For years whole milk has been shunned by health-conscious adults in favour of semi-skimmed or plant milk – but old-school dairy products such as “full-fat” milk and Greek yoghurt are staging a comeback.

Retailers are reporting rising sales of whole milk, full-fat yoghurt and blocks of butter – with skimmed milk and low fat yoghurt left on the shelf – as customers go back to basics to avoid processed food.

Searches for the terms “full-fat milk” and “full-fat yoghurt” have soared on Waitrose’s website in the past month, up 417% and 233% respectively, while “block butter” is up 280%.

“We’re seeing a long-term trend of ‘low fat’ losing interest as a health focus,” said Kiti Soininen, category director for UK food and drink research at Mintel.

In 2018 32% of people put “low-fat” in the top three things they looked for in healthy food but by last year that had fallen, Soininen said. At the end of last year the top three factors were “low sugar content” (31%), “contributes to five-a-day” (24%) and “low fat” (24%).

The less hardline stance on fat being taken by consumers is down to a number of factors, not least the furore over ultra-processed food (UPF). At the same time more recent research studies suggest the link between saturated fat and heart disease is not as strong as once thought.

The nutritionist Alexa Mullane said: “It’s now understood that fats from whole foods, when consumed in moderation as part of a balanced diet, are not as harmful as previously believed, and actually have some health benefits.”

In Waitrose, full-fat dairy products are selling better than low-fat substitutes. The supermarket chain attributes this to concern about UPFs, with its customers turning away from low-fat, highly processed products in favour of less processed, whole-food ingredients.

A basket of healthy food costs more than double that of less healthy options, according to new analysis.

The Food Foundation found that 1,000 calories of healthy food such as fruit and veg costs £8.80, compared to £4.30 for the equivalent amount of less healthy food, such as ready meals and processed meats.

The charity is warning that low-income families are being priced out of being able to afford to eat healthily.

The government has said it is committed to introducing an 'ambitious' food strategy that will tackle unhealthy diets.

The analysis carried out for the Food Foundation looked at the average price of 450 items that the Office for National Statistics uses to calculate monthly inflation. It graded foods based on their nutritional value, according to guidance from the Food Standards Agency.

The analysis suggests the gap has widened in the last two years, with the price of healthy foods rising by 21%, while unhealthy options increased by 11%.

The charity warns that 60% of an estimated eight million households dealing with food insecurity in 2024 have reduced how much fruit they buy, while 44% have cut down on vegetables.

Its research found that the poorest families would need to spend 45% of their disposable income on food to be able to afford to eat the government recommended healthy diet, rising to 70% for those with children.

Just as “fat-free” was the magic phrase to get someone to purchase your product in the 2000s, so “protein” has become its natural successor. Forget health food shops – stroll into any supermarket nowadays, from M&S to Lidl, and you’ll find packaging that practically screams about an item’s lofty ’tein credentials at every turn. Big, brash labels abound, like hyperactive paddles at an auction house: “20g!” “30g!” “50g!!!!!” “SOLD to the tiramisu on aisle nine!”

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The latest data from marketing research firm Mintel indeed shows an uptick in 2024: high or added protein claims went from featuring on 5 per cent of UK food and non-alcoholic drinks launched in 2023 to 7 per cent last year.

“While this latest rise was partly fuelled by products like meat and poultry highlighting their intrinsic protein content, activity has also picked up in many categories not traditionally associated with high protein, such as desserts, yogurt, breakfast cereals, pasta, bread, and even cold coffee drinks,” says Kiti Soininen, Mintel’s category director of UK food and drink research. She namechecks brands like Grenade and Myprotein, whose mainstream growth has built “momentum” and brought high-protein, lower-sugar snacks like chocolate-style bars and drinks to a wider audience.

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Knowledge of its benefits appears to have trickled down to the general populace. According to research commissioned by The Grocer in 2024, protein was the No 1 nutrient Brits were trying to consume more of, while Mintel’s data has found that the percentage of people who listed high protein content as one of their three most important factors in healthy foods jumped from 15 per cent in 2019 to 21 per cent in 2024. The latter number is much higher for young people too, leaping to 39 per cent for under-35s.

Protein’s climb up the popularity rankings has enabled a multibillion-dollar industry to shoot up around it. In the UK, the market enjoyed 24 per cent growth to reach £205m in the year to November 2023, and a further 15 per cent increase to £235m in the year to November 2024. Meanwhile, the global protein supplements market was worth $28bn (£22bn) last year, a figure that is predicted to increase to $30bn in 2025. Protein is big business, and every brand in town wants to milk the latest cash cow – Weetabix included.

