for the last two years, intended as “a wake-up call to this country and government to do something about our food system and the epidemic of obesity and ill health”, Dimbleby has been hell-bent on deconstructing how and why diet-related disease is now the biggest cause of preventable illness and death in the developed world – far greater than smoking.
on “slimming” or “healthy” products, “low fat” products which tend to mean higher in sugar or starch, but rarely say so. Snacks full of concentrated fruit sugars can still boast to be “free from added” sugar, and “free from” is often used without much context. The point is, we are to some extent at the mercy of a food industry we don’t really understand.“I always think it’s starkest when I stop at a garage while driving” says Dimbley, “and I want to find something to eat.
Until last week, Dimbleby had been a non-executive board member at the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs offers on unhealthy foods in England until October 2023 to assess the impact on household finances in light of the cost of living crisis. “If you buy BOGOF chocolate bars, you think you’re taking it home to eat over a long period of time but you don’t. The average customer will eat 1.93 bars of chocolate more than if just sold at normal price, or cheaper.
Is there any hope? “Some of the pieces are falling into place, and the situation is getting so disastrous it’s becoming increasingly hard to argue that the Government doesn’t need to act. We are at a fork in the road, and if serious reform happens, then we can have a future of health, wealth and happiness. But until more is done, we are trapped in a junk food cycle which is terrible for our planet and for our health.