What happened to a healthy balanced diet?

In the U.K if you’re overweight or obese then you’re part of the norm. In fact 3 in 5 adults are overweight or obese, and even more worryingly 19% of children aged 10-11 years are obese. But before you start thinking the U.K. is special, we’re in good company; France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Czech Republic and the U.S.A, are just a few begrudging members of this club, and many other nations are fast approaching the enrolment threshold.

All too often the blame for this phenomenon is laid at the feet of the individuals, who are; ‘too lazy’, ‘too selfish’, ‘too ignorant’. But I find this attribution of blame pretty hard to take. Do we really believe the vast majority of our population has become so apathetic towards their own health and wellbeing that they just don’t care? I think not.

 What has happened is far more complicated, and while we must all take responsibility for their own health, it’s not exactly being made easy. If we want to buck the trend then we are going to have to make some systemic changes to the food system.

The cost and social value of food 

It’s not uncommon to hear people cite cost as a reason for not being able to eat a healthy balanced diet. For a long time this was largely based on anecdotal evidence. However, last year a study published from the Harvard School of Public Health looked at costs of food in 10 countries, and concluded that it actually costs around £1 more a day for a person to take healthy nutritious choices, over less healthy ones.  If we consider this amounts to over £1400 a year for a family of 4, then it’s not an insignificant amount of money.

For me this proposes a number of questions; is healthy food too expensive and unhealthy food too cheap? Do we pay people on the lowest wages enough to live a healthy life? Do we view access and affordability for healthy food as a right or a privilege?

It’s clear that a lot of processed high fat, salt and sugar food are far too cheap for consumers. Yet despite being cheap the companies that make them turn a huge profit, which tells us a lot about the cost and quality of ingredients being used in the first place. But if want to disincentives people from buying them, we need to ensure that everybody, especially those on the lowest wages, can afford to buy healthier alternatives. Do healthier foods need to be cheaper?

It’s difficult to suggest that people on the minimum wage could afford to spend a significant amount more on their food budget. If we take the UK as an example, the minimum wage is currently £6.31 per hour for adults, but the living wage as calculated by the living wage foundation is £7.65 per hour. That’s a major difference, and something that needs to be redressed in the larger social justice debate. I also don’t foresee the cost of healthy foods coming down drastically in the near future, unless we find ways to subsidise it, and for that to happen governments would need some significant economic incentives. The fact that health itself provides a powerful economic incentive is likely to get little attention form governments, as the returns on any investment would come after the next election cycle.

In part it also comes down to what we value as a society. For some the decisions about eating a healthy diet are taken out of their hands as they simply cannot afford, access or identify the healthy choice. For others there are more tangible decisions, we can’t afford to buy healthy food, but can afford new phones, cars and TV’s.  This is a question of taking responsibility for our own health, which has a lot to do with empowerment. If we can increase people’s awareness and provide them with the knowledge and resources they need to make informed decisions it will go someway to solving the problem. That said, until a healthy diet is accessible, affordable and identifiable for the masses, individuals won’t hold all the keys to their future health.

Hidden secrets of processed foods

Another consideration is why we actually like these types of food in the first place, and find it so hard to stop eating them even when alternatives exist.

Sugar, salt and fat are the hidden secrets of the processed food industry. You’ll find them in the most unexpected places and in vast quantities. When home cooking dominated people knew how much of each ingredient went into a meal, now it’s almost impossible to know. These ingredients are addictive, the more high fat, salt and sugar foods you eat the more you want, and when that craving comes, you wont have to look far to satisfy it. 

 It’s hard to market an apple

When was the last time you was an advert for an apple? Perhaps you saw a fun smiling clown crunching a golden delicious, or some famous football players kicking around a honey crisp? Or maybe you didn’t.

For companies that make very cheap food, the fast food companies certainly know how to splash the cash when it comes to advertising. In 2012 a massive 4.6 billion dollars in the US according to a study published by the Yale Rudd centre for Policy and Obesity. Even scarier is that much of this marketing is targeted at young children. Why? Because the companies know it is very effective at getting people eating their products.

Lets compare this to the US Department of Agricultures (USDA) Centre for Nutrition Policy and Promotion, which has an annual budget of 144 million. So the people tasked with curbing the obesity epidemic in the US, have been given 3% of the funds that the fast food industry use to promote the products that cause the problem.

It becomes even more frustrating when another USDA department is actively promoting the consumption of foods that you want people to eat less of, completely undermining themselves in the process.  This example from the U.S. is hardly an isolated incident, governments all over the world are conflicted by the economic incentives of promoting industries against the negative implications that may have on people’s health. Unfortunately all too often it seems health is losing.

Moving forward...

It seems to me that a healthy diet is at the point of being seen as optional; great for those who can identify, afford and access it, too bad for those who can’t.

One small step we can take is to become more involved in food we ourselves eat, to try and become more aware of the processes that go into producing and delivering it to our tables. Governments need to realise that large elements of the food industry are the problem, and can’t be trusted with the solution. We have to demand that a healthy balanced diet is not just affordable and accessible, irrespective of a person’s socioeconomic situation, but that it is the easy and obvious choice for all. This can be the springboard to the transformation that our food system needs, and will ultimately make us a much fitter healthier generation.

Thanks for reading

For those interested in more information on the topic, this Michael Pollan video is well worth a watch!