Supermarkets have a crucial role to play in demystifying healthy eating

For the vast majority of people, the variety and quality of food available has never been better. What’s more, people are spending less on food, as a percentage of their income, than ever before.

But alongside this very positive outlook there persists a common misconception that eating healthily is an expensive option. I regularly meet patients who are surprised to find that their weekly shopping budget is lower once they settle down into a new, improved diet routine. The bottom line is that good, nutritious food does not have to be expensive - you can eat well on a low budget.

To make improvements in the typical family diet, it is time, rather than money, that needs to be spent. This means seeking out recipes that use seasonal products, finding those products rather than imported alternatives, and cooking from raw ingredients.

There are two key ways in which supermarkets can help to reassure customers that healthy eating doesn’t have to be complicated or expensive.
• One is to make it easier for people to make healthy choices by ensuring that the appropriate products are not confined to specialist ranges.
• The other factor is communication – easily digestible, supportive, and credible information; labels, shelf tags, flags, recipes. Ways to engage with the customers at the point when they are actually deciding what to put in their basket.

Other agencies have a responsibility too – government bodies carry out an important information role, and this has been effective with policies like ‘Five-a-day’.

But on top of the useful information there is a huge amount of misinformation. I’ve had clients at my diet clinic almost ready to give up through sheer confusion. In order to help consumers navigate the sea of so-called ‘advice’, and differentiate the good from the questionable, it is important to be very clear where the information is coming from. Currently, no legislation exists in the Republic of Ireland or the UK to restrict people claiming to be experts in diet and nutrition. This situation is due to change, and that change can’t come too soon.

Ultimately, it’s in the supermarket that people make their choices, hence supermarkets have a crucial role to play in demystifying healthy eating.

Sarah Keogh has a degree in Human Nutrition and a Masters in European Food Regulation. She has been working in clinical practice for 12 years.