Obesity: Food and Diet

Ian Byrne Excerpts

Monday 20th January 2025 Commons Chamber

[Ian Byrne (Liverpool West Derby) (Ind)]

I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Stroud (Dr Opher) on getting this important debate in the House. People sometimes talk about rising levels of obesity as simply a consequence of individual choices; they say the issue is no more complex than the fact that people are choosing not to eat healthily and not to exercise regularly. But if we talk to any expert, academic or parent struggling to put food on the table, they will say that the truth is much more complicated, because rising rates of obesity are deeply tied to social and economic changes.

Over the past 30 years, obesity rates have doubled while people’s knowledge of nutrition has not declined. Instead, experts point to the changes in the food environment. Unhealthy food has become much cheaper, easier to access and more convenient, while healthy options have become more expensive, harder to access and less convenient. The facts bear that out. Today, fruit and vegetables cost twice as much per calorie as foods high in fat and sugar. To eat in line with the Government’s recommended diet, the most deprived fifth of UK households would need to spend 50% of their disposable income on food, while the richest fifth would need to spend just 11%, according to research from the Food Foundation. It is little wonder, therefore, that the most deprived fifth of households eat more than a third less fruit and vegetables compared with the wealthiest fifth. Although everyone is affected by the food environment, it does not affect everyone equally. It is harder for working-class families to afford healthy and nutritious food—that is beyond doubt.

That link between poverty and obesity is clearly seen among children. Those in the most deprived fifth of the population are more than twice as likely to be living with obesity than those in the richest fifth. Children in Knowsley, which forms part of my constituency, have some of the highest rates of obesity in the country. The fantastic director of public health at Knowsley council, Sarah McNulty, says that that is a poverty and deprivation issue.

It does not have to be this way. Instead of a food system that pumps out unhealthy food while millions struggle to put a meal on the table, we could have a system that guarantees everyone a good, healthy diet—putting an end to the scandal of hunger and food banks. That is the demand of the Right to Food campaign, which I am very proud to lead in Parliament. It seeks first and foremost to end the injustice of food poverty, but also to ensure that food is of high quality and healthy. That means everything from ensuring that high-street planning encourages healthy eating, and building a proper safety net to get people out of food banks, to introducing universal free school meals and opening community kitchens. We know the effects that those policies have in tackling food poverty and obesity. Academic studies show that in the London boroughs that have provided free school meals for all primary school pupils, the prevalence of obesity has been reduced by around 10%.

In Liverpool, co-operatives such as Food for Thought, a non-profit company that produces school meals, are waiting to go on free school meals. Many areas in Liverpool are classed as food deserts, with healthy food in short supply and unaffordable for people who are struggling to get by after the cost of living crisis and 14 years of grinding austerity. Just 24% of adults in my great city of Liverpool eat five portions of fruit and vegetables every day.

In 2019, Fans Supporting Foodbanks—an organisation we set up in 2015—created the market-style mobile food pantry model to tackle the issue of food deserts in Liverpool, which has since fed thousands of families across Liverpool and St Helens in a non-stigmatising manner, with fresh fruit and vegetables an absolutely fundamental part of the offering. I take this opportunity to place on the record my thanks to all the volunteers who have created that unique model and made it such a success; it has made such a difference to lots of communities across Liverpool.

Since 2017, the Rose vouchers for fruit and veg project has supported struggling families in Liverpool to access fruit and veg. Almost £300,000-worth of fresh fruit and veg has been bought with the vouchers, enabling almost 5,000 people to access healthy options and avoid food poverty. Such community-led solutions, which put people before profit, are one way we can help those in our communities who are struggling to access healthy and affordable food. I take this opportunity once again to thank everybody involved in those projects.

Both those fantastic schemes are sticking plasters over a gaping wound. We need systemic change. Implementing a right to food is not the art of the impossible; it is in the Government’s gift. Its funding could be underpinned by a high fat, salt and sugar levy on food producers. The remodelling of our food system into one that keeps the population and future generations healthy is a political choice. For the sake of future generations, I hope that the Government make the right choice.