Obesity in the UK is on the rise. In 2019, 28% of adults in England were obese — almost double the share in 1993 — with the rate among children also increasing over the period. Obesity can have serious health consequences, meaning these high rates are a problem for everyone — they lead to reduced productivity, a strained NHS and, perhaps most importantly, shorter and unhappier lives. Unsurprisingly then, over the last decade the government has proposed and implemented a plethora of policies aimed at improving dietary choices.
It’s unclear whether the government should try to influence our food choices at all. After all, they are choices. It generally seems sensible to assume that we know our preferences better than the government does, and provided we’re not harming anyone else, shouldn’t we be able to eat what we want? Perhaps it’s the case that we just really love ice-cream sandwiches, and are willing to deal with the associated health risks. This reasoning is reflective of how economists generally think about markets that are functioning efficiently — in such cases, letting markets function freely, with the forces of supply and demand determining who eats (and pays) what, leads to the socially optimal outcome.
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