🍎 Food and Health Equity
Why Access to Nutrition Is a Health Equity Issue
When we talk about health, food is often framed as a matter of personal choice. But in reality, access to nutritious food is shaped by structural factors: income, geography, culture, time and power.
Food is not just fuel. It's a cornerstone of physical health, mental wellbeing, dignity and equity.
The Link Between Food and Health
What we eat affects:
Risk of chronic illness (like diabetes, heart disease, and obesity)
Oral health and development
Mental health and mood
Recovery and resilience
When people can’t access nourishing food, their health suffers — and so do the systems that serve them.
Food Inequality Is Health Inequality
Not everyone has equal access to healthy food. In the UK:
Millions live in "food deserts" with limited fresh options
Cultural foods may be unavailable or unaffordable
People on low incomes may skip meals or rely on ultra-processed foods
Food insecurity affects a disproportionate number of ethnic minority and single-parent households
This isn’t about lack of education. It’s about constrained choices in constrained circumstances.
What Equitable Food Access Looks Like
To promote health equity, we need to:
Support community food programmes and food banks
Ensure universal free school meals
Protect cultural foodways and traditions
Address the root causes: poverty, housing, and insecure work
Include oral health in food policy discussions
This is about more than calories — it’s about connection, community, and care.
My Perspective as a Health Equity Advocate
From dental health to chronic disease, I see the effects of poor nutrition every day. But I also see the stigma people carry around what they eat.
We need to move away from blame and towards systems that enable healthy, joyful, culturally appropriate eating for all.
Final Thoughts
Food is a public health issue. It’s also a human rights issue.
If we want to build a fairer health system, we have to start by asking: who gets to eat well, and why?