Diolch, Lywydd. One quarter of the adult population in Wales is obese, and nearly 60 per cent are overweight: a combination of too much alcohol, too little exercise and too much food laden with fat, sugar and salt. The consequences are serious in terms of diabetes, cardiovascular disease and many cancers. These three conditions are the overwhelming causes of early death and they threaten to undermine and indeed reverse whatever advances are made in medical treatment of life-threatening diseases.

The chief medical officer’s latest annual report highlights that whilst the rich are getting healthier and living longer, the poor are not. The life expectancy gap is already as much as nine to 11 years between different areas of Cardiff alone. This is unfair, avoidable and something we should be no longer prepared to accept or tolerate. We need urgent and decisive action to tackle this health epidemic, which will otherwise bankrupt the NHS. Across the UK, it already costs the NHS £5 billion a year, and that’s projected to double to nearly £10 billion by 2050. And the wider cost to society will reach £50 billion a year.

So, despite the five-a-day campaign, our vegetable consumption is in decline—no better than it was in the 1970s. Less than a third of all adults reported eating five or more portions of fruit and vegetables a day. People are simply not heeding what we’re telling them, and only 1 per cent of food advertising is spent on promoting vegetables.