I recently came across a study carried out by Nesta a registered charity that uses various innovative methods to tackle societal problems such as obesity in the UK (Stewart et al, 2025). In this study they analysed food purchasing data from across the UK and used it to construct a shopping basket that reflected the average calorie count per person per day across various categories of food.
They then applied realistic, minor changes to the basket contents and found that these changes could reduce calorie intake by 8.5% without compromising on nutritional content or increasing cost. The 8.5% reduction which translates to ~232 calories/day might not sound a lot, but a previous study carried out by Nesta (Mariani et al, 2023) showed that for those living with excess weight this could halve the prevalence of obesity, and considering the most recent statistics from 2023 – 2024 show that in England 64.5% of adults are overweight or obese (UK Gov, 2025) this could make a difference to a significant proportion of the population.
The changes suggested in this study were as follows:
Full fat Greek yogurt - Reduced fat Greek yogurt
Whole milk – Semi-skimmed milk
Chocolate bar – Low calorie chocolate bar
Crispy chicken and bacon wrap – Grilled chicken and bacon wrap
Roast potatoes – Boiled potatoes with herb butter
Mixed multipack crisps – Baked multipack crisps
Lemonade – Diet lemonade
Mac & cheese – Low calorie mac & cheese
These changes are relatively imperceptible but can result in significant changes to calorie intake and most importantly are more likely to be sustained as they do not require a substantial lifestyle change.
Does this shopping basket reflect a healthy balanced diet as recommended by the Eatwell Guide? in a word, no, but the principle behind this study is one that I strongly believe in, that small changes can have a big impact and making just a few small tweaks to a grocery shop could improve the long term health of us all.
I think it is also important to be realistic about the dietary habits of a population, this basket reflects an average grocery shop of a UK adult, taking this into account alongside other important factors such as food accessibility and affordability, it is unreasonable to expect a major shift in behaviour.
We could all have a go at making small adaptations to our diet, next time you’re doing the weekly food shop try to identify items that could be swapped out for healthier options and please feel free to share so that we can all benefit!
References
Mariani et al (2023) An Analytical Framework for Linking Calorie Targets to Obesity Reduction Outcomes: The Case of Halving Obesity Prevalence in England. http://www.nesta.org.uk/report/modelling-ways-to-improve-our-health/
Stewart et al (2025) Improving Diets to Halve Obesity Across Great Britain. www.nesta.org.uk/data-visualisation-and-interactive/improving-diets-to-halve-obesity-across-britain/
UK Government (2025) Obesity Profile: Short Statistical commentary
MLT Nutrition 