habits than Spain or Italy less than a week ago? 🤔
It’s basically the 5 ‘c’ s.
Cost, convenience, comfort, Conservatives and not liking to be told what to do by smug arseholes like Jamie Oliver
Just did my grocery shopping in Spain as usual this morning. I’ve been to the fishmonger’s, the butcher’s, the greengrocer’s and the baker’s. I could’ve gone to the local supermarket where they also have a fresh baker, butcher and grocer inside the store. Why? Because Spanish people won’t settle for less! This is good quality tasty food. The processed stuff tastes crap in comparison and any Spanish family prefers to cook.
Where my family live in the UK, these shops don’t exist. They don’t have the choice of eating as well as I do. I don’t know how that came about, but that’s why they don’t eat well – it’s just not an option any more in most places.
English towns are turning into US style food deserts with no fresh stuff anywhere.
Knew as soon as I saw this in r/ukpol I’d find it in here accompanied by a nice circle wank. Nice job OP.
gin + tonic, beer, pubs, microwave food, terrible food choices in general in standard Kings Hand Crown pub
We’re bulking
I’m convinced it’s the shit weather. Ireland is the same. Obesity through the roof. Nothing to do but sit in and graze and drink, and because of the shit weather people wear big heavy clothes that cover up the obesity then.
Fastfood is fine. Just eat it very rarely. Thats it. And be mindful of your callories. If someone is fat it is their own fault. I just want the country to not pay for your healthcare if you are fat.
Do we really need to ask? I once met a young Brit who ate nothing but Mars and Snickers. He would systematically turn down all other types of food.
I saw a few programs taking place in britian. And i noticed everyone eats crisps all the fucking time
Why are people hating on the uk so much in these comments?
Poor quality food available.
I just moved from England to France and the quality of everything from fresh produce to frozen foods (je t’aime picard) is better.
Deep fried mars bars, irn-bru, bacon, buckfast tonic wine, greggs sausage rolls.
Ever heard of Greggs?
Processed food, fish and chips, kebabs, greggs and so on and the fact that cooking doesn’t seem to be an enjoyable process for the majority of Brits (I may be wrong but it seems like that).
<<Looks at typical British cuisine>>
Yep, I have no fucking idea why everyone is so fat. No correlation there. By the way – it’s quite similar to German/Czech kitchen. Hint, hint.
<<Looks at the drinking, which is nearly on par with my home country in Eastern Europe>>
32 comments
Britain has one of the worst obesity rates in Europe. Why?
For years, Alice Ingman’s favourite foods were takeaway curries, pizza, fried chicken, kebabs, and fish and chips. The 59-year-old gained weight steadily until one day she could not even fit into a size 20. She was 115kg and mortified.
“At the beginning I thought, ‘Oh, it’s because it’s a pencil skirt,’” says Ingman, from Cambridgeshire, calling it one of many excuses she had relied on to make herself feel better. “But there’s no getting away from it when a size 20 doesn’t fit.”
This was a wake-up call for her to change her diet. She joined a weight-loss group and started cooking meals from scratch for the first time in her life. She says she has maintained a weight of 60kg for five years since.
Ingman’s back-to-basics approach worked for her. But the arrival of the weight-loss jab Wegovy to the NHS last month has been heralded as a game-changer in the fight against obesity by using a hormone to suppress appetite.
While health experts and charities welcome the development of new drugs, they argue that a broader conversation is needed about the UK’s approach to food, and want industry and the government to take more definitive action.
Obesity, defined as having a body mass index equal to or greater than 30, is one of the most serious public health crises around the world. The UK, where 27.8 per cent of population is obese, has one of the obesity highest rates in Europe.
An increased reliance on cheap, ultra-processed food, which accounts for 57% of what Britons eat according to a 2019 study conducted by researchers at the University of São Paulo, suggests that the health crisis is unlikely to change anytime soon without intervention, argue campaigners.
“There is a very strange imbalance [in] that the foods that are most appealing, affordable and available just happen to be those that are the least healthy” says Katharine Jenner, nutritionist and director of the Obesity Health Alliance, a coalition of more than 50 public health organisations.
“The food system in this country is broken” she adds. “It’s not serving society nor our health system, and certainly not individuals.”
The poverty health tax
The effects of obesity are widespread.
