According to the Food Foundation, “the diets of typical British families now pose the greatest threat to their health and survival.” This threat is not spread equally among us. It is, as Henry Dimbleby writes in his introduction to the National Food Strategy: Part 1, “a peculiarity of the modern food system that the poorest sectors of society are more likely to suffer from both hunger and obesity."

The problem is not that the UK is poor and cannot afford healthy food, but that we have created an unequal and unfair food system, with levels of inequality growing wider in both health and income . It is shocking that the fifth largest economy in the world has some of the highest rates of food insecurity (those living in households unable to provide three meals a day) in Europe, while:

• Poor diet is responsible for one in seven deaths in the UK (90,000 per year), on a par with smoking.
• Nearly a third of all UK adults and 20% of children are classed as obese – the prevalence of obesity is almost twice as high in the most deprived areas compared to the least deprived areas.
• Just half (54.8%) of British adults get their ‘five-a-day’ of fruit and vegetables. 85% of secondary school children are not eating enough fruit and vegetables.
• In the UK we eat more ‘ultra-processed’ food (high in fat, salt and sugar) than every other EU country for which there is enough data to compare.
• One in eight 21-to-34 year olds, and one in six 16-to-20 year olds, say they eat fast food at least twice a day.

We might all wish to make better food choices, but the food environment – created through decisions from Government, retailers, producers, advertisers and others – “does not yet frame or push us to do so”. Whether it is those in the Government’s Behavioural Insights Team, the Food Citizenship Project or the team at the World Resources Institute’s Better Buying Lab, experts are clear that governments need to do more in clawing back consumer spaces for people.