Yes, obesity is a problem – but a greater one is the food industry and its greed | Letters

The Guardian Health Tuesday 13 October 2026, 16:50 UTC By Guardian Staff 1 min read

Key Points

Ultra-processed foods are displacing traditional diets, warns Prof Kent Buse. Plus letters from Hugo Harper, Dr Pawan Randev and Patricia HamptonYour editorial on cancers in under-50s (8 October) rightly names food among the culprits. But the confrontation it calls for should be aimed less at obesity than at what produces it.

Ultra-processed foods are displacing traditional diets, warns Prof Kent Buse. Plus letters from Hugo Harper, Dr Pawan Randev and Patricia Hampton

Your editorial on cancers in under-50s (8 October) rightly names food among the culprits. But the confrontation it calls for should be aimed less at obesity than at what produces it. Obesity is the intermediary; the exposure is a food system engineered for profit.

The Lancet’s series on ultra-processed foods showed these products displacing traditional diets worldwide and driving chronic disease, and documented more than 200 interconnected lobby groups through which the industry organises its influence to block regulation.

Prof Kent Buse (PERSON) Hugo Harper (PERSON) Pawan Randev (PERSON) Patricia HamptonYour (PERSON) Lancet (ORG)

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Yes, obesity is a problem – but a greater one is the food industry and its greed | Letters

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