Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what estimate he has made of the number of people being treated for diet related illnesses.

Diet is an important part of maintaining good health and reducing the risk of chronic diseases such as cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes, and some cancers, such as bowel, breast, and pancreatic cancer. Illnesses related to diet are very broad, ranging from malnutrition, dental decay, mental health conditions, and other diseases attributable to overweight and obesity.

Comparable data is not directly available on the number of people being treated for all diet related illnesses. There is data on the number of people being treated for some illnesses which can be attributed to dietary risk factors. However, it is not known if all these cases were caused by diet related risk factors. From a malnutrition perspective, in 2022/23, there were 10,795 admissions for malnutrition reported by National Health Service trusts. Further information on malnutrition is available at the following link:

https://digital.nhs.uk/supplementary-information/2024/malnutrition-admissions-by-provider-2009-10-to-2022-23

It is estimated 8.5% of adults in the United Kingdom have diabetes. For people with type 2 diabetes, we estimate that 810,000 people achieved all three treatments targets, those being National Institute for Health and Care Excellence recommended treatment targets for Hba1c (glucose control), blood pressure, and serum cholesterol, in 2020/21, which is the equivalent to 35.5% of people with type 2 Diabetes. Further information is available at the following link:

https://fingertips.phe.org.uk/profile/cardiovascular/data#page/

In 2022/23, NHS England data shows that 214,000 hospital admissions were due to coronary heart disease. It is possible to estimate the number of people with some illnesses which can be partly attributed to diet related risk factors, including cardiovascular disease and type 2 diabetes. NHS England estimates that approximately 1.9 million individuals in England have coronary heart disease, which is a component of cardiovascular disease. Further information is available at the following link:

https://fingertips.phe.org.uk/profile/cardiovascular/data#page/

The Office for Health Improvement and Disparities estimates that approximately 4 million individuals in England have both type 1 and 2 diabetes, with further information available at the following link:

https://fingertips.phe.org.uk/profile/diabetes-ft/data#page/

Estimates are also available on the proportion of cases or deaths from some illnesses which can be attributed to diet related risk factors. The Global burden of disease estimated that in England there were approximately 50,000 deaths attributable to diet related risk factors in 2021. Further information is available at the following link:

https://vizhub.healthdata.org/gbd-results/

Finally, Cancer Research UK estimates that 6%, or 23,000 out of 385,000, of cancer cases in the UK are attributable to obesity and overweight.