SOCIOECONOMIC DETERMINANTS OF HEALTH - THE CONTRIBUTION OF NUTRITION TO INEQUALITIES IN HEALTH

Social class differences in health are seen at all ages, with lower so cioeconomic groups having greater incidence of premature and low birth weight babies, heart disease, stroke, and some cancers in adults. Risk factors including lack of breast feeding, smoking, physical inactivit y, obesity, hypertension, and poor diet are clustered in the lower soc ioeconomic groups. The diet of the lower socioeconomic groups provides cheap energy from foods such as meat products, full cream milk, fats, sugars, preserves, potatoes, and cereals but has little intake of veg etables, fruit, and wholewheat bread. This type of diet is lower in es sential nutrients such as calcium, iron, magnesium, folate, and vitami n C than that of the higher socioeconomic groups. New nutritional know ledge on the protective role of antioxidants and other dietary factors suggests that there is scope for enormous health gain if a diet rich in vegetables, fruit, unrefined cereal, fish, and small quantities of quality vegetable oils could be more accessible to poor people.