The government’s policy on obesity, announced on Sunday, sounds as though it’s tough on the supermarkets: they really must do better on the health front, ministers say. Put the fruit nearer the doors (where it is already), make sure loyalty cards reward good choices. Calorie for calorie, a basket of healthy food costs more than twice as much as a basket of less healthy food, according to a report by the Food Foundation.

That statistic sounds stark until you engage your brain. Processed food is cheap because that is the “process”: the relentless prioritising of the profit margin over every other consideration, such as nutritional value. What else are you going to use all that big, capitalist brain power for? Making food more colourful?

There are other suggestions: voucher rewards for people who live more healthily; doubling the number of spaces on the NHS digital weight-management programme. There are cute little facts, too: cutting 50 calories a day would reduce the obesity numbers by 2 million adults and 340,000 children; a reduction of a single sugary fizzy drink a day would halve obesity.

The missing plank in this raft of suggestions is the only one that would make any difference:........

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