Supermarkets Told to Cut 100 Calories from Shoppers’ Baskets

THE TELEGRAPH: Health Secretary’s drive to tackle obesity criticised as ‘nanny state’ move that will create red tape

Supermarkets will be ordered to cut up to 100 calories from the average shopping basket under a new “nanny state” drive to tackle obesity.

Ministers are set to impose a “healthy food standard” that will force stores to curtail sales of sugary and salty snacks in favour of more fruit and vegetables.

Shops failing to meet the mandatory targets could face fines, which retail sources warned could see prices rise.

The measures will form the backbone of a 10-year plan to improve the nation’s health, which will be unveiled by Wes Streeting, the Health Secretary, this week. Downing Street hopes the changes can help avert the need for future tax rises by slashing the £11 billion a year that obesity costs the NHS.

But senior retail figures said they had been blindsided by the “draconian” plans, which they said would add to a growing glut of red tape on business. » | Nick Gutteridge Chief Political Correspondent. Hannah Boland Retail Editor. Laura Donnelly Health Editor | Sunday, June 29, 2025

Is there no end to government interference in people's private lives? – © Mark Alexander

It’s Time to Take on the Greed of the Food & Beverage Industry

Dec 5, 2024 | America has a diabetes and obesity crisis. And it’s not happening by accident. Junk foods are designed to be addictive, like cigarettes and alcohol. The FDA must act. Corporations cannot put their profits ahead of the health of our children.

For children to be brought up in a healthy way, mothers need to stay at home to cook for their children and care for them, as mothers always used to do. A mother’s place is in the home, not in the boardroom! When children were raised in traditional households, type-2 diabetes and obesity were a rarity. Good wholesome food could be cooked by the mother from scratch for her family. She had the time to cook for the family. These days, with mothers out working, they return home after work exhausted, so look for quick solutions to put food on the table for the family. Yes, nutrition labels, etc, will help, but they will not solve the problem entirely.

Children do not bring themselves up. They need to be brought up. Governments could do a great deal to make it possible for mothers to be able to afford to stay at home. Tax advantages and a universal basic income (UBI) could do lots to help make this possible for mothers again. Further, the Internet has also made it possible for people to earn a living from home.

What I have written here applies to traditional families. But the same could apply for gay families. One of the couple could stay at home to care for the children, and provide good, nutritious, sensible food for them instead of the junk they have to eat these days.

A healthy nation is built on healthy lifestyles. We have tried to re-invent the wheel and, as a result, we have got ourselves into an awful mess.

Oh, and by the way, there’s another positive with mothers at home: they can more easily help boost Western nations’ dangerously low birth rates. When birth rates are too low, we must import foreigners with alien values to provide a workforce for industry and commerce. Isn’t this one main reason why values and ideas in the West are changing so rapidly, and why many towns and cities are becoming unrecognisable? Demographic changes are accelerating. So, this isn’t only about type-2 diabetes and obesity. – © Mark Alexander

Crisis: The Repulsive Medical Establishment Philosophy

Oct 22, 2024 | In dealing with the biggest health disaster we've ever faced. I, Dr Suneel Dhand, won't stop talking about this.

Ozempic for Weight Loss - Here's Why You Shouldn't Take It for Longevity | Dr Mark Hyman

Dec 29, 2023

India’s Obesity Time Bomb | Reupload

Nov 3, 2023 | Almost 1 in 4 adults is considered overweight or obese in India. As junk food giants push into developing nations with weaker public health awareness, campaigners are calling for tougher regulation.

India’s Obesity Time Bomb

Nov 3, 2023 | Almost 1 in 4 adults is considered overweight or obese in India. As junk food giants push into developing nations with weaker public health awareness, campaigners are calling for tougher regulation.

Junk Food: The Dark Side of the Food Industry | DW Documentary

Jun 30, 2023 | 40 % of the global population is overweight or obese. Highly processed industrial foodstuffs are largely to blame. But food companies continue to focus on products that are addictive.

Sugar is one of the strongest "drugs” and can get consumers really hooked. Food giants know this only too well. That’s why they use sugar, fats and flavor enhancers to encourage people to buy their products and boost their profits. The result: more and more people around the world are overweight or obese. Illnesses such as diabetes and cardiovascular disease are becoming more prevalent. What can be done to change or even put a stop to the food industry’s strategies?

Obesity and Corporate Greed | DW Documentary

May 26, 2022 | Doctors predict that by 2030, half of the world's population will be overweight or obese. An epidemic of obesity is causing a rapid rise in diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and cancer. It's becoming the biggest health challenge worldwide.

