The Department for Environment Food & Rural Affairs also known as Defra has been collecting statistics on how much UK citizens spend on food and drink and what types of food and drink that they buy. The average person spends £34.31 weekly on food and drink and the trend is moving slightly in favour of healthy food. For example it was noted that the money spent on fresh fruit grew 2.7% and the amount spent on fresh vegetables grew by 2.8%. An even bigger jump was noted in the amount of wholemeal bread being consumed with an increase of nearly 25% over the year before and a reduction of nearly 7% being recorded in white bread sales.

The Defra report called the Family Food Expenditure Report is a very useful analytical tool for the trends in eating and drinking habits across the UK and show that some people are beginning to take their health more seriously in the country.

Other significant statistics are that the consumption of alcohol at home is down by nearly 4% and alcohol drunk outside the home is down by over 7%. People are drinking more semi-skimmed milk and drinking less whole milk and unhealthy oils and fats sales dropped by 2.3%. Ice cream is down nearly 9%, yoghurts are up 6% and mineral water was up 6.2%.

Healthy eating is catching on in the UK in some areas of the country but not so in others. The obesity problem especially among poorer children continues to increase but at the same time some people are paying more care to what they eat and despite the fact that most British people do not exercise enough, gym memberships are growing and people are becoming more health concious. The levels of obesity in children is the big problem as bad eating habits when young tend to stay with a person all his life. Ukmedix stresses the need for education on food and exercise as the best way forward for children.

Food companies are recognising that it is possible to make money for promoting healthy foods and this could change the way we eat and what we eat. They have understood that many people are concerned about being obese and that they value being fit and trim more than eating junk food.