"Between 1980 and 2000, something dramatic happened to how we eat.
In the early 1980s, households spent the majority of their food budget on fresh ingredients — fruits, vegetables, oil, meat, salt, home-cooked staples. About 58 % of food spending went toward ingredients you cooked from scratch, while only 26 % went to convenience or processed foods.
Over the next two decades, that flipped.
By 2000, spending on fresh ingredients had plunged to around 28 %, and spending on ready-to-eat and highly processed foods nearly doubled to 44 %. This wasn’t a subtle shift — it was a spectacular transformation in how most families ate daily.
At the same time, obesity rates in the UK followed a similarly sharp rise.
In 1980, about 7 % of adults were classified as obese.
By 2000, that figure had climbed to roughly 20 % — basically tripling over the same period that processed food went from niche to mainstream.
Multiple population surveys and nutrition economics studies document this trend:
• Household food expenditure data from national statistics offices and UK food balance sheets show the shift away from raw ingredients toward processed and convenience purchases.
• Public health surveillance (like NHS and Public Health England data) tracks the rise in overweight and obesity prevalence across the same decades.
• Peer-reviewed research in journals such as The Lancet, BMJ, and Public Health Nutrition connects dietary patterns, food processing, and weight trends over time.
This is more than correlation.
It’s a real example of how changing food environments and convenience eating can reshape population health in just a generation.
We didn’t just eat more.
We ate very different things than our parents did.
Educational content only — not medical advice.
Save this for later and share it with someone who thinks obesity was “always” common.
Source and copyright rights: UK BBC @bbcnewsuk"
In the early 1980s, households spent the majority of their food budget on fresh ingredients — fruits, vegetables, oil, meat, salt, home-cooked staples. About 58 % of food spending went toward ingredients you cooked from scratch, while only 26 % went to convenience or processed foods.
Over the next two decades, that flipped.
By 2000, spending on fresh ingredients had plunged to around 28 %, and spending on ready-to-eat and highly processed foods nearly doubled to 44 %. This wasn’t a subtle shift — it was a spectacular transformation in how most families ate daily.
At the same time, obesity rates in the UK followed a similarly sharp rise.
In 1980, about 7 % of adults were classified as obese.
By 2000, that figure had climbed to roughly 20 % — basically tripling over the same period that processed food went from niche to mainstream.
Multiple population surveys and nutrition economics studies document this trend:
• Household food expenditure data from national statistics offices and UK food balance sheets show the shift away from raw ingredients toward processed and convenience purchases.
• Public health surveillance (like NHS and Public Health England data) tracks the rise in overweight and obesity prevalence across the same decades.
• Peer-reviewed research in journals such as The Lancet, BMJ, and Public Health Nutrition connects dietary patterns, food processing, and weight trends over time.
This is more than correlation.
It’s a real example of how changing food environments and convenience eating can reshape population health in just a generation.
We didn’t just eat more.
We ate very different things than our parents did.
Educational content only — not medical advice.
Save this for later and share it with someone who thinks obesity was “always” common.
Source and copyright rights: UK BBC @bbcnewsuk"
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