Anew reportby the Food Foundation has identified ten signs that the UK’sfood system has led the country into a national health crisis, with children and low-income households suffering most.
“Ten fatally-flawed cogs in the system that puts food on UK tables are working to damage our mental and physical health,” the independent think tank said.
According to the document, entitled The Broken Plate, diabetes-related amputations have risen by a quarter in the last eight years, and despite a growing trend for healthy eating, still only 14 per cent of ready meals are meat-free and half of breakfast cereals marketed to children are high in sugar.
In addition, childhood obesity rates in deprived areas are more than double those seen in wealthier areas, and that children in deprived communities are more than one centimetre shorter on average than children in wealthy communities by the time they reach age 11.
The report blames the food system for widening nutritional inequality and contributing to some shocking statistics on the nation’s health: 20 per cent of 11-year-olds are obese; 3.1 million people are registered with diabetes; 16 per cent of adults report skipping meals because they don’t have enough money; and nearly four million children are living in households for whom a healthy diet is unaffordable.
The Food Foundation calculated that in the fifth biggest economy in the world, the poorest 10 per cent of households would have to spend three quarters of their disposable income on food in order to afford a healthy diet as defined by the government.
Anna Taylor, executive director of the Food Foundation, said: “The evidence inThe Broken Plateshows clearly that we are not all free to choose a healthy diet if we want to. Unhealthy options are more accessible, more abundant and three times more affordable: we have a system that is rigged against our ability to buy food that’s good for us.
“The consequences for our health are devastating, and are felt most keenly by children and deprived households. There’s no silver bullet for fixing our broken food system, but the change we so urgently need will be possible if industry and government take action now.”
In light of this, the Food Foundation report identifies barriers to accessing affordable, healthy food, and makes recommendations for how to reshape the food system so that healthy diets are “affordable, appealing and convenient for all”.
Preventing the marketing of unhealthy food to children, supporting public health in the Agriculture Bill, encouraging the food industry to create healthier products, and harnessing the power of public procurement to deliver healthier meals in hospitals, schools and prisons “would all help to put the right food on UK tables”, the Food Foundation concluded – and this would “support rather than harm public health”.
The report also calls for the government and businesses to develop a “bold vision” for tackling the problem, identifying cross-departmental accountability as crucial to reducing diet-related illness and health inequalities.
Case studies featured in the report give examples of successful efforts to influence food systems, highlighting policies that the Food Foundation thinks can make a meaningful difference when properly implemented.
One of these is the Amsterdam Healthy Weight Programme, which was launched in 2013 in response to substantially higher rates of children being overweight or obese compared to the national average in the Netherlands.
The prevalence of overweight children in Amsterdam dropped from 21 per cent in 2012 to 18.5 per cent in 2015, with the biggest decrease among children with a low socioeconomic status.
Meanwhile, in 2014, the Food Insecurity Nutrition Incentive (FINI) grant programme was launched in the US, aiming to make it easier for low income households to buy more fruit and vegetables by providing incentives at the point of purchase.
Between 74 per cent and 94 per cent of participants reported an increase in their purchase or consumption of fruits and vegetables, as well as improved health outcomes such as weight loss and chronic disease management.
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