At the dawn of the new year, newspaper headlines reported that the UK and Ireland were ranked “the world’s best at eating fruit and vegetables”. And this seemed surprising to me, as a public health expert. Just on economic grounds, the UK imports 50% of its vegetables, and 84% of its fruit – largely from Europe, Africa, and the Americas. These foods are relatively expensive in the UK, costing on average £11.79 per 1,000 kcal, versus £5.82 for 1,000kcal of processed foods. And this is at a time of constrained household incomes. Cucumbers, for example, increased in price by more than 50% between 2022 and 2023.
And of course, the UK and Ireland simply aren’t known for having the healthiest diets. Scotland did invent the deep-fried Mars bar. Could Britons really be eating more fruit and veg than our European neighbours such as Italy, Spain, France, Denmark and Greece? I had to investigate.
