THE multi-million pound drive to encourage healthy eating has failed, according to a government report.
Almost 70,000 people are dying every year because of poor diet - despite the push to get us eating five portions of fruit and vegetables a day.
The reluctance to eat healthily accounts for 10 per cent of all deaths and costs the NHS £6bn a year on treating diseases linked to malnutrition, the Prime Minister's Strategy Unit report will reveal this week.
The unit says people are still failing to heed diet advice to help ward off cancer, heart disease and other illnesses.
Prof Peter Weissberg, medical director of the British Heart Foundation, said: "People haven't taken the five-a-day message on board the way the government would have wished. That's a failure of society to recognise the importance of eating well."
There is some good news, however, as 44 per cent of schoolchildren in England now consume five portions daily, up from 27 per cent in 2004.
This follows English schools switching to much more nutritious lunches in autumn 2006.
The report, the first Gordon Brown commissioned from the Strategy Unit after becoming prime minister in the summer, says poor diet kills 69,400 Britons every year - 10 per cent of all deaths.
As well as the 42,200 linked to a lack of fruit and vegetables, 20,200 are due to excess salt consumption, while 3,500 are linked to an intake of saturated fats and 3,500 to excessive sugar consumption.
Ministers are due to unveil a new anti-obesity strategy next month.
Does the government need to do more to promote healthy eating? Have your say.
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You are what you eat!
I bet if was five different fags or lager a day the government would have no trouble?.Parents feed their kids garbage because giving kids garbage dosnt take to many brain cells? Make all parents take3 cooking lessons and lessons on feeding their children maybe this would start to msend the message out.fat kids from lazy parents.
I am not suprised,the price of fruit in my local Tesco is scandalous and just before Christmas they increased the prices once more.
ace - you are right in a way. We all know that fruit and veg are good for us. We should eat fresh like the French but supermarkets have priced out all local greengrocers we used to have on our streets and we have become steeped in the "shove it in a microwave" mentality. We should be teaching our kids how to eat well and leave the cakes and sweets for a treat at the weekend. If the Goverment campaign has failed, I don't see what can be done to change our attitudes to food as a country.
ace: After reading your latest contribution it reads as though you have been on the 5 different lagers.
HAPPY NEW YEAR
the government can say what they like to promote fruit and veg - the truth is that healthy eating is not an option in most works canteens (that's if you have one) - and even where it is an option, it's a very expensive one.
Also, fruit and veg tends to be poor quality in supermarkets and virtually rotting in corner shops. So, where's the choice?
Most weeks I throw away uneaten fruit and veg, sometimes at a cost to me of several pounds. I have never thrown a packet of crisps or a Mars bar away! Food for thought on why the poor do not buy fruit and veg.
Timberman, MANCHESTER
No mate ive been eating five a day for years and found fruit is cheap compared to other foods,im on a fixed income (disabled)But i always eat fruit each day so i cannot see the argument about expensive fruit when i see children in kebab/pizza shops each day buying fast food.
Way too early to claim that this campaign failed; changing the general public's attitudes to anything (not just diet) can be measured in generations rather than years and consequently I'd have thought that an increase from 27 to 44 percent of schoolchildren hitting their target in the space of three or four years is a success.
Besides, while it hasn't changed the diet of everyone they were targeting, it has probably at least made them think about it.
How on Earth did humanity manage to survive for millions of years without having this Government to instruct us in every detail of our lives?
Their arrogance in treating the General :Public like congenital idiots only goes to show how little respect they have for the average person.
Every utterance they make should carry a health warning, "Government Pronouncements can do permanent damage to your psychological well being!"
ace; same boat as you mate COPD and I eat a lot of fruit
To Donkey-Stoner easy solution, don't buy crisps and mars bars, problem solved.
the truth is most people are too lazy to do anything about their own health!
if the fruit and veg at the supermarkets isnt good enough, try your local fruit stall (Manchester arndale, rochdale and bury markets etc) the fruit will be better quality and often a lot cheaper.
if you find yourself throwing it away, then take away the other option? Or but fruit juice, it keeps for much longer and a small glass of juice is one of your five a day. Veg tends to keep longer than fruit anyway!
Timberman wrote: "To Donkey-Stoner easy solution, don't buy crisps and mars bars, problem solved."
Who said that I did? - The last few days have seen me eat a kilo of fresh South African Apricots, a punnet of Blueberries, Red Grapes, Cherries, Apples, Bananas,Tangerines as well as the normal four or so cooked winter veggies every day. I eat very well - but then again I am an old bloke who has the choice of what I can and cannot eat - many others have what they are given! Hence the queues at McDonalds etc.
Donkey-Stoner quote.
'Most weeks I throw away uneaten fruit and veg, sometimes at a cost to me of several pounds. I have never thrown a packet of crisps or a Mars bar away'.
If you eat that well how come you have to throw so much away?