Health and wellbeing for all

Principles

Access to affordable healthy and sustainable food and to information that helps people make better food choices should be a fundamental right for everyone in society.

All food providers - manufacturers, retailers and caterers - should provide safe, healthy and sustainable food to promote the wellbeing of the people they serve.

Useful organisations and initiatives

Eatwell Plate
Developed by the NHS, the Eatwell Plate shows what types and proportions of food are needed to have a well-balanced, healthy diet for people in every age bracket. As well as covering all the nutrition essentials, the website provides tools for assessing current diet and for planning healthier weekly menus.

Food for Life Catering Mark
Using a step-wise approach to promote healthy, sustainable, ethical and local food, the Food for Life Catering Mark provides restaurants and caterers with the recognition they deserve for serving great food. More than 9 million Catering Mark bronze, silver and gold meals are now being served in UK each week.

Food for Life Partnership (FFLP)
The Food for Life Partnership is transforming food culture in more than 4,000 schools in England. Through a holistic programme that links food education and practical involvement in cooking, growing and farm visits with changes to dining and menus, FFLP is delivering measurable benefits to children of all ages.

Food Vision
Developed by the Chartered Institute of Environmental Health, the Food Vision website is an information portal for those interested in food and health and provides case studies and guidance to help organisations save time and resources by adopting successful models developed across the UK.

Livewell Plate
Developed by the Rowett Institute of Nutrition and Health on behalf of WWF UK, the Livewell Plate is a weekly menu designed by nutritionists setting out the ideal ingredients to promote healthy eating while reducing the negative environmental impacts of the current food system at a price that’s affordable for everyone.

 

 

People enjoying a meal

Facts

  • In 2007, three fifths of the UK population were overweight and a quarter obese. Type 2 diabetes, which is strongly related to obesity, affects more than 2 million people in the UK.
     
  • By 2050, obesity and diet-related ill-health will cost the NHS more than £10 billion each year, with the wider costs to society and business estimated to exceed £50 billion.
     
  • 3 million people in the UK are suffering or at risk of suffering malnutrition, with a particular prevalence among the young, elderly and those from lower income households.
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