THE COST AND AVAILABILITY OF HEALTHY FOOD CHOICES IN SOUTHERN DERBYSHIRE

There has been general agreement among experts over the last decade on what constitutes a healthy diet for the prevention of many of the maj or causes of morbidity and mortality in the UK, and for the treatment of diabetes mellitus and hyperlipidaemias. People are generally aware of the Link between diet and health, but there is concern that foods w hich need to be included in the diet for it to meet current recommenda tions may be difficult to find and expensive. The 7-day intake of an a dult woman, which matched many of the current diet targets (including those of NACNE, the Department of Health and the British Diabetic Asso ciation), was costed in supermarkets in southern Derbyshire in 1990, 1 992 and 1994, and also in smaller retail outlets in 1994. Whilst the a vailability of foods making up a healthy diet has improved in supermar kets in southern Derbyshire over the years of the study, and the cost to supermarket shoppers is coming down, a healthy diet is still more e xpensive than the average diet. Also, those who shop with smaller reta ilers (usually those on lower incomes and at higher risk of diet relat ed disease) will still have difficulty finding some food items, and wi ll find a healthy diet prohibitively expensive.