Just read a Dec 2010 article by Stapleton, Milway, Cook & Chan "The Poor Still Pay More : Challenges Low Income Families Face in Consuming a Nutritious Diet".
The highlights:
Food and proper nutrition are critical for a functioning society and a healthy work force. This paper seeks to address the challenges that low income families face and to explore solutions that can alleiate some of the pressures that the poor face when it comes to food. These include:
- Affordability of a healthy and nutritious diet - in the case of single social assistance recipients, the situation has become increasingly dire -- highest increase in food prices are found in food groups which are covered by marketing boards (esp. dairy!) -- a litre of milk is more expensive than a litre of pop
- Quality of food they currently consume -- low income households is geared more towards food with lower nutritional value -- low income families purchase foods with higher carbohydrate, sodium, sugar and fat, such as cured meats, canned fruits and vegetables, as well as fluid milk with a higher fat content -- consuming these foods lead to chronic diseases: heart disease, diabetes and cancer -- one of the most preventable yet prevalent problems that the poor face is obesity, which is a a driver of other chronic diseases and is a result of poorer nutrition due to consuming less expensive but less healthy food
- Accessibility to healthy food options for low income households -- the term "food desert" has been coined to refer to those neighbourhoods, particularly in low income communities, where there is limited access to food retailers -- residents in food deserts have mobility disadvantages: less likely to have access to a car, so are limited to purchasing what they can carry, and may have to depend on smaller corner stores, where prices are higher and fresh fruit and vegetables are limited or non-existant
The recommendations:
• A new housing benefit that will free up constrained finances to purchase food
• Improved incentives that will increase accessibility by low income communities to lower priced and healthier food options
• Lower dairy prices through the eventual elimination of the restrictive quotas by dairy marketing boards
Links:
