People with mental illness in the U.K. are more than twice as likely to find it hard to put food on the table than those without, a charity report has found.
Some 28% of people with a mental health condition are living in households battling food insecurity, compared to 11% of people without a mental health issue, a survey by The Food Foundation has revealed.
The issues are deeply interlinked, with food insecurity increasing levels of anxiety, stress and depression. More than 70% of people without reliable access to food said it made them feel more anxious, while 67% said it increased depression and 66% said it increased stress.
Food insecurity made people worry about both their physical and mental health.
People living with mental health issues are more likely to face financial problems which can lead to food insecurity, creating “a cycle that is difficult to break,” the report states.
People with mental health conditions are more likely to have worse-paying jobs, work part time or have to rely on welfare payments, the charity states.
The charity worked with polling company YouGov to survey nearly 6,200 adults in the U.K. for the report.
Although children weren’t included in the research, a wealth of other data show kids’ mental health can also be seriously affected by food insecurity.
Almost a third of food-insecure children experience stress or worry everyday, compared to 10% of food-secure kids, a BMJ study revealed last year.
The Food Foundation urged the U.K. government to urgently review the impact of food insecurity on mental health in an emailed statement.
What is food insecurity?
Food insecurity is a major issue for the U.K., which has seen food prices rise substantially in recent years.
A household is food insecure if it does not have “reliable access to sufficient quantities of nutritious, affordable food,” The Food Foundation states.
In June, around 13.6% of households in the country experienced food insecurity, according to surveys performed by the charity.
Food insecurity is linked to both mental and physical illness, and can make many other areas of life more challenging, straining relationships and making it hard to focus at work.
“The stress and depression that the toll of not having secure access to an essential need like food takes on people is unimaginable,” said The Food Foundation’s policy and advocacy manager Shona Goudie. “For adults, this can affect their ability to work making it impossible to break out of poverty, and for children, it can give them lifelong issues with food impacting on their physical and mental health.”
Jinx, a 20-year-old whose food-insecure family lived mostly on affordable “freezer staples” and “cheap, easy frankenfood” told the charity the experience led “to malnutrition and obesity in the same breath.”
But “the physical side of things didn’t even come close to the mental,” Jinx added. “As food was so limited, we had to eat what we were given — there was no guarantee it would be there tomorrow, and no young person should need to worry about whether they are going to eat.”
Over the summer, the U.K. government appointed a dedicated taskforce to help tackle child poverty.
Actress Emma Thompson, who is an ambassador for The Food Foundation, called for the group to speak directly with young people who have experienced food insecurity so that it can “understand what will truly make a difference to their lives.”
