Food and drink inflation has soared to almost 20 per cent. So, compared to last year, every pound in your food budget will be worth 80p. This is a staggering increase for those already facing higher utility and clothing bills.

The elusive healthy diet we are advised to eat is completely unaffordable. The ever-constant boast on our TV screens of the great food and drink we can all enjoy is a lie. Who can afford it?

Too many households must opt for cheaper, poor-quality options which have inevitably higher artificial additives, ultra-processed ingredients, salt and sugar – everything we are advised by health officials to avoid.

The cost of eating healthily has spiralled out of control. The direct impact of an unhealthy diet is increasing poor health, cancers, heart disease and diabetes.

The trajectory of this leads to ever increasing health costs, increased disability, a reduction in life expectancy and lower productivity. The question we may ask is, who will pay for this?

Throwing ever increasing proportions of taxpayers’ hard-earned money at the health service and Department for Work and Pensions is a sticking plaster solution that will neither solve the problem nor be acceptable.

A dozen or so global conglomerates supply the bulk of our food, the most part processed and addictive. Advertising, cheap cost prices and profiteering have enabled them to capture the market. Scientific research warns that these foods directly result in long-term ill health.

Channelling money to foodbanks and subsidising food costs for lower earners while spending inexorable amounts of money on drugs and medical procedures is no long-term solution.

We are in the thick of a national scandal that will not be addressed until good government directly challenges the food industry.

If we moved to tax heavily all foods that cause addiction and poor health and used the income generated to subsidise fresh food and drink, we could achieve all-round health, wealth and happiness.

Surely this is a human right?