It causes severe health conditions including heart disease, diabetes and cancer, costing about £6.5 billion in the UK every year, according to the NHS. Globally, the World Health Organization says at least 2.8mn people die each year as a result of being overweight or obese.
Many health professionals point to the severe dietary changes over the past 50 years.
Data of family eating habits shows that more of us are consuming less healthy food, usually high in fat, sugar or salt. The average consumption of takeaway chicken has increased by 613% from 1974, ready meals and convenience meat products by 549% and crisps and potato snacks by 226%.
Meanwhile, households buy less non-processed food. Consumption of beef and veal has decreased by 55%, consumption of fresh cabbages decreased by 67%, consumption of fresh apples declined by 44%.
Health experts say the affordability of processed foods is a significant driver of these dietary patterns.
Fruits and vegetables are the most expensive category in the government’s recommended Eatwell Guide, costing on average £11.79 per 1,000kcal, compared with food and drink high in fat and sugar costing just £5.82 per 1,000kcal, according to the Food Foundation, a UK charity.
This is partly because fruits and vegetables have a lower energy density, fewer calories per gramme, than processed foods. But this price disparity explains why obesity is more prominent among the most vulnerable households.
The King’s Fund, through its analysis of the Office for Health Improvement and Disparities data, last year found that inequalities in obesity prevalence between the least and most deprived areas widened to nearly 18 points in 2020.
“Poverty is a driver of poor eating behaviours, because choice is not there” says Paul Gately, professor of exercise and obesity at Leeds Beckett University. “Food retailers and the food industry would be able to fight against obesity by making healthy products more affordable.”
There are other changes that could be beneficial. Human behavior is driven by incentives. Unhealthy food is often heavily advertised. A third of food and soft drink advertising spend in the UK goes towards snacks, desserts and soft drinks, compared with only 1% for fruit and vegetables, the Food Foundation has found.
“Many people think that obesity levels are very much about individual responsibility” says Shona Goudie, the charity’s policy and advocacy manager. “But what we can see from the research is actually that the system is not set up to help us eat well”.
Decades of policy
The UK government set its first strategy focused on reducing obesity in 1992 and other efforts have followed with mixed success.
One of its key policies was a soft drinks levy introduced in 2018 to push manufacturers to add less sugar to their products. This step may have prevented more than 5,000 cases of obesity every year among girls in their final year of primary school, according to research from the University of Cambridge.
Last October, the government barred large stores from placing items high in fat, sugar or salt in prominent positions, but health campaigners say too many of its obesity policies lack urgency.
Henry Dimbleby, co-founder of fast-food restaurant chain Leon who quit his role as a UK government adviser in March, wrote in his book Ravenous, published this year, that the government’s strategy was “far too scant, fragmented, and cautious to meet the scale of the problem”. He recommended taxing salt and sugar to encourage manufacturers to produce healthier products, a proposal rejected by ministers.
There have been other setbacks. The government announced in June that rules banning multi-buy deals on food and drinks high in salt and sugar, such as “buy one, get one free”, will be delayed until October 2025. The decision, taken amid a cost of living crisis, came after the policy had already been delayed once before.
The government has also pushed back proposed restrictions on unhealthy food advertising.
Companies producing healthier alternatives of sweets and snacks, especially small businesses, had been counting on receiving more funding from investors off the back of the legislation.
“The more the implementation got delayed, the less interested investors became. By the time the restrictions on product placement happened, the spark had gone and lots of those small businesses hadn’t been able to raise money and died” says Louis Bedwell, managing director at venture capital firm Mission Ventures.
The government is also scaling back public health grants to support services such as weight management. Data compiled by the Health Foundation shows that public-health spending on adult obesity by local authorities this year is estimated at £132mn, down 27 per cent from 2015. Although the government in March 2021 announced £100mn of new funding — a large part of which was invested in weight-management services through the NHS and local authorities — it was scrapped the year after.
Carolyn Pallister, the head of nutrition, research and health at Slimming World — which helped Ingman lose weight — says choosing healthy food is not just about how and where products are placed or advertised. “What we see from members is that people need support to be able to [make better choices],” she says, adding that there’s a “real kind of postcode lottery” based on where you live.
