The resilience of British household diets during the 1970s

Abstract

The 1979s saw rapid increases in prices, including food prices, but incomes also increased rapidly. Many other factors, such as the growth in home-freezer ownership, could also have affected dietary habits. Yet the National Food Survey shows that although less food is now bought for use in the home (9.5 MJ/person/day compared with 10.7 MJ in 1970), the overall distribution of the diet between meat, fish, dairy products, cereals, sugar, fats, fruit and vegetables remained comparatively steady. Greater changes in consumption of foods within the same broad groups had little effect on overall nutrient intakes, so that the nutritional quality of the diet (measured as nutrients/MJ) actually increased.