Nutrition is not something we think about everyday when we all have busy working lives. Most people see food as fuel and grab something to eat on the go, not giving it much thought. Often food is cheap and fills us up so we are not too concerned about how nutritious it is. We have all been there – feeling so hungry we pop in to a pie or cake shop or worse a take away and we eat while we are travelling from one place to another. I developed a really bad habit of eating in my car when I was a community nurse, not stopping for lunch or too busy in the morning getting the children to school to make some.  This is a real problem for many  working people but on the other hand there are also many people with very little money for food so buy the cheapest food wherever they can. More and more people we hear are relying on food banks that for practical reasons cannot store fresh food, so much of what they provide is either tinned or dried.  We now have new terms around food that never existed years ago including food insecurity, food swamps and food deserts.

Food insecurity means not having enough food

Food swamps means living in an area where there is a lot of  tempting fast food outlets

Food deserts means living in an area where food is not easily accessible to buy

In a study on Health care professionals attitudes to food insecurity and long term conditions Douglas et al (2019) found that there was educational needs amongst healthcare professionals around food insecurity. They argue that although we know that just over 10% of the UK is food insecure little is known about the experiences of individuals with long term conditions. They do identify that food insecurity can worsen many long term conditions (if not enough or too many nutrients are available) but they also suggest that health professionals do not know how to deal with it. This in turn can increase pressure upon healthcare systems.

This is an important piece of research that can influence practice by helping us to explore how we talk about food insecurity with others. It should not be a shaming or unethical experience but a compassionate one. Food is an essential requirement for life so it is important that we discuss it with people based upon their individual needs. A compassionate approach would be to ask about the persons feelings (universality)  about food insecurity (especially mothers with young children as nutrition is essential for their development) and identify ways in which we can help them to address their concerns (recovery).  Taking a person centred approach (diversity) we can identify what that individual person needs. Douglas et al (2019) argue for more research in this area of healthcare practice but we can all contribute by starting this critical conversation with people and helping them to be more self compassionate towards their individual needs.