World-Beating England!

 

Ultra-Processed Foods (UPFs) are a rather vague category. They're essentially foods, whose generation involves an excessive amount of extraction and/or chemical manipulation. UPFs certainly include, certain breads, cakes and 'ready meals'. These products are, of course, largely devised to appeal to cash- and/or time-poor. UPFs are often marketed by very large Food Consortia. They're intended to be 'addictive' in a strictly non-medical sense. Folk are encouraged to repeatedly eat UPFs to boost consortia profits. Consuming them, however, increases the risk of premature death. It's estimated that an extra 10% intake of UPFs, increases the risk of dying before age 75, by circa 3%. Of the countries recently surveyed, England is currently the world leader. Fourteen percent of its early deaths, were attributed to unhealthy food  (https://www.theguardian.com/society/2025/apr/28/ultra-processed-food-increases-risk-of-early-death-international-study-finds). England's unhealthy performance seems encouraged by a persistent political belief that folk should be 'free' to make their own food choices, without the interference of the 'nanny state'. Fairly obviously, poorer sections of society are likely to be disproportionately impacted by what's really a drive by Food Consortia to maximise their profits. All sections of society need to be better informed of the dangers of UPFs and the Consortia should be better regulated. There are considerable societal costs of these unhealthy diets that shouldn't be tolerated.