Research shows that Britain’s most impoverished families would need to spend half their disposable income on food to meet Government healthy eating guidelines.
Soaring food and drink prices have left numerous households struggling to afford the healthier alternatives recommended in the NHS’s Eatwell Guide.
The Food Foundation has cautioned that rampant inflation has hit the lowest 20 per cent of earners particularly hard.
A report by the charity, which campaigns for healthy, sustainable food, found that to comply with the guidelines, the most impoverished households would have to buy produce costing 50 per cent of their disposable income, which is the amount left after housing costs.
Nevertheless, the wealthiest 20 per cent need to spend just 11 per cent of their earnings on healthy food and drink. Last year, the poorest had to fork out 43 per cent of their disposable earnings.
The Eatwell recommendations include at least five portions of fruit and vegetables daily, starchy carbohydrates such as potatoes and pasta, protein such as beans or meat, and in much lower quantities, dairy or dairy alternatives.
It recommends that foods high in fat, salt and sugar should be consumed less frequently and in tiny amounts.
The Food Foundation has worked with other groups including the University of Cambridge, the markets consultancy Nielsen and the charity Action On Sugar to create its annual Broken Plate report.
It discovered that healthy food costs on average £10 per 1,000 calories, double that of less healthy foods at approximately £4.45 per 1,000 calories.
Nutritious produce has also increased in price far more quickly, partly as a result of poor fruit and vegetable harvests, by £1.76 per 1,000 calories compared with just 76p for less healthy foods. The NHS says men should eat about 2,500 calories per day and women 2,000.
Sir Stephen Timms, the Labour chairman of the Commons Work and Pensions Committee, said suggesting that households should spend almost 50 per cent of their income on groceries to meet the Government’s recommended diet was clearly not feasible, adding that they need to make a healthy diet affordable. Sir Ed Davey, leader of the Liberal Democrats said the report should be a wake-up call.
It comes after the Prime Minister scrapped plans last month for a Government embargo on two-for-one junk food deals for food that’s high in fat, sugar and salt.
The real issue is that children aren’t familiarised with cooking anymore. School cookery lessons don’t exist, and children these days aren’t taught how to make nutritious meals, or how to budget, and we really should bring back home economics for all, this includes sewing lessons as well.
We’re paying way too much all over the place and everyone appears to want their cut. We pay the highest energy prices. Everything is extremely inflated in price. Most people can’t afford to eat healthily, while some companies make record profits, billions and we’re overpaying so they and their shareholders can line their pockets.
Personally, I eat what I want to eat and not what I’m told to eat.
And newsflash to whoever thought this one up. Poor people don’t have a disposable income!
School dinners are a joke, and none of it is very healthy, and not much of it, and it costs a pretty penny. Children have to go to school by law, therefore school dinners should be free all year round as well as a free breakfast. Too many school holidays and the long summer one is unnecessary these days since we no longer bring in a harvest.
THE MONTHLY MOSQUITO 