Sweets, crisps and sugary drinks should be in plain wrappers, like cigarettes, to help combat preventable diseases.

That is one of the proposals in a report from the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR), a left-leaning think tank, which says the plain packaging would put unhealthy snacks on “a level playing field” with fruit and vegetables.

The IPPR report, Ending the Blame Game: The case for a new approach to public health and prevention, also calls for an end to TV advertising of confectionery and processed food before the 9pm watershed and for the minimum smoking age to be raised to 21.

Other measures outlined in the report include:

:: Extending the current sugar levy on soft drinks to cakes and confectionery, with the proceeds invested in physical education and local sports facilities.

:: Community cookery classes, paid for by large supermarkets through a levy on their profits.

:: Raising the legal smoking age to 21, emulating some parts of the US which found that it led to a greater decline in youth smoking – with the aim of creating a smoke-free generation.

Tom Kibasi, IPPR director, said: “It’s time to end the pro-obesity supermarkets by putting fruit and veg on a level playing field with crisps and confectionery.

“Plain packaging would help us all to make better choices and reduce the hassle of ‘pester power’ for busy parents.

“We need to get Britain off unhealthy takeaways and back to healthy home-cooked meals. That’s why we say big supermarkets should be made to pay for community cooking classes.”

The IPPR identifies smoking, obesity and alcohol and substance abuse as three main contributors to preventable disease, responsible for over half the disease burden in England and almost one in five deaths.

The report follows research, funded by Public Health England and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, which showed that after 20 years of progress in reducing the impact of preventable disease on public health, improvements in life expectancy slowed notably after 2012.

Harry Quilter-Pinner, IPPR Senior Research Fellow and the report’s co-author, said: “Following several decades of improvement, progress of tackling preventable illness and death has stalled.

As a result, more than 100,000 people will have died or become chronically ill who otherwise might not have done.

That comes at a cost to them, their families, the NHS and the country generally – yet it could have been avoided with a small increase in investment into disease prevention.

We must never forget that the nation’s health is also the nation’s wealth.”

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