The 'staggering' £21bn bill Scotland pays for a diet that is 'making us sick'

The “staggering” finding is based on estimates of the burden placed on the NHS, social care and welfare systems, as well as lost productivity for the economy.

It is contained in a new report for the Food, Farming and Countryside Commission (FFCC) charity, which argues there is a “virtually unassailable case for a new food economy in the UK”.

The report has been published ahead of a “Citizens Food Summit”, which will be held on Tuesday featuring farmers, health experts, businesses and members of the public.

It will come on the same day farmers are set to descend on London in their thousands to protest against plans to impose a 20 per cent inheritance tax on farms worth £1 million or more.

Farmers have also threatened to go on strike and stop food production to show what would happen if the UK food-producing sector shut down.

Experts say modern diets are too high in sugar, salt and saturated fats and too low in wholegrains, fruit and vegetables. They say food processing often strips out dietary fibre and nutrients, which are essential for a healthy digestive system and help lower the risk of heart disease and Type 2 diabetes.

There is particular concern about ultra-processed foods, which are said to constitute more than half of the adult diet in the UK and two-thirds of the adolescent diet.

The UK has the highest proportion of ultra-processed foods in its diet of all the western nations, except for the US.

The new report calculates the food-related cost of chronic disease in the UK is £268bn, with Scotland’s share amounting to £21.6bn, based on population. It says this is more than Scotland’s total healthcare spend of £18.7bn.

The report’s author was Professor Tim Jackson, director of the Centre for the Understanding of Sustainable Prosperity, at the University of Surrey,

He said: “The connection between diet and health is often discussed, but the economics of that link are staggering. When we factor in the health impacts, we discover that the true cost of an unhealthy diet is more than three times what we think we're paying for our food.

“Some of these hidden costs, like lost economic productivity, can be hard to see.

“But over a third - an astonishing £92bn each year - is directly shouldered by governments and households to address the illnesses caused by a food system that's, quite literally, making us sick.

“Most shocking of all is that solving this crisis would cost just a fraction of what we currently spend ignoring it.”

The research found the cost to the nation of providing the government-recommended Eat Well diet would be a quarter of the bill faced by society for unhealthy food-related disease.

Sue Pritchard, chief executive of the Food, Farming and Countryside Commission, said: “There is a clear and urgent economic case for changing the UK food system.

“The state of the nation’s health is not simply the result of under-investment in the NHS. It represents the long-standing failure to take seriously the critical relationship between food and farming, health and inequalities.

“As things are, big food companies are profiting from developing, making and marketing unhealthy food, leaving people with too many unhealthy options – while farmers struggle to make ends meet.”