Mamma mia! Britons ditch red meat for pizza and pasta

THE days of a sandwich with white bread for lunch, meat and two veg for dinner and tinned fruit for dessert are long gone.

But it seems like our tastes haven’t changed for the better over the last three decades.

We’re now gorging on record levels of sugary, fatty or processed foods such as pizza, research shows. Experts warned the switch is fuelling the obesity epidemic and causing heart disease and cancer rates to rise.

they compared foods purchased by UK households in 1992 with buying habits in 2018 and found that consumption of red meat has reduced by a third as vegan diets rise in popularity.

sales of white bread and fresh potatoes have halved, while those for pizza have shot up by 143 per cent. ready meal sales have doubled, while pasta is up 167 per cent.

Britons are eating 23 per cent more fresh fruit than they were in the early 90s, but we have also started buying more chocolate bars and sweets to snack on.

Our beloved cup of tea is going off the boil, with sales down 50 per cent. But we are buying 38 per cent more booze – with wine and champagne almost doubling.

Experts said more microwaves are common in kitchens, causing the nation to become more reliant on ready meals instead of home cooking. they added the shift to processed foods has led to rising obesity. around half of adults were overweight or obese three decades ago compared with two-thirds today. the World Cancer research Fund study looked at official Government data.

It comes after a separate study yesterday showed Britons struggled to lose weight in lockdown, with many snacking on treats to combat boredom and stress.

tam Fry, of the National Obesity Forum, said: ‘In 1992 the Government launched the UK’s first public health strategy and aimed to make the country a healthier place by 2000. Unfortunately, Whitehall took its eye off the quality of much of our food and failed to... control the excessive quantities of fat, salt and sugar.’

He called for ‘huge commitment’ from ministers to make the current NHs Better Health campaign, which targets diet, a success.