panic on a plate

A nice piece to mark the 150th anniversary of food trade newspaper The Grocer shows how much cheaper food is now compared to when the paper first started.

The UK government’s brainstorming group for new ideas about the National Health Service suggests that people should be asked about - and advised upon - their personal habits EVERY time they have contact with medical professionals. That’s unhelpful, illiberal and contrary to what the doctor-patient relationship should be about.

A new poll suggests that while a quarter of the population is deemed to be clinically obese, only six per cent regard themselves as obese.

Latest figures for childhood obesity suggest that obesity rates have flatlined, pretty much, in recent years. So why are campaigners and politicians so desperate to find a crisis in the stats anyhow?

It’s early days for a newly revived venue in the Calder Valley. There’s plenty to work on, but plenty of potential, too.

A new report commissioned by Cancer Research UK, which claims that nearly half of cancers are caused by our lifestyles, should come with a health warning of its own.

News reports about the ‘obesity epidemic’ usually just quote the number of people who have crossed a certain threshold - a BMI of 30. But that’s not the only way to look at our changing bodyshapes.

A Battle of Ideas Independent blog calling into question the idea that obesity really costs society a fortune and pointing out that it is intolerance, not obesity, that is the really unhealthy trend.

For politicians struggling to justify their existence, obesity is a perfect issue for a bit of moral posturing.

My article in City AM, a preview of a Battle of Ideas debate, looks at why big business has, by and large, provided the food system that we need.