To think that as big food industry cause a huge chunk of the NHS bill that they need to be taxed an NHS surcharge? Whats more galling is that many large food companies are US owned and the medication is US supplied.

[Noras]

We need radical thinking now.

The population is being physically harmed by uber processed foods. Many companies who produce the food are US owned. The US having poisoned is then sells us the drugs to maintain lofe and not cure any conditions.

Crisps - many US owned companies
Soft drinks - mainly US owned companies
Things like tomato ketchup - mainly US owned companies
Sweetened yoghurt - mainly US owned compnaies
Chocolate - Cadburys - say no more
Oven chips - US owned

The Gov needs to tax the hell out of carb heavy processed junk food and reduced VAT on fruit / veg / legumes etc.

Its glaringly apparent that there is something significantly wrong with the current proportions/ floor space of poor food choices in supermarkets.

Most of the aisles is taken up with selling pretend plastic foods.

Why is the Gov allowing this and not taxing this stuff to the hilt and spending that tax money on the NHS?

It makes me believe that we have a corrupt Gov not prepared to tackle large food consortiums and thus allowing the British public to be poisoned into poor health / diabetes etc where they become customers for large US pharmacy.

The whole thing is crazy. People need to be able to cook better and stop wasting money on processed junk. In that same vein, we need to tax more all take away places especially McDonald’s, Burger King, all coffee shops selling mass produced cakes with palm oil etc.

Maybe thinking of foods like that as 'treats', is part of the problem. A 'treat' should not be something that harms the body, imo.

But people also think of drinking alcohol, smoking tobacco products, or taking drugs as a "treat", which also causes huge cost and clogs up the NHS.

Last thing we want to do is drive unhealthy foods underground as that will probably make the problem worse and fuel crime, just like the drugs trade, illegal alcohol and tobacco sales have done.

I disagree. Personally I would never choose to eat a ready meal, over my home cooked food, that I have frozen, for future use.

Likewise, I think that home cooked food (even after freezing) still has a far superior taste and texture to mass produced ready meals. I think that people's tastes have been ruined by the excessive additives and preservatives in mass produced foods, i.e. sweeteners, salts, emulsifiers, etc., so they miss them when you cook something from raw/fresh ingredients that is basically nothing but food! It takes time for someone's taste buds to adjust. People are basically tasting the additives and preservatives rather than the genuine food itself.

The difference in taste between a mass produced frozen ready meal from a supermarket compared with a frozen "home made" ready meal from something like a farm shop or something you've made and frozen yourself is stark, some of which is quality of the ingredients, some of which is the lack of the additives/preservatives.

Ok, we get it. You are a vegetarian / vegan.

Wholemeal bread? Hardly anyone would consider that is rubbish, yet read the label and that's exactly what it is.

Personally, I'd like to see unhealthy junk food heavily taxed, with the income from that tax used to directly subside healthy, unprocessed or minimally processed british produce.

Oh good - people have had convenient options for far too long

It’s not about the additives and preservatives. I like raw food because it’s easier and nobody has fucked about with it.

I also like fresh ingredients. However just because it’s fresh doesn’t make it nice when it has been home frozen. It’s still watery.

As someone who is currently struggling month to month (financial post separation abuse) I can tell you from experience that it’s a lot cheaper to buy processed foods. I’ve gone from organic veg box and occasional Waitrose shop to trying to find the cheapest of everything and good fruit and veg is expensive. Also, it costs money to drive to the nearest large supermarket so rely on walking to nearest which has less fruit and veg.

Other things that impact;

• have you been taught to cook?
• do you work 50 hours a week in a zero hours job and are too exhausted to cook.
• do you have freezer space to cook once and freeze portions?
• are you aware of the issue with ultra processed foods.

Added to that these companies pay a lot of money to use the best science to manipulate us without us even knowing. Just look at Nutella adverts. Unless you have educated yourself otherwise, you’d be forgiven into thinking it’s a healthy choice.

It’s just not as simple as individual choice. There is huge social inequality that gets in the way.

So I agree. We need to subside fruit, veg, milk and whole foods and tax ultra processed foods massively.