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Study sheds light on grocery shopping habits of low-income parents
A new study suggests that a major reason why low-income parents buy unhealthy foods for their families is to compensate for non-food activities that promote social well-being but cannot afford. The study, from the Center for Food Policy at the City, University of London, looks at the shopping habits of low-income parents across England. It examined how the food practices of these families can be influenced by their “food environment,” that is, where people can buy and eat food outside the home, as well as by the advertising and promotions they encounter, but also by the broader...
Study sheds light on grocery shopping habits of low-income parents
A new study suggests that a major reason why low-income parents buy unhealthy foods for their families is to compensate for non-food activities that promote social well-being but cannot afford.
The study, from the Center for Food Policy at the City, University of London, looks at the shopping habits of low-income parents across England. It examined how the food practices of these families can be influenced by their “food environment,” that is, where people can buy and eat food outside the home, as well as the advertising and promotions they encounter, but also by the broader socioeconomic factors in their lives that can influence their decision-making.
The results support the established view that a food environment in which unhealthy foods are ubiquitous, cheap, and heavily marketed encourages parents to feed their families with them. However, they further suggest that when parents cannot afford social activities with their children, such as visiting a "soft play" center or vacations that are not even close, parents are further driven to compensate with family "treats" in the form of unhealthy eating routines.
Examples of such routines identified in the study include family visits to fast food outlets such as the local 'chippy' (fish and chip shop), kebab shop or (famous brand) burger restaurants, or even food-related events at home such as family snack time before a film or board game.
The study included 60 low-income parents as participants, recruited equally from disadvantaged neighborhoods in three regions of England: Great Yarmouth, Stoke-on-Trent and the London Borough of Lewisham. Participants were over 18 years old, a parent of a child in kindergarten school, and the primary shopper in the family. Fifty-six participants were women, reflecting the highly gendered nature of nutrition work.
All participants took part in semi-structured interviews focusing on family food purchasing, preparation and consumption practices and the role of different family members, including children, in implementing these practices. Fifty-eight of the participants took part in a photo elicitation exercise over a week in which they took photos of things that made it harder or easier for them to buy the food they wanted for their family. Twenty-two of the participants also took part in a “shop-along” interview, where they walked the interviewing researcher through the stores of their choice and their purchases.
The data from these sources were coded in a “thematic analysis” to identify key themes that influenced the interpretation of the results, summarized collectively as:
- Familien mit niedrigem Einkommen verwenden viele Tools, um sich in der Lebensmittelumgebung zurechtzufinden und Familien innerhalb des Budgets zu ernähren.
- Lebensmittelumgebungen drängen Familien zu ungesunden Lebensmitteln, unterstützen aber andere Aspekte des Wohlbefindens.
- Ernährungspraktiken prägen, wie Familien mit Ernährungsumgebungen umgehen.
- Eingriffe in die Ernährungsumwelt müssen auch die breiteren Aspekte des Lebens der Menschen ansprechen
Based on the findings, the study authors' policy recommendations include removing unhealthy food advertising and food service establishments from the food environment while replacing them with healthier advertising and establishments to preserve the opportunities for social well-being that these families provide.
Other recommendations include increasing the number of affordable family activities available in disadvantaged local communities; Make existing activities more affordable, for example through the availability of discounts; and addressing the broader social need to lift families out of financial insecurity, for example through broader benefit systems, living wages and measures to provide insecure jobs.
Given the wonderful food available in this country, it is a travesty how many people's health is being damaged by poor nutrition. This study shows that the way forward is to understand how people experience food in their everyday reality. Policies to tackle inequalities will only work if they recognize that food is more than just nutrition and meets a wider range of people's needs, such as: B. social and economic well-being must be met.
Professor Corinna Hawkes, principal investigator of the study and director of the Center for Food Policy at City, University of London
The study is published online in the journal Health & Place.
The authors conducted this study as part of the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Obesity Policy Research Unit, which carries out independent research to inform government policy.
Source:
Reference:
Isaacs, A., et al. (2022) From healthy food environments to healthy wellbeing environments: Policy insights from a focused ethnography with low-income parents in England. Health & Place. doi.org/10.1016/j.healthplace.2022.102862.
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