Today’s Daily Mail boldly trumpets the ‘war on obese Britain,’ splashing on the latest recommendations from food tsar Henry Dimbleby. The Leon co-founder last year released the first major review of England’s entire food system in 75 years with the second part of the report now released one year on.
The Mail estimates his proposals for a £3 per kg sugar tax and a £6 per kg tax on salt will add £3.4 billion a year to families’ shopping bills, with a box of Frosties costing 87p more – not so great for Tony the Tiger – while a jar of Bonne Maman raspberry conserve will go up by 63p. The levies are based on the soft drinks tax drawn up by the former Chancellor George Osborne and are aimed at forcing manufacturers to change their recipes to reduce sugar and salt content. Other key recommendations include cutting meat eating by 30 per cent by 2032 to try and meet net zero commitments. Dimbleby also wants us to increase the amount of fruit and vegetables we consume, and the amount of fibre by 50 per cent, while lowering our intake of food high in saturated fat, salt and sugar by 25 per cent.
Dimbleby has done the morning media round today, asking listeners on Radio 4 ‘Is the freedom to keep Frosties cheap worth destroying the NHS for?’ And there was Steerpike thinking the NHS was there to serve us, rather than the other way around. Given the restauranteur’s sermons on the importance of health eating, Mr S thought it only fair to see whether he practices what he preaches at his Leon chain. Unfortunately it transpires that this is not the case – his LOVe burger has 482 calories compared to McDonald’s 263, while a McChicken has 272 and a fillet o’fish 282 against Dimbleby’s whopping 444 kcal chicken burger and 569 calorie fish finger burger. Steerpike wonders why cheap fast food chains have been lambasted for unhealthy food while Dimbleby, an Old Etonian and Oxford graduate, is able to get away with such a calorific menu.
Coincidentally, Dimbleby’s report comes on the same day that Boris Johnson is to give his long-awaited speech on ‘levelling up’ today in which he assures nervy Tories that it won’t mean ‘levelling down’ the south. Let’s hope that Dimbleby’s proposals don’t have a similar effect on other foods for those diners who aren’t a fan of Leon.
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