Why has no country managed to stop this epidemic? The food industry and government authorities say it's due to a lack of individual self-discipline. Is this true? Or is it the result of collective failure -- a symptom of a liberal society that abhors obesity, yet produces people who are overweight. Is society itself to blame for this situation?

Around the world, politicians, priests, doctors, and average people are standing up to multinational food corporations. They want to take back control of their nutrition and their bodies -- and they're using the law, scientific evidence, and political activism to correct the claim that people who are obese have only themselves to blame. These critics focus on sugary drinks that can be as addictive as some hard drugs; misleading advertising directed at children and low-income people; governments that turn a blind eye to junk-food companies; and lobbying that pushes the limits of legality.

These people say that a "hostile takeover" of our food has been underway for four decades, and they're demanding new legislation to put a stop to it. This documentary investigates how Chile is leading the way in this struggle. Which country will be the next to confront the big food corporations in the name of public health?

USA's Obesity Epidemic: Heart Attack Grills, Fat Camps and Plus-Size Beauty Pageants | Documentary

Sep 14, 2021 | | Never in all its history has America been so obese. With 160 million Americans severely overweight, in this documentary explore increasingly aggressive treatments as well as the counter-trend of body positivity and 'Miss Plus' beauty pageants.

Despite repeated government efforts to encourage the population to slim down, the obesity rates just keep climbing.

Faced with this staggering figure, healthcare professionals are trying to find new, more efficient and more aggressive treatments for this illness… We meet Casey, one of the few people whose weight has become a matter of life and death, and travel to Arizona to see an innovative new academy helping young girls learn healthy habits and slim down.

Despite the rising obesity crisis, a new movement is shaking up the United States: body positivity. Through lucrative social media accounts, popular magazine covers and even successful ‘Miss Plus’ beauty pageants, overweight Americans are learning to flaunt their curves and love themselves no matter their size.


This documentary is disgusting and gross. I apologise for it. But it is necessary to be aware of the disgusting eating habits of so many in the USA, and actually throughout the Western world, thanks to the influence of American culture on our eating habits. Fast the food may be, but healthy, it is not! Americans can teach us nothing when it comes to food and healthy eating. – © Mark Alexander

Health Matters: Obesity and Corporate Greed | DW Documentary

May 26, 2022 | Doctors predict that by 2030, half of the world's population will be overweight or obese. An epidemic of obesity is causing a rapid rise in diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and cancer. It's becoming the biggest health challenge worldwide.

Why has no country managed to stop this epidemic? The food industry and government authorities say it's due to a lack of individual self-discipline. Is this true? Or is it the result of collective failure -- a symptom of a liberal society that abhors obesity, yet produces people who are overweight. Is society itself to blame for this situation?

Around the world, politicians, priests, doctors, and average people are standing up to multinational food corporations. They want to take back control of their nutrition and their bodies -- and they're using the law, scientific evidence, and political activism to correct the claim that people who are obese have only themselves to blame. These critics focus on sugary drinks that can be as addictive as some hard drugs; misleading advertising directed at children and low-income people; governments that turn a blind eye to junk-food companies; and lobbying that pushes the limits of legality.

These people say that a "hostile takeover" of our food has been underway for four decades, and they're demanding new legislation to put a stop to it. This documentary investigates how Chile is leading the way in this struggle. Which country will be the next to confront the big food corporations in the name of public health?

Global Junk Food: How the Fast-Food Industry Is Making Poor Countries Fat | ENDEVR Documentary

In Europe, food manufacturers have signed up to ‘responsibility pledges’, promising no added sugar, preservatives, artificial colours or flavours and not to target children. So why are they using tactics banned in the West in the developing world? There, they have created ultra-low-cost products with higher levels of salt, sugar and saturated fats. Filmed in Brazil, India and France, we investigate the new tactics of brands like Coca-Cola, McDonald’s and Domino’s Pizza.

Fat Fiction : Movie

Premiered Jul 29, 2021 Fat Fiction reveals how the United States government relied on questionable evidence to support one of the most damaging public health recommendations in the history of our country: the “low fat diet.” Featuring world leaders in low-carb nutrition:

Dr. Mark Hyman, Functional Medicine Doctor and Director of the Cleveland Clinic Center for Functional Medicine and the UltraWellness Center and Chairman of the board of the Institute for Functional Medicine.

Dr. Sarah Hallberg, Obesity Expert has reversed Type 2 Diabetes in hundreds of patients by ignoring the guidelines and prescribing a high fat, low carb nutrition plan.

Dr Jason Fung, Nephrologist and author of The Obesity Code, a book for reversing Type 2 Diabetes with LCHF and Intermittent Fasting.

Professor Tim Noakes, author of the Lore of Running.

Nina Teicholz, Journalist and author of the Big Fat Surprise.

