A new report published today by The Food Foundation has found that:-
- People living in households facing food insecurity were over twice as likely to be living with a mental health condition (28.0% in June 2024) compared to those without any such condition (10.7%) (1)
- Those suffering from food insecurity said not having reliable access to food increased anxiety (72%), depression (67%) and stress levels (66%), and caused them to worry about the effects on their physical health (71%) and mental health (67%) (2)
- Families across the UK are stuck in a cycle of poverty, food insecurity and poor mental health that it is hard to break out of, with children particularly affected
Links between food insecurity, mental health and poverty revealed
The report, Pushed to the brink: the UK’s interlinked mental health and food insecurity crises, which brings together data from a range of sources, demonstrates that individuals struggling with mental health conditions face a heightened risk of slipping into financial hardship, which can lead to food insecurity. On the other side, those dealing with food insecurity are more prone to experiencing poor mental health as a result. This dynamic can exacerbate both issues, creating a cycle that is difficult to break. With 7.2 million adults and 2.7 million children living in households experiencing food insecurity in June 2024, and over 1 million people now estimated to be on NHS waiting lists for mental health conditions, these interconnected issues need to be urgently addressed.
The situation has become more extreme throughout the cost-of-living crisis and many food bank users express feelings of entrapment, hopelessness, and being a burden to others – emotions recognised within mental health services as critical warning signs of suicide risk.
Reduced ability to work and earning capacity
The report shows that the dual burdens of mental health issues and food insecurity can reduce work capacity and create financial instability. People with mental health problems are more likely to work part time, have low paying roles or resort to benefits due to struggling to find work. This can make it difficult to afford a healthy diet, which leads to further ill health. According to the ONS, almost 3 million working-age people are economically inactive because of long-term sickness, mental health is thought to be one of the main driving factors. Mental health and food insecurity must be prioritised by policymakers seeking to rebuild the economy.
The impact on children
Food insecurity has a particularly negative impact on young people. 31% of food-insecure children feel stressed or worried every day, compared to 10% of food secure children. Food insecurity is also linked to higher rates of self harm, anxiety disorders and suicidal thoughts among young people. Of particular concern is that the prevalence of mental health problems in young people has increased by 50% in just five years (from 12% in 2017 to 18% in 2022) and mental health is one of the main causes of absenteeism of pupils from schools.
School leaders have warned that “desperate” poverty is driving problems with mental health and attendance among students. Hungry children are more prone to behavioural problems and educational attainment is often impacted. Improving access to nutritious food at school and making sure that no child goes hungry during the day offers a promising strategy for enhancing mental health of children, as well as their broader development and well-being.
Call to the Labour Government
The Food Foundation is calling on the government to ensure that their recently announced Child Poverty Taskforce addresses the damage being done to children’s mental and physical health by food insecurity as a matter of urgency. The charity is also calling on the government to ensure that the cost of a healthy diet is taken into account when setting benefit levels and national living wage, to remove the two-child limit and to extend nutritional safety nets such as Free School Meals and Healthy Start.
Shona Goudie, policy and advocacy mManager at The Food Foundation, said: “It is devastating to hear from families the horrific impact of food insecurity on their mental health. The stress and depression that the toll of not having secure access to an essential need like food takes on people is unimaginable. 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. Labour expressed ambitions to “overhaul” the approach to mental health in this country – this briefing clearly demonstrates that preventing food insecurity should be a key part of this new approach.”
Andy Bell, chief executive, Centre for Mental Health, said: “We welcome the Food Foundation’s important report on the links between food insecurity and mental health. Their worrying findings chime with our own, and many other experts, that mental health and illness is strongly influenced by the economic and social conditions that people live in. When people struggle to access the basics, like healthy food, then their mental health is placed at much greater risk. As the report illustrates, this is bidirectional: people with poor mental health will also struggle to earn the money to afford a healthy diet and so can become trapped in a cycle of poor mental, physical, financial and social health. We appeal to the government and others to help break this cycle by addressing the poverty, lack of affordable, healthy food and other assets that are trapping too many.”
Kimberley Wilson, chartered psychologist and author, said: “The brains of children living with food insecurity are attacked from all sides – from the insufficient nutrition to fuel healthy brain development, the stress and anxiety of wondering where the next meal is coming from, the effect of the physical stress of hunger on the brain, and the feelings of shame that can harm a child’s self-esteem for years to come.”
“This early harm can impair children’s academic achievement and lifetime earning potential as well as their long-term mental health and wellbeing. Since we know that the highest rate of return comes from the earliest investments in children, policies that reduce food insecurity and increase the accessibility of nutritious food for all is the most economically rational and effective strategy for any serious government wanting to improve population physical and mental health.”
Jinx, aged 20, who has lived experience of food insecurity said, “Food poverty and mental health are two things that are so often interlinked yet rarely spoken about, and we need to change that. Both food insecurity and mental health have a major impact on what you eat and how you eat it, I know this from personal experience. Growing up in a household struggling with food insecurity is exhausting, and for me, this had a direct link to severe depression and a lifelong eating disorder.
“The food environment around my family resulted in not being able to afford anything but freezer staples, cheap easy frankenfood that we could afford. Naturally, this leads to malnutrition and obesity in the same breath. However, the physical side of things didn’t even come close to the mental. 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.”
