{"id":408491,"date":"2021-11-28T14:31:52","date_gmt":"2021-11-28T14:31:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jacobinmag.com\/2021\/11\/uk-austerity-tory-conservative-food-nutrition-poverty\/"},"modified":"2021-11-28T14:31:52","modified_gmt":"2021-11-28T14:31:52","slug":"the-austerity-regime-has-meant-hunger-for-millions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/2021\/11\/28\/the-austerity-regime-has-meant-hunger-for-millions\/","title":{"rendered":"The Austerity Regime Has Meant Hunger for Millions"},"content":{"rendered":"\n \n\n\n\n

The last decade of Tory rule in Britain has seen a devastating rise in malnutrition. The impact of poverty and the loss of the welfare safety net have left too many without the means to access a healthy diet.<\/h3>\n\n\n
\n \n
\n Staff and volunteers pack and prepare food parcels at a food bank in South London. (Dan Kitwood \/ Getty Images)\n <\/figcaption> \n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n\n \n

Poverty impacts people\u2019s ability to consume a nutritious diet. When you lack the resources to shop for and cook food with enough protein, energy, or micronutrients, your health and well-being is damaged. In the extreme, this deficit is classed as malnutrition.<\/p>\n

Those experiencing malnutrition have worse health outcomes and take longer to recover from illnesses. In children, malnutrition affects growth and cognitive function, leading to slower development and poorer education performance. These are some of the\u00a0hidden costs<\/a>\u00a0of our cheap and unhealthy food system; for every \u00a31 spent on food in the supermarket, we are paying an extra 39 pence on the costs of diet-related disease.<\/p>\n

While commonly thought to be a problem restricted to developing countries in the Global South, in the UK, cases of malnutrition have\u00a0almost doubled<\/a>\u00a0in the decade since the Conservatives took office in 2010. Data compiled by the National Health Service (NHS) shows that in 2020\u201321, there were 10,109 diagnoses of malnutrition, up from 4,657 in 2010\u201311.<\/p>\n

The\u00a0austerity<\/a>\u00a0regime pursued by the Tories has led to an increase in poverty and food insecurity in the most marginalized groups, largely as a result of the decimation of the\u00a0welfare safety net<\/a>. In the last decade, the Trussell Trust, the largest network of food banks in the UK, has seen a massive growth in demand for emergency food. In 2020\u201321, the network distributed\u00a02.5 million<\/a>\u00a0food parcels, a 132 percent increase from 2014\u201315.<\/p>\n

Earlier this year, the Department for Work and Pensions published\u00a0data<\/a>\u00a0that showed that 8 percent of all families in the UK, and 43 percent of families receiving Universal Credit, had experienced food insecurity, largely fueled by poverty and low income. These figures make clear that Tory policy is responsible for the rise in malnutrition in the UK.<\/p>\n

A 2020 parliamentary\u00a0report<\/a>\u00a0on the failures of the food system explored the relationship between poverty and food insecurity, finding three broad barriers to accessing a healthy diet: the affordability of healthy food; practical considerations, such as infrastructure and amenities; and the stress and mental-health implications of poverty and food insecurity.<\/p>\n\n \n\n \n \n \n

The (Un)Affordability of Healthy Food<\/h2>\n \n

In 2021, the Food Foundation\u00a0found<\/a>\u00a0that the poorest fifth of UK households would need to spend 40 percent of their disposable income on food to reach government healthy eating guidelines \u2014 compared to just 7 percent for the richest fifth. Additionally, healthier foods were found to be almost three times more expensive than less healthy foods.<\/p>\n

This is particularly important as the implicit state response to food insecurity has been a reliance on\u00a0charitable food provision<\/a>, most notably through food banks where fresh food, including fruit and vegetables, are not available for recipients. That means those reliant on food banks are not able to access the nutrients required for a healthy diet.<\/p>\n

