Over the last 2-3 years on and off I have had a battle with local businesses in Sunderland to stock up on healthy food & drink that is convenient. The government spend money on programmes to promote healthy eating and there is talk of the sugar tax but I feel this could be so much more effective if local businesses got on board. People who know me understand how much I try to eat & drink healthy and I have recently commented on how I strayed from healthy eating, but I am sure if healthy options had been available locally my diet would have been a lot better.
Take for example a local newsagent / convenience store where you walk in and there is row upon row of chocolate bars, maybe with some token cereal bars that are probably higher in sugar content than the chocolate bars. Is it too much to ask for a little bit of space for some quality wholefoods or even chocolate bars with a high percentage of cocoa? e.g. dark chocolate 85%. One particular business I approached on Chester Road, Sunderland decided to purchase two types of bars I requested and both boxes sold within 3 days. The same happened again when they ordered the next lot of healthy snacks showing that there is a market out there if people have the choice.
Pop, fizzy pop! Same as chocolate bars, local shops are full of fizzy pop although there are shops that feel they are stocking up on what they believe are healthy drinks only for them to be full of added sugar, E numbers and preservatives. There are an increasing number of drinks high in caffeine and taurine out there as well. However, there are healthier products available that cost a little bit more but sometimes the same as certain high sugar products. These drinks include fruit and vegetables and are full of natural ingredients. They also taste nice and offer a good healthy option. I just want to see a small amount of space made available in local shops for these products and see what happens. Give people the option!
Nuts are a healthy snack that are mostly found locally with salt on and in the few cases salt isn’t added preservatives are added when they are in packets with dried fruit. Give people the option to eat healthy and choose what they want helping them get much needed good fats into their body.
Yoghurt is my final example for this article because so many flavoured yoghurts are available in local shops with lots of added sugar when plain yoghurts could be made available along with fruit that you can add yourself. Personally, I have found a local shop that allows me to do this and the plain yoghurt sells better because it never goes on sale as clearance stock where the flavoured yoghurts regularly never sell and are always reduced in price. However, it often sells out without getting replaced very quickly meaning the healthy option is then no longer available.
Working with local businesses
Like contracts supporting people into work where working with employers has been successful I believe that contracts supporting people with healthy eating need to work with local businesses to ensure healthy foods are available locally.
I appreciate local businesses need to make a profit and there will be arguments that they provide people what they want but until people are given options over a sustained period of time it will be difficult to drive change for healthy eating. Shop Owners may also be surprised just how many people want to eat healthy and find their profits increase as a result, especially if they are the first to provide genuine healthy food in communities.
I have identified some small changes which I believe would be a start but I believe so much more can be done to help people change their eating habits and would welcome peoples thoughts on how this can be achieved.
