The way to tackle obesity in the UK is to make healthy food affordable. But the government won’t admit it

‘There is a reason that one in three children in deprived areas are overweight, compared with one in five in the general population.’ Photograph: d3sign/Getty Images

The government’s policy on obesity, announced on Sunday, sounds as though it’s tough on the supermarkets: they really must do better on the health front, ministers say. Put the fruit nearer the doors (where it is already), make sure loyalty cards reward good choices. Calorie for calorie, a basket of healthy food costs more than twice as much as a basket of less healthy food, according to a report by the Food Foundation.

That statistic sounds stark until you engage your brain. Processed food is cheap because that is the “process”: the relentless prioritising of the profit margin over every other consideration, such as nutritional value. What else are you going to use all that big, capitalist brain power for? Making food more colourful?