Reducing inequalities for food security and nutrition

The inequality of nutrition and obesity re-focuses concern on who in society is consuming the worst diet. Identification of individuals with the worst of dietary habits permits for targeting interventions to assuage obesity among the population segment where it is most prevalent. We argue that the use of fiscal interventions does not appropriately take into account the economic, social and health circumstances of the intended beneficiaries of the policy.

The effects of a fat tax on diet are found to be small and while other studies show that fat taxes saves lives, we show that average levels of disease risk do not change much: those consuming particularly bad diets continue to do so. 

Our results also suggest that the regressivity of the policy increases as the tax becomes focused on products with high saturated fat contents. A fiscally neutral policy that combines the fat tax with a subsidy on fruit and vegetables is actually more regressive because consumption of these foods tends to be concentrated in socially undeserving households. We argue that when inequality is of concern, population-based measures must reflect this and approaches that target vulnerable populations which have a shared propensity to adopt unhealthy behaviours are appropriate.

*Inequalities in diet and health

Differences in diet between socio-demographic groups are well rehearsed. Although the overall dietary patterns of low-income individuals tend to be very similar to the general population, there are certain aspects of the low-income diet that are less healthy. In general, individuals on low incomes are less likely to consume wholemeal bread and vegetables, but are more likely to consume fat spreads and oils, non-diet soft drinks, pizza, processed meats and table sugar. Within the low-income group, older children (aged 11–18 years) appeared to have worse diets than younger children (aged 2–10 years) or adults as they consume less fruit and consume more energy-dense foods including burgers, kebabs, meat pies, pastries and chips.