Why Building Better Food Systems is Critical For Our Health

1. What do you see as the biggest dietary threats to public health? 

The food system that we have created is, by far, the biggest cause of avoidable ill health – to a degree where, if we don't do something about it, it's not just going to make us sick, but it will also cripple our economy. We think that by 2035, Type 2 diabetes – which is only one of many diet-related health conditions – is going to cost the NHS more than all cancers combined do today. Poor diet is also the biggest contributing factor for people who are out of work in the long term as a result of ill health – that’s 2.8 million people today. If we don't get a grip on this, it's going to be catastrophic for our society. 

Fundamentally, the biggest factor in our diets is what I described in the National Food Strategy as ‘the Junk Food Cycle’. We have an appetite that evolved a long time ago when food was relatively scarce, so it rewards us hugely for eating foods that are calorie dense and high in sugar, salt and fat. When those foods are lower in soluble fibre, they fill us up less quickly and we eat more, even though they’re high in calories – and food companies have spotted this. It’s not that they want to kill us, but simply that they’ll make more money, and that’s their priority.

The food system that we have today is just swamped with ultra-processed junk food. I mean, 85% of the food that the fast-moving consumer goods companies sell us is deemed by the World Health Organisation to be too unhealthy to market to children! Our modern food system is a very difficult environment in which to maintain health.

2. What has the public reaction been to your book, ‘Ravenous: How to Get Ourselves and Our Planet into Shape’? 

Well, we (Dimbleby and co-author Jemima Lewis) basically made two arguments: how to fix the environmental problems caused by diet, and how to fix the health problems. I think that the environmental issues are now pretty well understood and governments in the UK, Europe and America are actively trying to fix the system. When it comes to health, we're further behind. 

People used to think of junk food as just a naughty treat, a bit of an indulgence. The narrative has always been that my dietary disease is my fault for eating this way. Now, though, the words ‘ultra-processed food’ are being talked about in the media and are revealing a fundamental underlying truth: that it’s not really down to our own individual choices. It’s actually ‘the man’ messing with us – and people don't like that. That framing has really started to cut through the noise. On the back of that, I'm hopeful that we might see a bit more government intervention as well.

3. What was the most surprising thing you learned while researching the book?

The research was really the two years we spent writing the National Food Strategy. I was the Lead Non-Executive Director at DEFRA at the time and I had a team of 20 people. We spent those two years travelling around the UK, visiting people and doing primary analysis, etc. The book was simply rewriting that story for a bigger audience, because very few people are going to download a government document from a website. 

The thing that really struck home for me was the sheer scale of the problem: the food system is, by far, the biggest cause of biodiversity collapse and the collapse of aquatic life, fresh water shortage, freshwater scarcity, soil erosion and deforestation. It's the second biggest cause of climate change after energy systems and it's the biggest cause of environmental disease. And yet no one has been talking about this until very recently. COP26 in Glasgow was themed around biodiversity and food wasn't even featured, even though it's the biggest cause of biodiversity loss! It makes me want to go out into town squares and start shouting at people to wake up because we have a huge problem.

4. Why is it important for the hospitality industry to support the transition to a healthy, sustainable diet?

The single biggest thing that the hospitality industry can do is change the narrative. The number one thing that we can do to improve the environment is to eat less meat: 75% of the land that we farm is either used to grow animal feed or to graze animals, and we need some of that land back to restore biodiversity, to sequester carbon and so forth. 

Eating out is still a small enough part of our diet that what we eat in restaurants is unlikely to shift the dial on public health. However, restaurants play a very powerful role in people's consciousness, so they can help change our food culture. We need menus that aren't necessarily vegan or vegetarian, but that show people that we can make vegetables delicious – that it’s the norm to see delicious dishes on menus that just happen to be meat-free. If I were to think of one single thing that restaurants could do, that would be it. 

I think that for most restaurants, the health side is largely irrelevant. Most of us are going out for food once a week at the most, and normally less. It's a treat. It's not going to be a major part of people's diets. There is definitely a greater responsibility for fast food companies and for any companies that are feeding people more than three or four meals a week, like workplace caterers. I do think a lot of them should be doing better than they are at the moment. There is a responsibility to serve dishes that don't kill your customers. 

5. Can you name five actions that restaurants can take to encourage healthier and more sustainable food choices? 

Number one is as I mentioned above: helping people to realise that it's possible for vegetables to be absolutely delicious. This means putting more vegetarian options or even just low-meat options on menus and making sure that they’re creative and desirable. 

Secondly, I would say restaurants can use storytelling to talk about our food systems – not in a preachy way, but helping to create an awareness and make that cultural shift is incredibly important.

The third thing for me would be animal welfare. Factory farming is horrific. This can be difficult, particularly for the restaurants that aren’t particularly high-end, but I think asking your suppliers questions about animal welfare is key.

Reducing food waste is an area with huge potential, where there is a direct alignment between what's good for your bottom line and what's good for the environment. Most restaurants out there could benefit from working to minimise their waste.

Lastly, I’d recommend that restaurants sign up for the Food Made Good Standard. Having run Leon, I realise how difficult it is to run a restaurant even without taking sustainability into consideration; there are so many moving parts. People shouldn’t beat themselves up about it. It’s impossible to be an expert in producing amazing food, motivating and managing brilliant staff and designing a lovely space as well as all the complex elements of food sustainability. Just take it one step at a time and work out the next big thing you can do. The SRA provides a very useful Framework to help food businesses do that, so don't worry too much – just reach out for help.

6. Do you feel optimistic about the future of our food systems?

I'm very optimistic when it comes to our environment. I think that governments really get it and – notwithstanding the farmers’ protests at the moment – I think we are on the route towards a food system that is more biodiverse and emits less carbon. I am a bit more pessimistic about our public health crisis. There's a lot more work to be done there, and at the moment it's only getting worse.

Follow us on Instagram and Linkedin throughout this month to learn more about how restaurants and other F&B businesses can (and should!) feed people well. If you’re ready to make real moves towards becoming more sustainable, drop us a line today at hello@thesra.org to see how we can help!