Food and Nutrient Intake in Low-Income Families: A Comparative Study

This thesis aims to gain a greater understanding of nutritional health in 19th-century England to facilitate a critical analysis of modern food policies in the UK. By identifying changes to nutritional health both beneficial and detrimental in the past, the factors involved in those changes can be explored as potential methods by which modern diet-related health can be improved. However, before any inferences can be drawn from 19th-century dietary sufficiency, the realities of nutrient intake for wealthy and low-income families in England during that century must first be established, an area of research which has received limited attention. As a result, this thesis is centred heavily on historical and archaeological methods and evidence.
Through this research, four main areas were highlighted from the historical and archaeological evidence as approaches which could improve current diet-related health concerns in the UK. The first is diet during childhood with a focus specifically on breastfeeding practice and its promotion to all citizens of the UK, including school children. The second is the regulation and protection of school meals available to children in the UK, most importantly the continuation of free school meals for low-income and “just about managing” families. The third is a new and carefully addressed reduction of sugar in all processed food and drink products, with attention paid to closing the “loop holes” introduced with new policies. The fourth is a new approach to the development and management of policies concerning health in the UK, where new plans include targets, methods of measuring success, and both accountability and transparency.