'You look in supermarket trollies - no wonder they’re overweight’, Tory MP urges kids to eat more vegetables

More should be done to educate people on healthy food choices in order to battle the "ticking time bomb" that is the obesity crisis, a Conservative MP has said.

Sir Robert Goodwill, who chairs the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee, made the comments as the committee published a report suggesting that food insecurity will result in 40 million people being obese by 2035.

Committee MPs warned that food that is high in fat, sugar and salt is “often considerable cheaper” per calorie than healthy food, fuelling obesity levels in poorer households.

They urged the Government to support people to make better choices more accessible and affordable as part of an obesity strategy.

Sir Robert told Times Radio that it was unsurprising some people are overweight when you look at the food they are buying.

He said informing and educating people about health choices would help ensure that everybody can "live out their life and not be beset by problems associated by their diet and their weight".

The MP for Scarborough and Whitby, said: "We really do need to work to inform people and to educate people what those healthy choices are and try and move away from this situation where we have a whole generation of children being brought up who just don't like vegetables.

"We were made to eat vegetables when we were children and actually we came to love them and enjoy them."

He went on to say the difficulty lies in "getting people to make those healthy choices", adding: "Go into the supermarkets and see sometimes what people have got in their trollies, and then see those people might be slightly overweight and think, no wonder you’re overweight, look what you’ve bought.

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"The healthy option isn't always the more expensive option - there's lots of good deals on fruit and vegetables in the supermarkets and it's healthy food.

"We want everybody to have a long healthy life and unfortunately people from some of the lower socio-economic groups are not having that - in fact there's been a reversal in some parts of the country and it's important that everybody can live out their life and not be beset by problems associated by their diet and their weight."

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His comments come after he urged the government to read the recently released report, which found that soaring obesity levels are being exacerbated by a fifth of households struggling to get hold of good quality food at reasonable prices, and to act on it.

The report by the cross-party group of MPs said nearly 18% of households experienced moderate or severe food insecurity in January, and predicted that high food insecurity will contribute to a forecasted 40 million UK adults being obese in little over a decade.

However, his radio comments were described as "patronising" and "out of touch" by social media users who said that people bought the food they could afford n supermarkets and that many were struggling to buy basic food items.

According to Statista, around 2.99 million people in the UK have used a food bank in 2023, as the cost of living crisis continues to push more households below the poverty line.

Sir Robert said: "Food security matters to us all. It is vital to farmers; it is vital to other food producers. And of course, it is vital for every citizen up and down the land to have a square meal at a reasonable price.

“But surprisingly, the Government does not appear to be taking this very basic matter anywhere near seriously enough.

"This report is calling, through its various recommendations, for much more attention to be paid to the guaranteed supply of good quality food – at prices which suit both producers and consumers. I know that is not an easy balance to strike. But that’s what government is for."