Restaurants and takeaways with the unhealthiest menus are more likely to be found in deprived areas, while tourists hotspots such as Westminster have the healthiest food outlets, research suggests.
Gosh, whatever could be the reason for this?
The study from the University of Cambridge examined menus from almost 55,000 food outlets on Just Eat, an online food ordering and delivery platform. Each menu was given a score between 0 and 12, with 12 being the healthiest. To extrapolate the data, the researchers used artificial intelligence to predict the healthiness of almost 180,000 menus across the UK.
Researchers also found that food outlets clustered in more deprived areas, with 8.39 food outlets per 1,000 to 3,000 people in local authorities with the highest levels of deprivation, compared with just 3.85 in the least deprived areas. As a result, people living in the most deprived areas were facing a “double burden” where they had more food outlets but also that they were less healthy.
So, is anyone forcing them at gunpoint into Greasy Ali's Chicken Shack? No?
Jean Adams, professor of dietary public health at the University of Cambridge, said the study found there were more out-of-home food outlets in more deprived areas, and these tended to be less healthy. “That is the ‘double burden’ we refer to,” said Adams. “Within these neighbourhoods, individuals at lower socioeconomic positions are also at a greater risk of obesity when they are exposed to more outlets, adding a ‘triple burden’.
Only if they eat there, Jean. It's not like they emit some sort of obesity-causing pollution.
“People in lower socioeconomic groups often live in these more deprived areas, where they are exposed to numerous unhealthy food outlets, and they are more susceptible to the negative impacts of this exposure. These inequalities in the local food environment may have contributed to the health inequalities we see in the UK.”
Maybe, and this is just a suggestion, the outlets were there first, and they are poor because they spend all their money there?
Food places will be established in places where they will make the most money. That means kebab shops in poorer areas and afternoon teas for the pretentious middle class
ReplyDelete"Maybe, and this is just a suggestion, the outlets were there first, and they are poor because they spend all their money there? "
ReplyDeleteMore likely the outlets came because the sort of people who are poor are far more likely to spend their money on instant gratification. 50 years ago there were no fast food outlets in poor areas because no-one there could afford to buy ready made food. They cooked it themselves at home, ironically, as thats now the habit of the well to do middle classes. The proliferation of fast food shops in poor areas is a marker of increasing wealth more than anything else.
We really should force those who produce this sort of drivel to open a salad bar or health food shop in a poor area, at their own risk. See how much the locals actually want such fare.......
And anyway, there are no areas that have zero supermarkets close by, and healthy options are available if desired. As far as I recall every supermarket has a fresh fruit and veg aisle, and lots of basic food products to produce healthy (and cheap) meals.
These people don't live in the real world at all do they? The food outlets respond to demand, that's how they stay in business. It isn't really rocket surgery is it? If the plebs in these deprived areas wanted healthy food, a healthy food outlet would be able to thrive there. They don't and it wouldn't. As you say nobody is forcing people to screw up their health by eating fatty food. People just need to be held responsible for their own decisions, no need for the government to stick its nose in at all.
ReplyDeleteThese people should be put on a giant Catherine Wheel to produce electricity to grill vegetarian hamburers.
ReplyDelete"Food places will be established in places where they will make the most money. "
ReplyDeleteSpot on. Sadly, the once uniquitous fish & chips and pie and mash of my area has slowly been replaced by fried chicken shops.
"More likely the outlets came because the sort of people who are poor are far more likely to spend their money on instant gratification. "
Which is WHY they are poor!
"These people don't live in the real world at all do they? "
No. Clearly not.
"These people should be put on a giant Catherine Wheel to produce electricity to grill vegetarian hamburers."
😂