Paul Belcher FRCP MFPH 🇪🇺🇬🇧🇪🇸’s Post

📚 New report: Unhealthy food is costing UK over £250 billion Analysis from Prof Tim Jackson for FFCC reveals the costs of Britain’s unhealthy food system amount to £268 billion every year – almost equivalent to the total annual UK healthcare spend.  It shows the current food system is costing 4 x more in health-related costs than it would cost to fix it – and that the way we eat, grow and produce food is imposing a staggering financial burden on the British economy. The report draws on, amongst other evidence, the latest findings from #TheFoodConversation, which shows the extent of the public’s appetite for government intervention on food. It comes ahead of the Citizens Food Summit, which brings together citizens with leaders in food, farming, business, health and politics to call for urgent reform to food in the UK. Read The Guardian exclusive: https://lnkd.in/ewbaAN54 Read Tim’s report: https://lnkd.in/eMTKUEqS

This is a pretty bleak stat but important, as with all wicked/complex challenges to lean into, acknowledge and make transparent. We can then move onto solutions led in partnership by governments and businesses across the UK. 'The False Economy of Big Food and the case for a new food economy' researched and written by Prof Tim Jackson is a huge milestone for the team at Food, Farming and Countryside Commission and the result of a laser focus on #foodsystems and working in partnership and listening to people and ideas from different perspectives to find practical and radical solutions. It proposes three principles to change the direction of travel for our food economy: ➡️ Root the right to good food in law and provide serious leadership across governments ➡️ Regulate Big Food effectively, to halt the rise of chronic illnesses ➡️ Redirect resources to a new food economy, based on good healthy food, sustainably produced, easily available for everyone everywhere. https://lnkd.in/eXCtBUjf When those of us talk about the implementation of the ambition and legislation of the #GoodFoodNation in #Scotland - this is the scale of leadership and direction required.

So there we have it... “big food is making us sick” And the cost to society is spiralling – hundreds of billions. Oooof. We all knew it was bad. But not that bad. “… a food system that privatises the profits and socialises the harms from bad food. It puts a price on the failure of the government stretching back over 30 years to regulate big food.” The link between healthy land, healthy food and a healthy population seems pretty clear to most of us. Right now that chain is broken, and it’ll take some bold leadership and proper joined-up thinking to fix it. The big players need to stop abdicating their responsibilities and admit they’re the problem. Us underdogs need to keep snapping at their heels and helping to drive change. Full article here... https://lnkd.in/eTmagPd4

80% of our food supply based on our current convenience and entertainment model are Ultra Processed Foods #UPF This report from the @ffcc shows we, citizens, want healthier and more nutritious options. We want to support farming and farmers to make our food supply secure, fair, and cooler (C02) again and bring respect back to how we grow, communicate and consume our food. This report outlines what leadership citizens are looking for: Healthier and greener food environment Support for farmer to farm more sustainably Fairer taxes and regulations Practice help citizens to eat more healthy and sustainably If we achieved the rebalance our food supply requires, we educate and increase availability of healthy and nutritious food and a real fundamental, potion control, we could eat better and waste less. A great report. #ocfug #food #greengrocery

We really enjoyed attending a great event this week organised by Food and Drink Federation Scotland and Interface - The knowledge connection for business on reformulation and innovation for health in Scotland, and how the food and drink industry is addressing these challenges. Some of the key takeaways: 👩🔬 Reformulation of products is more effective than expecting consumers to independently make healthier choices, especially for the out of home market. There is evidence to support this, with the average sugar content of soft drinks falling by 29% due to the imposition of the soft drinks industry levy. 🥦 The stats on health and nutrition are shocking: only 6% of adults consume the required daily level of fibre, and 2 out of 3 adults and 30% of children living with obesity or overweight 💡There is a huge amount of innovation going on around ingredients that can be used to reduce levels of fat, salt and sugar whilst also retaining flavour and texture, making reformulation more achievable then ever before 🍕The environmental factors surrounding unhealthy food choices must be recognised, particularly the roles that poverty as well as limited availability or lack of options for healthy food can play. ⚠ Regulations around foods high in fat, salt and sugar (HFSS) are beginning to be introduced, but the potential impact is unclear and the measures have been repeatedly delayed. The Scottish government has just released its latest consultation that proposes to ban all promotion of high fat, salt and sugar products, including in meal deals, which takes the measures further than in England. Reforms are urgently needed, but it will be interesting to see what impact they will have on consumer choices and how the industry responds. We were also delighted that Three Robins was announced as one of the recipients of funding under the Reformul8 Challenge Fund 4! We are investing in NPD over the next few months and will be using the funds to help make our oat milks even healthier 🙌 #healthyfood #scotland #innovation

