Recession hits family spending on fresh food

[Northerner]

Young families cut back on fresh fruit and vegetables and switched to less healthy processed food as the recession squeezed budgets, a UK study has found.

It showed rising food prices and stagnating wages led people to buy less food and choose cheaper products.

The Institute for Fiscal Studies said pensioners, single parent households and families had the biggest drop in the nutritional quality of their diets.

The Children's Food Trust said the move to processed food was a "huge worry".

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-24773201

"We were surprised to find that there has been a substantial decline in total calories purchased at a time when obesity has increased," said one of this study's authors Melanie Luhrmann.

Possibly due to increased consumption of refined carbohydrates?