The Department of Health and Social Care says the government continues to take “action to help more people make healthier choices and tackle obesity”.
“The launch of Wegovy in the UK has also paved the future of weight management in England,” it adds.
Ingman, who jokes that she is now half the person she was, credits the first cookbook she bought from her slimming club with teaching her “what a healthy balanced plate should look like”. That was a big change, she explains, for someone who previously thought it was “quite acceptable to pick up something that you pop in the microwave”.
Eri Sugiura in London, The Financial Times
I eat more meats, fats and vegetables. Less refined processed carbs.
The answers kebabs and stellah bruv
[deleted]
because of your “food”:
Because people seem to be determined to follow in North Americas footsteps.
Lazy
20 day old account with 5k karma, where do these bots spawn?
Americanization of English food, same in Ireland. Fast “food” everywhere and quality food is expensive
Junk food and body positivity.
From dawn of time people in shape where symbol of health and now you have stuff “you are 1.80 and 150kg and you are beautiful”.
Also living large on junk and fast food.
I mean that is most realistic reason, i can wrap it up to sound bit of “diplomatic” but stuff like that lead to obesity epidemic in many western countries.
They eat too much and don’t exercise.
I’ve noticed Anglos have a thing for processed foods
Chips with every single meal
Have you seen the stores? 80% of food is processed and pre-packaged. Does no one cook?
Microwave ready mac and cheese, a bag of crisp, a bottle of coke and a Twix chocolate bar. Traditional English lunch.
Worst is, instead of addressing the root of the problem, they will start making doors wider so they can fit through them.
Didn‘t someone post this chart with Britain having better eating habits than Spain or Italy less than a week ago? 🤔
It’s basically the 5 ‘c’ s.
Cost, convenience, comfort, Conservatives and not liking to be told what to do by smug arseholes like Jamie Oliver
Just did my grocery shopping in Spain as usual this morning. I’ve been to the fishmonger’s, the butcher’s, the greengrocer’s and the baker’s. I could’ve gone to the local supermarket where they also have a fresh baker, butcher and grocer inside the store. Why? Because Spanish people won’t settle for less! This is good quality tasty food. The processed stuff tastes crap in comparison and any Spanish family prefers to cook.
Where my family live in the UK, these shops don’t exist. They don’t have the choice of eating as well as I do. I don’t know how that came about, but that’s why they don’t eat well – it’s just not an option any more in most places.
English towns are turning into US style food deserts with no fresh stuff anywhere.
Knew as soon as I saw this in r/ukpol I’d find it in here accompanied by a nice circle wank. Nice job OP.
And yet there was [this from a few days ago, indicating that the UK’s diet is one of the best in Europe.](https://www.reddit.com/r/europe/comments/1am6afw/the_most_unhealthy_diets_in_europe/?utm_medium=android_app&utm_source=share)
gin + tonic, beer, pubs, microwave food, terrible food choices in general in standard Kings Hand Crown pub
We’re bulking
I’m convinced it’s the shit weather. Ireland is the same. Obesity through the roof. Nothing to do but sit in and graze and drink, and because of the shit weather people wear big heavy clothes that cover up the obesity then.
Fastfood is fine. Just eat it very rarely. Thats it. And be mindful of your callories. If someone is fat it is their own fault. I just want the country to not pay for your healthcare if you are fat.
Do we really need to ask? I once met a young Brit who ate nothing but Mars and Snickers. He would systematically turn down all other types of food.
I saw a few programs taking place in britian. And i noticed everyone eats crisps all the fucking time
Why are people hating on the uk so much in these comments?
Poor quality food available.
I just moved from England to France and the quality of everything from fresh produce to frozen foods (je t’aime picard) is better.
Deep fried mars bars, irn-bru, bacon, buckfast tonic wine, greggs sausage rolls.
Ever heard of Greggs?
Processed food, fish and chips, kebabs, greggs and so on and the fact that cooking doesn’t seem to be an enjoyable process for the majority of Brits (I may be wrong but it seems like that).
<<Looks at typical British cuisine>>
Yep, I have no fucking idea why everyone is so fat. No correlation there. By the way – it’s quite similar to German/Czech kitchen. Hint, hint.
<<Looks at the drinking, which is nearly on par with my home country in Eastern Europe>>
I really have NO CLUE.