COMMENT

PUBLIC Health England was set up in 2013 with a primary responsibility of “making the public healthier, improving the health of the whole population and reducing differences in health between different groups”.

But not only has PHE failed to achieve this, under their watch population health has worsened, life expectancy has started to reduce and health inequalities increased.

A major cause at the root of this is failure to make inroads into tackling the major public health crisis of our time – obesity and linked dietrelated diseases. There are two main reasons that are making population health worse.

The first is that our food environment is saturated with ultra-processed food which now makes up half of all the calories consumed for the average Briton.

Despite the overwhelming evidence such products are

harmful, PHE has done nothing to educate the public about how to recognise and avoid “fake foods”.

Another and perhaps most sinister reason which I’ve experienced first hand is that they have tried to silence independent doctors from challenging their food industryinfluenced dietary advice.

Good riddance to Public Health England, but let’s hope what replaces them is independent of political and commercial interests.

That’s imperative if it’s going to be effective in making the whole population healthier and happier.