The cost of the UK’s unhealthy food system amounts to £268 billion every year, according to a report.
The Food Farming and Countryside Commission (FFCC) report calculated the direct and indirect impact of diet-related ill health by combining the cost of healthcare and social care, welfare spending, productivity losses and the human consequences of chronic disease, and identifying what proportion relates to food.
The food-related cost of chronic disease in the UK includes £67.5 billion in healthcare, £14.3 billion in social care, £10.1 billion in welfare, productivity at £116.4 billion and £60 billion that can be linked to the chronic disease attributable to the current food ecosystem, the research states.
Prof Tim Jackson, the director of the Centre for the Understanding of Sustainable Prosperity at Surrey University, who carried out the analysis, said: “The connection between diet and health is often discussed, but the economics of that link are staggering.
“When we factor in the health impacts, we discover that the true cost of an unhealthy diet is more than three times what we think we’re paying for our food.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, but are deep-fried Bounty Bars on the healthy list or the unhealthy list? How are we supposed to know?
Coconut has a lot of saturated fat, so I’d say unhealthy. Deep-fried Snickers on the other hand…
Peanuts are probably one of your five-a-day or some such so, yeah, five deep-fried Snickers a day sounds like solid nutritional science.
Peanuts are legumes, although they are usually classed as nuts. A worthy winner either way.
I don’t believe it’s costing that much. Chicken dippers are like two quid in Iceland - this report must have been looking in Booths or Waitrose.
Good job food regulations are going in the bin in the next few years. That’ll fix everything
Mmmm, the sweet, succulent taste of chlorinated chicken.
