OBESITY COULD SAVE £5BN A YEAR

IF overweight Brits drank one less fizzy drink a day, it could reduce the obesity epidemic by enough to save the NHS £5billion a year.

- BY MIKEY SMITH Deputy Political Editor

That's the message from Health Secretary Wes Streeting and Environment Secretary Steve Reed as they outline plans to make Britain healthier, boost British farming, and slash hospital waiting times.

As part of the 10-year plan for the NHS, supermarkets and food producers will aim to make it easier for shoppers to buy more healthy food.

Mr Streeting said: "Through our new healthy food standard, we will make the healthy choice the easy choice, because prevention is better than cure."

This could be through tweaking recipes, changing shop layouts, or offering discount and loyalty schemes to promote healthier options.

The ministers said the easy availability of ultra-processed food was driving up rates of diabetes and heart disease and costing the NHS £11.4bn a year.