But how much protein do most of us really need on a daily basis, and are we struggling to get it? The recommendation is that we eat around 0.75g of protein per kilo of body weight per day, equating to around 56g for an average man (11st 11lb) and 45g for an average woman (9st 6lb). Older adults aged 65 and over should consume a little more – around 1g per kg of bodyweight – as muscle loss increases and absorption slightly decreases as we age. For those specifically looking to build muscle by working out, the recommendation goes up to 1.2 to 2g per kg of bodyweight per day – the equivalent of 90 to 150g for the average male and 72 to 112g for the average female.

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She gives an example of a day’s food to show how achievable it is to hit or exceed the recommended daily allowance (RDA) of protein: porridge with milk = 14g; tuna and sweetcorn sandwich = 26g; chicken breast with potatoes and veg = 35g; yoghurt pot = 5g; snack handful of nuts = 7g. This all adds up to 87g of protein – no supplements required.

In reality, despite the hype and the current abundance of high-protein products and supplements available, most of us are getting more than enough protein. Americans consume around twice the daily amount recommended in the federal dietary guidelines; in the UK, we are eating around a third more protein than we need, with men averaging about 85g and women 67g per day.

I approached Irresistible: Why We Can’t Stop Eating (BBC Two) with trepidation. It is an investigation into ultra-processed food, presented by Dr Chris van Tulleken, who has spent the past 18 months talking about this subject. I had never heard of UPFs before he brought them to widespread attention, and have started thinking more carefully about food choices as a result of his work.

But I’m still partial to a mid-afternoon Twix and my kids eat fishfingers. Would this programme make me feel miserably guilty? “My friends and family think I’m obsessed with this, and they’re right. I am,” van Tulleken said at the programme’s outset.

To my relief, he didn’t go on to berate viewers for their food choices. Instead, this documentary squarely blamed the food industry for the crisis in public health, and the particular focus was on the clever ways in which it makes us buy more of the things that aren’t good for us.

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Various scientists and psychologists who had advised food giants over the years explained the research that goes into all this, beginning in the 1970s with the rise of convenience foods. Howard Moskowitz, an experimental psychologist, explained how he discovered “the bliss point” at which a combination of sugar, salt and fat becomes irresistible. Unilever put people in brain scanners and monitored their orbito-frontal cortex to see which type of ice cream was most appealing. The click and hiss of opening a fizzy drinks can was designed by sound engineers as a form of “sonic branding”. And on it goes.

Cost comes into it, of course. The founders of a product development company explained that a homemade lemon cake would cost £4.86 to make and have a shelf-life of four days; the industrially processed version, laden with stabilisers and preservatives, a mere 23p and would last for 30 days.

Archive

Still available on the iPlayer.

It’s hard to look at a packet of Monster Munch or a chocolate biscuit now without the words “ultra-processed food” (UPF) flashing through your brain.

It’s almost enough to put you off, but then you get sucked in by the nostalgia factor of Frazzles or a desperate need to dunk a Hobnob in a cup of tea.

Or maybe not. If you’ve read Ultra-Processed People by TV doctor Chris van Tulleken, you might already be religiously checking the labels on your favourite snacks, pasta sauces, cereals, yoghurt, sausages, vegan meat alternatives and – worst of all – bread.

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Growing up in Canada has also had a major impact on her understanding of food. “The way people eat here is quite different,” she says of Britain. “[In Canada] people’s main meals would be more unhealthy, but here, people’s meals are generally pretty healthy, but then they’re eating a lot of the high fat, high sugar, high salt snack foods. People don’t really eat crisps or chocolate every single day [in Canada], and then I moved here, and that’s what people were eating in their packed lunch.”

Compared to other countries, Britain is something of a UPF stronghold. “When we’re comparing ourselves to every European country, and especially Mediterranean countries, they’re still consuming some UPFs, but it’s only about 10 to 20 per cent [of their diet] whereas here, it’s closer to 60 per cent,” says Bale. A study in 2019 found it was a whopping 57 per cent, and for teenagers, closer to 80 per cent.

Listener Helen from Manchester got in touch to ask about Protein Powders, as she considered replenishing her supply that she’s been taking after long distance runs.

She wanted to know if Whey or Plant-based protein really can help her build and repair muscle, whether there’s a set amount she should be having, if one type is better than the other, or if she could just get the protein she needs from her food – and save on buying another bag?

Greg Foot brings back Professor of Human Physiology, Sport and Exercise Sciences at Liverpool, John Moores University, Graeme Close to answer Helen’s questions, tell us what our body needs and uses protein for, and whether it really can deliver ‘Gainz’ (with a Z.)