Looking for "fresh" food: Diet and lone parents in London

Abstract

A random sample of 200 lone-parent households was contacted via the DSS in 1992/3 (Dowler and Calvert, 1995, Nutrition and Diet in Lone-Parent Families, London: Family Policy Studies Centre). Nutrition data from individual 3-day food intake records for parent and children and food-frequency questionnaire (FFQ) were used to derive indicators: adequacy of nutrient intakes, dietary variety (scores were calculated from the FFQ), and healthy dietary patterns. Taped, semi-structured interviews examined food management, beliefs and household budgeting, in relation to food and health. The poorest lone parents' nutrient intakes were always lower, and their dietary patterns less healthy, than those who were not poor. Seeking "healthy", "fresh" food was independently associated with healthier dietary patterns, through poorer families' diets were still less healthy than those of the better-off. Those who ate typical black-British or Afro-Caribbean diets had better variety and healthier dietary patterns than those eating diets typical of white households. (The Joseph Rowntree Foundation supported this work but material presented here represents the authors' conclusions, not necessarily those of the Foundation.).