Recession affects healthy eating options

The first signs of the economic crisis on health are already being felt throughout Europe. A quarter of people are putting healthier eating on the back burner in the wake of the financial crisis, a report by a UK consumer watchdog Which? reveals.


Crisis & Health: Figures

Which? found that 24% of UK adults feel healthier eating is now less important, with 56% saying price has overtaken as a priority when choosing food.

And the poll of 2,102 people showed that 76% think the government needs to take action to make choosing healthier options easier.

Nearly three in five said they would buy more fruit and vegetables if they were cheaper. The current economic climate is a barrier to good intentions.

At the same time, rates of obesity and diet-related disease continue to rise. Estimates suggest that there will be 150 million obese adults (20 per cent of the population) and 25 million obese children and adolescents (10 per cent of the population) in Europe by 2010.

More positively other work shows that more people are planning to quit smoking during the credit crunch. The charity No Smoking Day day found more than one in three of the nine million smokers in the UK are thinking about or planning to cut down or quit as a direct result of the economic downturn.

After health, the most commonly-mentioned reason for wanting to give up smoking is financial, followed by family pressure and the effect on children.

For more information

- Which?

Related EPHA articles

- EPHA Food Labelling Amendments Finalised
- BEUC Briefing to MEPs on Food Labelling, Strasbourg
- EPHA position paper on Food Labelling
- ALDE Public Hearing on Efficient Food Labelling in Fighting Obesity
- Food 21: Implications for public health?

Last modified on May 4 2009.