{"id":768572,"date":"2026-07-17T16:24:12","date_gmt":"2026-07-17T16:24:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/768572\/"},"modified":"2026-07-17T16:24:12","modified_gmt":"2026-07-17T16:24:12","slug":"how-can-we-better-support-families-to-make-healthier-food-choices-making-healthy-choices-easier-for-families-with-tesco","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/768572\/","title":{"rendered":"How can we better support families to make healthier food choices? | Making Healthy Choices Easier For Families With Tesco"},"content":{"rendered":"

The urgent need to support British families to eat healthily was drawn into sharp focus earlier this year when The World Obesity Atlas 2026<\/a> reported that we have about twice the number of overweight and obese children as France and Italy, with a record rate of 3.8 million children with a high BMI.<\/p>\n

In a timely move, Tesco brought together a panel of leading health charities, nutritionists and food suppliers for a roundtable to discuss how to make a difference to families.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have a responsibility to fill people\u2019s shopping baskets in the right way,\u201d says Tamara Rajah, group managing director of healthcare at Tesco. \u201cWe have already increased fibre in our own brand products by 14%. We are removing sugar and not replacing it with sweeteners. We are reducing additives in children\u2019s yoghurts.\u201d As a result of such initiatives, by the end of last year, Tesco had hit its ambitious target of 65% of its food sales being classed as healthy, up from 58% in 2019.<\/p>\n

The obesity crisis<\/p>\n

No one shied away from the reason for this conversation: the current picture is bleak: \u201cObesity is normal and it\u2019s becoming part of our genetic code, meaning that poor health is being built into future generations,\u201d warned Colette Marshall of Diabetes UK. \u201cChildren as young as seven are developing type 2 diabetes, which once only occurred in retirement. These children go on to have aggressive health issues very quickly.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nutritionist and children\u2019s health campaigner Rhiannon Lambert set the scene further, citing findings from the Food Foundation\u2019s 2026 report<\/a> that it\u2019s twice as expensive to eat healthily. \u201cIn the UK, we eat one of the highest percentages<\/a> of ultraprocessed foods (UPFs) in Europe,\u201d she added. \u201cOur children aren\u2019t hitting their fibre intake, and everywhere you turn, you\u2019re saturated with UPF marketing.\u201d<\/p>\n

John Maingay of the British Heart Foundation noted changes in disease patterns as a result. \u201cWe are seeing 170,000 additional deaths<\/a> from weight-related cardiovascular disease,\u201d he said. \u201cClinicians are having to cope with more complex heart problems that occur much earlier. And people are dropping out of work so it affects the economy.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re also storing up longer-term problems,\u201d said Dr Ian Walker of Cancer Research UK. \u201cThere\u2019s a wave of cancer coming. And this is a more complex issue than the journey we went on with tobacco because obesity is multifaceted and complex. We can say: \u2018Don\u2019t smoke,\u2019 but we can\u2019t say: \u2018Don\u2019t eat.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Maingay raised the cost of eating healthily. \u201cFor some families to follow the nutritional guidelines, it would cost 85% of their disposable income<\/a>. It\u2019s uncomfortable putting out guidelines we know people can\u2019t afford.\u201d<\/p>\n

Indeed, behind the statistics are real families who want to feed their children well, in a world where eating healthily is both confusing and expensive. Paediatric dietitian and feeding therapist Lucy Upton sees these efforts day in, day out: \u201cThere isn\u2019t a single family I can recall who doesn\u2019t want the best for their kids,\u201d she said. \u201cBut the friction is palpable. Parents think they\u2019re making the right decision and confusing labelling means it turns out not to be. Parents feel lost. We need to empower them to make healthy choices, with guidelines that are unambiguous, achievable and don\u2019t finger-point.\u201d<\/p>\n

The challenge lies in exactly how we do that. \u201cThere are so many guidelines for children under three, but over three, parents are left in an unregulated mess,\u201d explained Jess Mackenzie of the Kids\u2019 Food & Drink Collective. \u201cWe can\u2019t expect parents to cook everything from scratch, it needs to be convenient. But the industry has created a situation where UPF products masquerade as healthy, and children start to feel suspicious of anything different.\u201d<\/p>\n

Colette Marshall of Diabetes UK (left); Rhiannon Lambert, nutritionist and children\u2019s health campaigner. Photograph: Andrew Parsons\/Parsons Media Productions<\/p>\n