Gary Taubes, Journalist and author of Good Calories, Bad Calories and The Case Against Sugar.

Dr. Rob Lustig, Pediatric Endocriniologist at University of California, San Francisco

Dr. Bret Scher, Cardiologist and Lipidologist practicing in San Diego

Dr. Eric Westman, Director of the Lifestyle Medicine clinic at Duke University Medical Center in Durham, North Carolina

Dr. Brian Lenzkes, Internal Medicine Doctor Jonny Bowden, Nutritionist and author of The Great Cholesterol Myth

Dr. Zoe Harcombe, phD obesity researcher who wrote her thesis on the lack of evidence behind the US Dietary Guidelines

Professor Andrew Mente, McMaster University and researcher on the PURE Study

Alyssa Gallagher, Registered Dietician, Certified Diabetes Educator at Humphries Diabetes Center in Boise, Idaho

Doug Reynolds, Founder of LowCarb USA


Related video.

Obesity and Corporate Greed | DW Documentary

May 26, 2022 • Doctors predict that by 2030, half of the world's population will be overweight or obese. An epidemic of obesity is causing a rapid rise in diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and cancer. It's becoming the biggest health challenge worldwide.

Why has no country managed to stop this epidemic? The food industry and government authorities say it's due to a lack of individual self-discipline. Is this true? Or is it the result of collective failure -- a symptom of a liberal society that abhors obesity, yet produces people who are overweight. Is society itself to blame for this situation?

Around the world, politicians, priests, doctors, and average people are standing up to multinational food corporations. They want to take back control of their nutrition and their bodies -- and they're using the law, scientific evidence, and political activism to correct the claim that people who are obese have only themselves to blame. These critics focus on sugary drinks that can be as addictive as some hard drugs; misleading advertising directed at children and low-income people; governments that turn a blind eye to junk-food companies; and lobbying that pushes the limits of legality.

These people say that a "hostile takeover" of our food has been underway for four decades, and they're demanding new legislation to put a stop to it. This documentary investigates how Chile is leading the way in this struggle. Which country will be the next to confront the big food corporations in the name of public health?

Peter Jennings Reporting: How to Get Fat without Really Trying

First aired December 8, 2003 on ABC

Obesity is fast on its way to becoming the nation’s largest and most costly public health problem. While much of the public debate about obesity has focused on personal responsibility, Peter Jennings Reporting – How To Get Fat Without Really Trying reveals how federal government agricultural policies and food industry practices are contributing to America’s growing obesity epidemic.

In this program, Jennings demonstrates for the first time how more federal agricultural subsidies are going to foods Americans should be eating less, while few subsidies go to foods we should be eating more. Jennings investigates the type of food products the packaged food industry introduces each year and finds that the vast majority of new food products are those that dietary guidelines say Americans should be eating least.

Jennings also takes a bold look at the marketing of unhealthy food to children. Studies reveal that young children are not capable of understanding the intent of advertising and Jennings questions the ethics of such marketing, raising the question: should children be protected from junk food marketing – despite the economic impact that might have on food companies and broadcast networks?

Within days of this documentary airing, schools across the country requested copies for use in their classrooms. Nutrition scholars are re-directing their research to examine the relationship of agricultural subsidies to the obesity epidemic. The Chairman of the Federal Trade Commission has indicated that food marketing is an area in which the agency will become more involved. And California legislators scheduled a screening of the program as they were considering restrictions on marketing of junk food to children.

Lockdown Catch-22: Weight Gain Can Increase Covid Severity | COVID-19 Special

Staying at home during a lockdown - with lots of time to eat and not move at the same time. No wonder many people all over the world have gained weight during the pandemic. And while it's a stretch from too much comfort eating to downright gluttony, too much body fat is bad for our health. In fact, those additional pounds can increase our risk of severe illness from Covid-19. Excess weight has always been a health risk. In times of the coronavirus pandemic, it could be lethal.

The Complete Skinny on Obesity

Millions have watched Dr. Robert Lustig's YouTube videos on the role sugar plays in obesity. In this compilation of the popular YouTube series "The Skinny on Obesity," Dr. Lustig and his UCSF colleagues dig deeper into the root causes of the obesity epidemic. Discover why what we eat is as important as how much we eat. Understand the effects of stress on obesity rates, and why some predict that the next generation will die younger than the current one due to obesity and the many health problems it causes.

Obesity: Fed Up | 2014

Turkey Fights Rising Risk of Obesity

Fed Up | 2014

How Did Canada Become “Flab Nation”?

David Menzies reports on a new study by Participaction that found Canadian kids among the least active in the world. He blames ethe nanny state and helicopter parents.