Less than three weeks into her new role as health secretary, Victoria Atkins left health campaigners aghast when she suggested her approach to tackling obesity would largely focus on dietary advice.
Obesity is a devastating public health problem harming millions of people in the UK that will never be resolved by tips on what to eat and what to avoid. Two in three adults are overweight or obese and the problem costs £100bn a year.
The country’s food environment is in such a sorry state that everywhere you look, unhealthy food options dominate – every workplace, every leisure facility, every shop, every corner. Tens of millions of people are struggling with their weight – it’s not about a lack of individual willpower or self-control. Even those who spend every waking hour trying desperately hard to shed the pounds are often thwarted by relentless advertising, easy availability and low-cost promotions.
Yet Atkins, who says there is no conflict of interest with her husband’s role as managing director of one of the world’s largest sugar companies, signalled she is very unlikely to take any significant action.
“We could all do with help and advice on how to be healthier,” she told the Times this month. “We’ve got to try to do that in a way that is not nanny-stateish but if we give people information then that can be part of helping us try to lead healthier lives.”
Atkins said she believed tackling obesity was “incredibly important” but added that she wants to ensure “all of us have a healthy relationship with food” as she prioritises diet advice.
The government vowed to introduce a range of measures to tackle obesity in England, including curbing junk food advertising and restricting volume offers like buy-one-get-one-free.
But the plans, to the utter dismay of doctors, public health professionals and health campaigners, have since been shelved – until October 2025. Even then there are no guarantees. Atkins says she “will want to convince myself as to the effectiveness of measures that have been announced”.
Now a new report, commissioned by the government’s own obesity research unit and obtained by the Guardian, provides vital new evidence on obesity – and a call for action. Far from it being a problem that simply requires more responsibility from society, the report shows that many people are trapped into making poor decisions and buying unhealthy food.
One of the paper’s authors, Dr Paul Coleman, told the Guardian that after conducting more than 100 interviews with adults across the socioeconomic spectrum, it was clear most were aware of what constitutes a healthy diet.
The problem, according to those interviewed, was the dizzyingly wide availability and promotion of cheap junk food – and the comparatively higher cost of healthier options.
“For many families, particularly those relying on insecure and unpredictable income, it is often the most affordable and appropriate option to rely on processed and less healthy ready meals,” Coleman said.
“This is due to rising food and energy costs, time pressures, low quality kitchen spaces, and a fear of spending a limited budget on more expensive fresh produce which may be left uneaten and wasted.
“In contrast ultra-processed meals, which are cheap to purchase and prepare, are unlikely to go off or be wasted before being consumed. Families were aware of the negative health impacts but felt they had little choice but to purchase these products.”
The report found that because little action has been taken to promote healthy food or tackle unhealthy food, millions of families, particularly those on low incomes, are failing to prevent their children’s poor diets becoming normalised – permanently.
In short, we are heading for disaster.
In England, two in five children are leaving primary school overweight and are subsequently at a higher risk of chronic illnesses, mental health problems and even a shorter lifespan. Children living with obesity are at greater risk of high blood pressure, high cholesterol, diabetes and other long-term conditions, even cancer, that can last into adulthood.
Tam Fry, chair of the National Obesity Forum, who was not involved with the report, says its message is clear. “The incessant advertising and availability of cheap ultra-processed food on-the-go is increasingly putting the mockers on parents who would dearly like their children to eat at a table like granny did.”
Until action is taken to curb the attraction and availability of ultra-processed food and foods high in fat, sugar and salt “their most serious by-product – namely obesity – will continue to rise”, he says.