Louis Bedwell, an independent food consultant, argued that we need to make nutritious wholefoods as appealing as the brightly packaged less healthy foods that kids are used to. \u201cWe have to make it exciting,\u201d he said, highlighting examples like Tesco wrapping a lettuce up as a football during the World Cup. \u201cBig businesses need to embrace the responsibility and the challenge of pushing healthier foods.\u201d<\/p>\n

Georgina Pattison of Hero, the umbrella firm of brands such as Organix and Deliciously Ella, said real change is not going to come from one company or charity. It will require structural changes in how food is categorised in store. \u201cParents have to go through the aisles to find healthier options because our system is not set up for healthy children\u2019s food,\u201d she explained.<\/p>\n

Elaine Hindal from the British Nutrition Foundation agreed. \u201cWe need a clear, evidence-based mission for the new government,\u201d she said. \u201cWe\u2019re at a point where there\u2019s a government cost imperative.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHow we make healthy eating inspiring and accessible to families has become an always-on conversation,\u201d said Ashwin Prasad, Tesco\u2019s UK CEO. The supermarket is already working to make healthy eating more affordable, he said: \u201cOver two-thirds of products in our Aldi Price Match promotion are healthy, helping customers access everyday essentials at great value. We\u2019ve recently extended Aldi Price Match to Express stores, alongside Fresh 5 and Fresh 3 offers on a rotating selection of fresh fruit and veg. Customers can also benefit from 8,000 weekly deals through Clubcard Prices and Everyday Low Prices.\u201d<\/p>\n

This year, Tesco created its own policy and guidelines to promote healthy lunch box options. By September it will be supplying 1,000 schools with free fruit and veg. Prasad added: \u201cWe must act now to protect future generations, and we know collaboration in the industry is key. Along with everyone here today, we have an opportunity to shape our ideas into something scalable.\u201d<\/p>\n

Richard Hall of Danone said more guidelines from the government are needed to clarify what\u2019s healthy and incentivise brands to make healthier products. He pointed to the regulations around HFSS foods, which put less healthy foods into a category and restricted how they were marketed. \u201cYou\u2019re either in the category or you\u2019re out. It meant that we could set a target to get a certain number of products within the guidelines by a certain date. It gave us a guideline to work with.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIf someone from the government were here today, what would we ask for?\u201d said Dr Ravi Gurumurthy of innovation agency Nesta. \u201cAt Nesta, we tried to analyse all the evidence and review what works.\u201d Following this review, he said, it was clear that despite education being a popular approach, \u201cthe evidence doesn\u2019t suggest that will have large-scale effects\u201d, so this is a bit of a red herring. Weight-loss drugs also had drawbacks, not least because of their cost.<\/p>\n

\u201cPrevention is always better than cure,\u201d he said, pointing out how mandatory reporting could play a role in tackling obesity at source. \u201cIf you make changes right across the shopping basket, we can make a difference. We also need mandatory targets.\u201d<\/p>\n

Relatively small changes to diet sustained over a long period of time can make a real impact, he said. \u201cIf we want to halve obesity by 2030, we would need to reduce calories by just 216<\/a> in those with excess weight. It\u2019s much less than what people imagine. But you\u2019ve got to have that sustained over a couple of years. That is still possible to do through voluntary change, but it\u2019s also an amount you could sneak out. That\u2019s like a bag of crisps. I think there is a way of doing this and I actually think it\u2019s viable to get it done in the next three or four years.\u201d<\/p>\n

Everyone agreed that the next step is to prioritise policy.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s clear from today\u2019s discussion that we all want to help families to eat healthier food \u2013 and there\u2019s a consensus to make progress,\u201d Prasad concludes. \u201cWhere we come together to lobby together and at scale, there is difference to be made. There\u2019s real opportunity. As a group, we are aligned and our energies can be focused on getting to compliance, rather than distracted by disagreement. I really believe something will come out of this.\u201d<\/p>\n

Find out more about how Tesco can help you and your family eat more healthily at Tesco Recipes: For a little help making recipes you\u2019ll all love<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The urgent need to support British families to eat healthily was drawn into sharp focus earlier this year…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":768573,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[61],"tags":[97,269],"class_list":["post-768572","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nutrition","tag-health","tag-nutrition"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/768572","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=768572"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/768572\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/768573"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=768572"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=768572"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=768572"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}