Today's Footprint feature asks where next for voluntary food reformulation programmes after businesses came nowhere close to hitting the government's calorie reduction targets in the first period assessed (in fact, most categories saw calories increase). It comes just over a year after the failure of the government’s sugar programme to deliver meaningful reductions in sugar content. Campaigners are unsurprisingly calling for reformulation targets to be mandated and for the government to pull a wider range of policy levers to tackle obesity. I wonder how a reformulation agenda sits alongside the ongoing backlash against ultra-processed foods (UPF)? Can we expect businesses to invest millions in reformulating UPFs to improve their nutritional composition if the next wave of campaigning is opposing the consumption of these products entirely? Can reformulation programmes and anti-UPF policies (taxes, marketing restrictions etc) co-exist? Or do we need to choose one or the other? https://lnkd.in/e_gGa3f8

🚨 Out today: New poll shows healthy food is now seen as out of reach for the majority of people – and unearths real and growing food crisis in the UK.    🔸 4/5 people think healthy food is something everyone should have. Yet, less than 1 in 10 think healthy food is affordable to most people. 🔸 Nearly 1/2 say they’ve cut back on the quality of food they eat due to financial pressures 🔸 2/3 say it's government's job to make sure healthy food is affordable Today we launch the next stage of #TheFoodConversation, setting off across the UK to hear from citizens about what some of the solutions might be.   Find out more: https://lnkd.in/dV3vK3dx 

More evidence that healthy food is unaffordable for most people; typically 2-3 x the cost of less healthy food. Access to nutritious food is a right not a luxury. Those experiencing #foodinsecurity have poorer diet related health outcomes, but this doesn't have to be the case, although precisely why FEAST With Us exists. Keen to hear from all political parties on the changes they would make in the next government to help create a fairer and healthier food system. #theFoodConversation #nutrition #feedingandempowering

Unhealthy food habits are costing the UK around £268bn every year, according to a report. The Food Farming and Countryside Commission (FFCC) report calculated both the direct and indirect impact of diet-related ill health to come up with the annual total. Experts say they did this by combining the cost of healthcare and social care, welfare spending, productivity losses and the human consequences of chronic disease, and identifying what proportion relates to food. The figure is made up of £116.4bn of lost economic productivity, £67.5bn in healthcare, £14.3bn in social care, £10.1bn in welfare and £60bn that can be linked to the chronic disease attributable to the current food ecosystem. Professor Tim Jackson, the director of the Centre for the Understanding of Sustainable Prosperity at Surrey University, who carried out the analysis, said: "The connection between diet and health is often discussed, but the economics of that link are staggering. "When we factor in the health impacts, we discover that the true cost of an unhealthy diet is more than three times what we think we're paying for our food. "Some of these hidden costs, like lost economic productivity, can be hard to see." An insightful article and one that will surely test the purpose of economics, and the purpose of Government. https://lnkd.in/eGdPhHVW #sustainableprosperity #purposedrivengovernment #gdp #purposefulgovernment #purposefuleconomics #wellbeingeconomics #regenerativeeconomics #doughnuteconomics

The true cost of a national diet increasingly reliant on unhealthy food is truly staggering. Using a range of data, Tim Jackson’s report reveals for the first time - using conservative estimates - that the real cost to us all, of diet related illness is £268bn. That’s taking into account the direct costs to the NHS, social care, lost productivity, and the human costs to our wellbeing. It’s the result of a long standing failure to take food systems policy seriously. And while government pays the spiralling costs, Big Food’s profits from unhealthy food have rocketed. But their biggest win has been convincing governments that they can entrust food policy to them. Those businesses have shaped the rules - and they reap all the rewards. We will never be a flourishing and prosperous economy until governments start to build a new food economy. And the cost of putting it right is £57bn. This isn’t about asking families to spend more money to eat well. It is about showing government what it is already having to spend, in a losing battle to tackle the impacts of too much junk food. And it puts a number on what it could choose to invest instead in good food and good health. The report sets out three principles for a new food economy. First, root the right to good food in law and provide serious leadership across governments. Second, regulate Big Food effectively, to halt the rise of chronic illnesses Third, redirect resources to a new food economy, based on good healthy food, sustainably produced, easily available for everyone everywhere. Dr Dolly van Tulleken Mhairi Brown, RNutr David Edwards Charlie Taverner Anna Taylor Adele Jones Dan Crossley Tom MacMillan Helen Browning Shirley Cramer Denise Bentley FRSA https://lnkd.in/eFvbmaEF