Healthy diets go on UK menu for action

An independent report commissioned by the United Kingdom government has called for a radical overhaul of the food industry in England, with fruit and vegetables to be prescribed by doctors and additional taxes on sugar and salt.

The report by the National Food Strategy was commissioned in 2019 and says money raised by increased taxes could be used to provide additional and improved school meals and support better dietary habits among the poorest sections of society.

In addition, improved diets would be better for the environment, and ease the strain on the National Health Service. The report says poor diet is a factor in 64,000 deaths each year in England alone, and costs the economy 74 billion pounds ($102.8 billion).

Businessman Henry Dimbleby, who led the study, told the BBC that the COVID-19 crisis had underlined the wider issue of dietary health, calling it "a painful reality check".

"Our high obesity rate has been a major factor in the UK's tragically high death rate," he said.

The food industry has expressed concern that increased taxes on sugar and salt, which would be imposed at wholesale level, could lead to increased prices in shops, but Dimbleby rejected this notion.

"We do not actually believe that for most things it will hike the price－what it will do is, it will reformulate. It will make people take sugar and salt out," he said.

Communities Secretary Robert Jenrick told ITV News that the government would be giving the report "careful thought" before setting out its own food strategy later in the year.

The report's suggestions, which the government says it will respond to within six months, have won the backing of several leading charities, including the British Heart Foundation.

"This significant report makes strong recommendations to make everyday foods healthier for all, and which must be considered as part of the comprehensive action needed to tackle obesity," the foundation's chief executive, Charmaine Griffiths, said.

"Diets high in sugar and salt drive dangerous risk factors such as obesity and high blood pressure, putting millions of people at increased risk of heart attack and stroke."