It is ​of little surprise the Government doesn’t seem to know, or appear to care, that much.

Because on the one hand it describe​s the latest childhood obesity figures as “shocking” while on the other makes it clear it is trying to solve a problem of someone else’s making – with the damning data above collected shortly after it entered office.

Confused? You ought to be.

​While the Government tinkers around the edges in its attempt to restrict junk food and drink adverts, buy-one-get-one-free, and 3-for-2 deals, it is happy to throw fat jabs around like confetti to those who have ballooned beyond recognition.

The upshot is an NHS ​that is exhausted and demoralised trying to cope with the ever-growing burden of chronic diseases linked to obesity. And it’s costing us all a fortune.

The epidemic smacks you in the face on ​every high street in Britain.

Petrol stations, shops and supermarket shelves groan under the weight of sugary treats, crisps, and chocolate bars. All washed down with litres of equally sugary drinks.

What hope when these days it is quicker and easier to order fast food than it is to secure an appointment to see a doctor.

As much as Labour loves to preach – with state control over the lives of ordinary folk its raison d’etre – no one wants a nanny state telling us what we can and cannot eat.

Instead of pumping out nonsense claiming restrictions are “projected” to deliver health benefits worth £2billion and NHS savings of £180million over 25 years – figures so ​meanigless they ​appear to have been plucked from thin air – why not save money, time, and potentially lives, by ​talking straight ​and telling some uncomfortable home truths?

​U​ltra-processed and industrially-made foods kill.

​The simple solution for the vast majority of people who are overweight and unfit is to eat better, move more, and maintain a healthy weight. It aint rocket science and it costs nothing.

If Health Secretary Wes Streeting is serious ​about delivering “a major shift in the focus of healthcare from sickness to prevention” then ​surely it’s about time he and the medical establishment stopped mollycoddling an increasingly sick population and set out the inescapable facts about the harms of stuffing your face with rubbish.

By 2030 Britain is set to become Europe’s fattest country, with 37 per cent of adults obese.

By 2040 more than 21 million UK adults will be obese – almost four in 10 of the population.

Poor diet has overtaken tobacco as the leading global cause of early death with diets high in ultra-processed food increasing rates of cancer, dementia, anxiety and depression, heart disease, strokes, inflammatory disease, weight gain, and obesity.

Put simply, we cannot afford the cost of diet-related disease.

It’s little wonder we are on the road to perdition with deeply confusing messaging.

Mars Wrigley UK, the British subsidiary of the Mars company, Pepsi, the sugar-laden fizzy drink, Lucozade, Budweiser, Carling, and Walkers crisps, all have partnership deals with the Football Association.

Britain (and government ministers) have been seduced by weight loss drugs like Wegovy and Mounjaro – both now seen as gold-standard miracle cures for obesity.

But the answer is plain and simple: a better diet.

Although it might leave a bad taste in the mouth the unpalatable truth is our obsession with unhealthy food costs taxpayers £268billion a year, or £7,000 each.

We have a food system that privatises profits leaving the rest of us to pick up the tab for the harms of the junk we eat.

Labour is not shy in taxing anything that moves. So how about taxing bad foods and using the revenue generated to subsidise UK-produced whole foods so more families can afford them?

Because if we are serious about arresting the alarming rise of sick Britain and an army of rotund reception-aged kids, and if we are not going to end up drugging the entire population, you can’t have your cake and eat it.