Healthy eating hard for poor - research

Fairfax

GOOD EATING: Reducing the price of healthy food, possibly by removing GST, could therefore lead to more low income families buying it, the study said.

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Low income New Zealand families would have to spend up to a third of their income to eat healthily, a researcher says.

A separate study reveals about 40 per cent of New Zealand households go hungry, skip meals or scrimp on ingredients because they are not "food secure".

Food security is a key topic for discussion at a national dietitians conference in Dunedin that started yesterday and runs until tomorrow.

Professor John Coveney, associate dean at South Australia's Flinders University, said yesterday people in low socio-economic groups were more likely to have a diet-related disease such as diabetes, heart disease and some cancers.

His Australian research, which will be presented at the conference, showed low income families would have to spend up to one-third of their weekly income on buying a shopping basket of healthy food.

In comparison, a "healthy food basket" cost just 9 per cent of income for high income families.

A low income family would normally spend about 18 per cent of its income on food.

The results would likely be the same in New Zealand, he said.

If a family was spending more than 30 per cent of its income on a mortgage it was under "housing stress" and "food stress" was just as valid a term.

Reducing the price of healthy food, possibly by removing GST, could therefore lead to more low income families buying it.

Coveney said there was no research to suggest increasing the price of fatty foods would improve the nutrition of disadvantaged people. It could make things harder for them, he said.

Otago University PhD candidate Claire Smith is presenting to the conference her research which found that 40 per cent of Kiwi households were not "food secure".

She said the increasing use of food banks during the recession showed many families were vulnerable to food insecurity.

People who were not food secure had to limit the amount or variety of food they bought and may skip meals or reduce portion sizes to make food go further.

The supermarket budget was often the first to be trimmed when other bills such as rent, power and insurance had to be paid and costs were rising across the board, she said.

- © Fairfax NZ News