IT WAS a tempting offer enjoyed by millions of people: as many cut-price restaurant meals as you could eat every Monday to Wednesday for a month.

While the UK’s recent “eat out to help out” scheme may have saved jobs and boosted the hospitality industry after the coronavirus lockdown, it is unlikely to have done much for the country’s obesity crisis. The government’s own figures show meals from restaurants are on average twice as calorific as the equivalent dish prepared at home.

For many years, the UK has laboured under the burden of having one of Europe’s fattest …