England needs to go on a diet, but new calorie plan won’t work

Food in supermarket trolley

Say goodbye

Chris Ratcliffe/Bloomberg via Getty

People in England keep eating too much, so let’s quietly make food less calorific. That’s the latest proposal from Public Health England (PHE) for tackling the nation’s growing obesity problem. A total of 21 firms are considering a plan to remove 20 per cent of the calories from foods like pizzas, crisps and ready meals by 2024.

It is clear something must be done. The most recent PHE figures show that a third of pupils aged 10 to 11 are overweight or obese, as are 58 per cent …