Obese Britain says farewell to the cabbage and feeds on diet of takeaways and processed food

No time for breakfast? Get a bacon butty at the station. What about lunch? You must be joking – sandwich at the desk. Dinner? Sorry, working late, a microwave meal in front of the telly will do. Again.

In frantic, work-obsessed modern Britain, where snacking is king, the cabbage has become one of the kitchen-table casualties. The end of family meals, slick marketing of convenience food, and the rise of the takeaway have all contributed to the decline in eating vegetables. Traditional root vegetables and greens – once integral to the Sunday lunch – have made way for boil-in-the-bag alternatives and three-minutes-in-the-microwave food.

Figures released yesterday indicated that the Government's campaign to encourage people to eat more fruit and vegetables has failed to make any significant impact.

Household consumption of fresh green vegetables declined by 7 per cent in 2001-2002, fruit eating has also gone down slightly, while "meat products" went up by 3 per cent because of the surge of convenience foods and ready meals.

Nutritionists and dieticians cited yesterday's first results from the Government's new Expenditure and Food Survey (EFS) as evidence for continued failure to improve the nation's diet.

It showed that fat in food as a proportion of calories had risen to 39.1 per cent, higher than the Government's target of 35 per cent and the World Health Organisation's advisory limit of up to 30 per cent.

The new study – which replaces the annual National Food Survey – took into account household spending on food, not on meals out and takeaways. Officials believe that if those results, due later this year, were taken into account, the picture would show an even unhealthier population.

The Government's policies on increasing fruit and vegetable consumption "clearly aren't working," said Tom Sanders, a professor of nutrition at King's College, London. "They really need to start looking at what reasons the reasons are rather than just throwing money at it."

Britain's poor diet is one of the reasons, along with a lack of exercise, why the rate of obesity is rising faster than in the rest of Western Europe, with nearly 20 per cent of the population now classed as obese.

Among the female population, Britain is second only to Greece within the EU in the proportion of those overweight or obese, according to a study last year. British men lie fifth in the EU table, behind Germany, Greece, Finland and Ireland. France and Italy, where family dining remains the norm, take some of the bottom places on the list.

The costs of obesity are estimated at 8 per cent of overall health budgets, although experts say obesity is only part of Britain's diet problem.

The Government has focused on reducing cancer and heart disease, which claim 60 per cent of all early deaths. Eating five portions of fruit and vegetables a day can reduce the risk of death from such diseases by up to 20 per cent, and is the most important strategy in cutting cancer deaths behind stopping smoking.

Eating fruit and vegetables can also help to lower blood pressure, and has other health benefits such as delaying the development of cataracts, reducing the symptoms of asthma and managing diabetes.

Health officials say the message is getting through, with more than half of those questioned last year understanding the "five a day" message, according to a Food Standards Agency survey.

Yet the campaign, which is currently expanding with £42m lottery funding to pay for fruit for schoolchildren, has failed to lift the average above three portions a day. Each portion is approximately 80g, equivalent to three tablespoons of peas.

Vegetable consumption is lowest among those living in the most deprived areas. The British experience compares unfavourably with Finland, where campaigning has trebled vegetable consumption in 20 years.

Ian Tokelove, a spokesperson for the Food Commission, a campaigning group for healthier food, said that part of the problem lay in "confusing" signals of what foods were healthy. "People are aware of healthy eating and try to cut down on sugar and fat consumption, but they don't realise how much is hidden in processed foods," he said.

"You get healthy eating messages on processed foods, but it doesn't always mean they are healthy. The money put into educating the public about healthy eating is dwarfed by the advertising spent by major food companies."

The Department of Health has introduced a "five-a-day" logo on food to encourage healthy eating, but the scheme has been marred by the failure to bring all the big supermarkets on board and rows over food manufacturers trying to jump on the bandwagon.

The logo can be used on canned, dried or frozen fruit and vegetables, as long as they do not have any added salt, sugar or fat. That restriction has angered the food industry, which has lobbied to have items such as canned soup included. Heinz was censured by the Advertising Standards Authority last week over a poster displaying a can of tomato soup with the headline "5-a-day the Heinz way".

Figures from the EFS survey, based on a sample of up to 1,700 households in the UK, showed that the amount of fats bought had fallen from 201g per person in 2000-2001 to 194g in 2001-2002. Yet as a proportion of food energy, fats rose from 37.2 per cent to 39.1 per cent. Most sectors in the survey showed declines in consumption from the previous year, and officials said comparisons with should be treated with caution because of the new methods of calculation.

"Eat up your veg is the cry," said Professor Sanders. "Takeaways don't tend to have vegetables, a doner kebab might have a few bits of cabbage, but it's the move to that sort of eating pattern that makes it difficult. These days, people will not necessarily have a meal, and the pressure on people to work means they may just have a sandwich at the desk."

UPS AND DOWNS: CHANGING EATING HABITS

UP: PROCESSED AND OTHER MEAT

Beef burgers and sausages saw an increased consumption of 3.5 per cent in the year to 2001/02. The increase in well-packaged and attractively presented ready meals and convenience foods have helped the rise. They been a huge sales growth area for supermarkets. Critics have pointed to high sugar, salt and fat contents in some of the meals.

UP: PROCESSED POTATOES

While the consumption of fresh potatoes was a tenth down from the previous years, the amount of processed potato, such as chips, was up by 6 per cent. Plain boiled potatoes are high in vitamin C, potassium, folate and low in fat, but the fat content rises sharply when fried – more than 20 per cent by weight is fat, compared with oven chips, which can be 5 per cent.

UP: CHEESE

Cheese consumption has increased slightly to reach the same level as in 1996/97. The British Cheese Board said a 30g portion of cheddar is made up of 34 per cent fat, 25 per cent of protein and enough calcium to make up nearly a quarter of the suggested daily intake. The calcium in cheese helps develop and maintain strong bones and teeth. The British consume more than 90,000 tons of cheese a year, the equivalent of 10kg of cheese per person per year.

DOWN: FISH

Fish consumption is down by 4 per cent. A mass of evidence indicates that fats in oily fish, such as salmon and herring, help to maintain the heart and help circulation. A Spanish study found that those who ate more fish were given some protection from several types of cancer and Scandinavian research also showed that it provided protection from prostate cancer. Fish oils may suppress the activity of cancer-promoting genes in the body. The flesh of oily fish comprises more than 5 per cent fat; white fish, such as cod and halibut, has less. Fish provide 3 per cent of the fat in the British diet.

DOWN: FRESH FRUIT

Consumption of fruit fell slightly although the survey, by the Office for National Statistics and the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, said it was not a statistically significant change. Most fruit is low in fat and useful for slimmers. Consumption remains more than 10 per cent higher than five years ago. Experts say vegetables, rather than fruit, have become the issue.

DOWN: FRESH GREEN VEG

A 7 per cent drop in consumption of fresh green vegetables has disguised changes in choice of vegetables, away from traditional fare, such as cabbage, peas and brussel sprouts, in favour of broccoli, peppers and cauliflower. The foods include rich sources of a number of nutrients including vitamin C, folate, fibre and potassium. Higher consumption of fruit and vegetables reduces the risk of coronary heart disease, strokes and cancer by up to 20 per cent.