Member blog: New SOA member Nesta on its mission to improve food environments
18 July 2023
Transforming our food environments to make healthier food accessible, affordable and convenient is the key to a healthier Scotland, says Nesta’s Frances Bain
Despite steep challenges, it is possible to transform Scotland’s food environments
Along our streets, in our shops, our restaurants and across the media and advertising we see every day, our lives are saturated with unhealthy influences. For too many of us, our neighbourhoods are flooded with fast-food shops and convenience stores, while places to buy fruit and vegetables can be a bus ride away. These food environments are costing us dearly. The affordability, availability and accessibility of food in the places where we live has a critical effect on our opportunity to be healthy – and Scotland is in the midst of a health crisis.
Due to an increasingly unhealthy food environment and a lack of access to affordable, attractive and convenient healthier foods, obesity is a health crisis. Scotland has the highest obesity levels of all UK nations with 67% of adults either living with obesity or excess weight. We also have the largest poverty-related gap in obesity prevalence with the rate of obesity at 38% among the most deprived compared to 22% among the least deprived. And, linked to 23% of deaths, obesity is the leading cause of death in Scotland.
But we can stem the tide of unhealthy influences. It is possible to make food healthier by reducing high levels of sugar, fat and salt. It is possible to make healthy eating more appealing (and unhealthy food less appealing) by changing how food is advertised and promoted. It is also possible to make healthy food more accessible by redesigning our high streets, workplaces, schools and online spaces so that healthy options are affordable and within reach, for everyone.
Nesta’s healthy life mission
Nesta is the UK's innovation agency for social good. We design, test and scale new solutions to society’s biggest problems, changing millions of lives for the better.
Through our healthy life mission, we are committed to halving the prevalence of obesity by 2030. Achieving this goal would increase healthy life expectancy by an average of nearly two years for around ten million people in the UK, while narrowing health inequalities between the richest and poorest in society.
The Nesta Scotland team develops innovations to help tackle obesity that are specific to Scotland and that respond to the challenges, opportunities and environment of the Scottish context.
Our team in Scotland works with partners, collaborating to find new ways of working, capitalising on the distinct political, cultural and economic landscape. We’re pleased to join the Scottish Obesity Alliance and are looking forward to working with all members to help address the obesity crisis in Scotland.
Many efforts to tackle obesity to date have put too much onus on individuals without fully recognising the influence of supermarkets, restaurants and food producers on the choices we make. To effectively reduce obesity, we must make healthy eating easier, regardless of how little money or time people have, where they live or how health-conscious they are. Manufacturers must reformulate their products, retailers must actively promote healthier choices and governments must ensure people have controlled portion sizes and access to healthier food. The public needs improved transparency about what they are eating and what alternatives are available.
Our research has shown that relatively small but effective and sustained reductions across very large numbers of people can be achieved through population-level interventions in the food environment such as reformulating food, reducing junk food advertising and shifting price promotions towards healthier foods.
To achieve our mission goals and to help more people live healthier and longer lives, we are currently working in three areas.
Making food healthier by encouraging reformulation and smaller portion sizes
To make food healthier, it can be reformulated by changing the ingredients, while maintaining the overall taste and flavour.
Nesta has used data science to identify which food types should be reformulated in order to deliver the most health benefits. We’re also exploring ways to encourage healthier products to the market, working with retailers and manufacturers to experiment with new healthy food products.
Making healthy eating more appealing and unhealthy food less appealing
Cues in our environment influence our purchasing and consuming decisions. Factors such as advertising, promotions and product positioning of unhealthy food all play a role in our decision making.
To make healthy eating more appealing, Nesta is conducting research to understand the impact of price promotions and advertisements (including price, volume and location) on what people eat. We are also working alongside governments, the food and drink sector and the advertising and marketing industry to advocate for and incentivise healthier approaches to food and drink promotion.
We’re also researching how products are displayed, testing different ways of positioning healthier swaps and substitutes and supporting retailers to redesign shops and online ordering platforms to make healthier food an easier option.
Making healthy food more accessible, affordable and convenient
If healthy food is not available, accessible, affordable, acceptable and convenient for people to purchase and consume, then it makes healthy eating very challenging.
To make sure that healthy food is within reach for everyone, Nesta is researching the ways in which people interact with their everyday environments and the factors in local areas that influence obesity, such as the location of shops and restaurants.
We are also collaborating with local and national partners to test different ways to improve those food environments, seeking to understand how they affect calorie intake and how we might scale more effective interventions.
Nesta is committed to improving Scotland’s food environments and we look forward to working with Scottish Obesity Alliance colleagues to help reduce obesity and increase healthy years lived for everyone.
For more information on Nesta and our work visit www.nesta.org.uk
Blog written by: Frances Bain, Nesta Scotland’s Healthy Life Lead