Broadcaster and author, Professor Chris van Tulleken, was among the line-up of experts to give

evidence on obesity to the Health and Social Care Committee this week.

The Committee discussed ways in which government could intervene in the food system to reduce rates of obesity, which have doubled in 30 years. Research from 2022 showed that 64 per cent of people in the UK were living with excess weight.

The discussion covered why previous policies haven’t worked, the definition of unhealthy foods and how the consumption of unhealthy products can be reduced.

Other expert witnesses on the panel were: Professor Christina Vogel, director, Centre for Food Policy, City St George's University of London; Hugo Harper, director of health, Nesta; Michael Baber, director, Health Action Research Group; Katharine Jenner, executive director, Obesity Health Alliance; Nika Pajda, head of policy and research, Bite Back; Dr Kawther Hashem, senior lecturer in public health nutrition, Wolfson Institute of Population Health, Queen Mary University London.

van Tulleken said we currently have a deeply unjust food system in the UK where people are forced to eat unhealthily due to the high price of fruit and vegetables and the addictive properties of unhealthy food.

“Food has been engineered by teams of geniuses using brain scanners, over decades, to be addictive,” he says. “And the food industry will promise the earth and resist change.”

He argued that the food industry should be listened to and understood, but it must be shut out of the room when policy is made. Currently the opposite is true. Because there has never been a political consensus about how to tackle obesity the food industry has been able to have a strong influence. For example the Institute of Grocery Distribution serves as a co-secretariat for the Food Strategy Advisory Board which works closely with DEFRA.

The experts called for a joined-up regulatory framework, aggressive mandatory policies and tight enforcement – currently there is barely any budget for enforcement and the fines for transgressions are insignificant.

As with cigarettes, there should be warning labels on unhealthy food – rather than cute characters – progressive taxation, strict marketing restrictions, the restriction of unhealthy food in schools and the promotion of healthy foods.

There also needs to be a tight and understandable definition of healthy food and anything which is high in sugar and salt should not be labelled as healthy. Confusion commonly exists around products such as bread, cereals, cereal bars and yoghurts that are marketed as healthy but are frequently highly calorific, or contain large amounts of sugar, salt and other additives.

van Tulleken also made the point that tackling this issue won’t shrink the economy and in fact the obesity issue is currently doing just that.