Children\u2019s lunches are also impacted by the costs of healthy food. Parents on a low income who are not eligible for free school meals face the choice between paying for a\u00a0hot meal they can\u2019t afford<\/a>\u00a0or sending their child to school with a packed lunch that\u00a0doesn\u2019t meet their nutritional needs<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In Wales, Welsh Labour and Plaid Cymru have recently\u00a0committed to introduce<\/a>\u00a0universal free school meals for every primary-aged pupil in the country. This is a positive step forward to ending childhood malnutrition, and\u00a0improving<\/a> children\u2019s health\u00a0and educational performance.<\/p>\n\n \n \n \n

Practical Barriers to Health<\/h2>\n \n

The cost of a healthy diet does not begin and end at the supermarket checkout. The\u00a0infrastructure in a community<\/a> \u2014 the shops and transport options available \u2014 also impacts the types of food that people consume.<\/p>\n

Without a car, for example, shopping for a family for a week is almost impossible, meaning many have to make multiple trips for the food they need. This leaves them with the choice of spending more on public transport, traveling to farther away shops with healthier options, or buying food at convenience shops with less variety and higher prices. There is also the siren song of temptation coming from fast-food takeaway shops to contend with, which are located in\u00a0greater numbers<\/a>\u00a0in more deprived areas.<\/p>\n

Buying vegetables is only one step in making a meal; you also need the time and resources to cook. The amenities in someone\u2019s house, such as whether they have a\u00a0fridge, freezer, or oven<\/a>,\u00a0all impact their ability to consume a nutritious diet. As energy costs rise, campaigners voice concerns that those on low incomes are increasingly\u00a0choosing between heating and eating<\/a>. But this misses the fact that heating and eating are even more entwined than that: in order to eat, you also need the energy required to turn food from raw to cooked.<\/p>\n\n \n \n \n

The Emotional Burden of Poverty<\/h2>\n \n

The stress of living in poverty does not produce conditions conducive to a healthy diet. Food insecurity only compounds this, with\u00a0research<\/a>\u00a0finding an association between stress and food insecurity over and above socioeconomic deprivation. When experiencing stress and anxiety, it is difficult to focus on anything but your immediate physical and emotional needs.<\/p>\n

The last thing you want to do while worrying about your ability to heat your home or whether you can afford a new pair of shoes is to dissect the nutritional breakdown of your evening meal. To be able to comfort yourself with a cheap, nutritionally devoid takeaway is entirely reasonable.<\/p>\n

While middle-class moralizers such as Jamie Oliver blame the ill health of the country\u2019s poor on their\u00a0misguided dietary choices<\/a>, they miss a crucial value of food: the way it makes us feel. As\u00a0one commentator wrote<\/a>, when you\u2019re poor, \u201cninety-nine percent of what you need is answered \u2018no.\u2019 . . . So, if the only indulgence that is viable, that is within budget, that will not mean you have to walk to work, is a Styrofoam container of cheesy chips, the answer is a thunderous \u2018YES.\u2019 In a world of \u2018no,\u2019 you are grateful for every \u2018yes,\u2019 no matter how illogical or how unhealthy.\u201d<\/p>\n

The last decade of Tory rule has seen a devastating rise in malnutrition and food insecurity more broadly. The impact of poverty and the loss of the welfare safety net have left too many without the means to access a healthy diet, worsening their health and costing the NHS\u00a0billions<\/a>. Without action there will be no reversal in this trend. If anything, the recent\u00a0cut to Universal Credit<\/a>\u00a0demonstrates a government unwilling to recognize its responsibility in creating this public health crisis.<\/p>\n\n \n \n \n\n \n \n \n\n\n

This post was originally published on Jacobin<\/a>. <\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Poverty impacts people\u2019s ability to consume a nutritious diet. When you lack the resources to shop for and cook food with enough protein, energy, or micronutrients, your health and well-being is damaged. In the extreme, this deficit is classed as malnutrition. Those experiencing malnutrition have worse health outcomes and take longer to recover from illnesses. [\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10395,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/408491"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10395"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=408491"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/408491\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":408492,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/408491\/revisions\/408492"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=408491"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=408491"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=408491"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}