Example News Item #1
Exciting news is happening right now and you need to know.
Key Takeaways
1. Food insecurity and obesity are interconnected inequalities.
Our research highlighted the paradox of obesity and food insecurity in the UK, showing how financial hardship and the cost-of-living crisis can increase barriers to healthier, sustainable food choices. It also revealed the stigma and negative experiences associated with both obesity and food insecurity, which can further shape people’s shopping and eating behaviours.
2. Healthier choices require a healthier food system.
People living with obesity and food insecurity identified affordability and price incentives as more helpful than education, labelling or individual ‘swap’ approaches. Tackling dietary inequalities requires changes to how food is priced, promoted, placed and made available, rather than placing responsibility primarily on individuals.
3. System change needs to be informed by lived experience.
Co-production with people with lived experience, retailers and policymakers has provided practical evidence for more affordable, inclusive and supportive food environments, helping shape recommendations for policy and retail action that address the structural drivers of dietary inequality.
Our Contribution and Impact
News
Find out the latest updates on Aberdeen's project contributions.
More news
Even more news has been happening - find out more!
Food Insecurity in people living with Obesity (FIO Food)
Since 2022, the FIO Food team has combined large-scale supermarket loyalty-card data, national survey data, and in-depth qualitative work with people living with obesity and food insecurity to understand - and start to change - how the UK retail food environment shapes healthy eating.
The overall aim of the project was to provide actionable evidence for policy on retail strategies to address dietary inequalities in people living with obesity and food insecurity, to support sustainable and healthier food choices in the UK food system.
For more information, please visit the FIO page.
FIO research is also contributing to a wider project - Transforming UK Food Systems - aiming to reduce food insecurity and obesity through gaining better understanding in purchasing patterns whilst considering the environmental impacts and sustainability.
For more information, please visit the TUKFS page.
Lived Experience
Videos demonstrating lived experiences of people who experience obesity and/or food insecurity
Challenges
Drawing on surveys, interviews, lived-experience research and co-produced research with people living with obesity and food insecurity, the FIO Food team identified the key challenges people face when trying to access healthier and more sustainable food.
People are not lacking motivation or knowledge - they are trying to make healthy choices within a food environment shaped by financial and structural constraints.
Supermarkets want to support healthier, more sustainable choices, but face financial, commercial, operational and evidence gaps that make effective interventions difficult to implement.
Recommendations
Key recommendations for each stakeholder group
Diet and Health Inequalities (DIO Food)
The goal of the DIO Food project is to identify how we can provide timely evidence-based research and commentary from those facing diet and health inequalities. The main focus of the project is working with vulnerable groups (early years and people with low income) to tackle the cost of living crisis to give timely policy directives.
For more information, please visit the DIO page.
The Citizen's Manifesto
The FIO and DIO Food projects, grounded in lived experiences and rigorous research, have developed a " call to action" to tackle diet inequalities for people living with food insecurity and obesity in the UK.
We believe all citizens should be able to access affordable, healthy food. Do not wait to implement these actions. To address dietary inequalities, we call on supermarkets to lock in fair prices on healthy staples, on researchers to partner with retailers to build evidence that drives real-world change and on policymakers to legislate for equity. Together we can make healthy, sustainable food choices the easy choice for all citizens and drive lasting change.
Nadya | Project Advocate
This document, called the Citizen's Manifesto sets forth a summary of actions aimed at retailers, researchers and policy makers to enable citizen's to have better access to healthy and affordable food choices.
The Citizen's Manifesto can be found here: FIO Food Project - Citizen's Manifesto Booklet.