The Habitual Food of the Working Man Varies According to his Wages

So wrote Friedrich Engels in The Condition of the Working Class in England based on his investigations into poverty in Manchester. The link between poverty and bad nutrition still resonates in Britain as Jamie Oliver’s new TV series Jamie’s Ministry of Food shows. Writing in today’s Guardian, Felicity Lawrence cites work by Tim Lobstein of the International Association for the Study of Obesity who has calculated the cost of 100 calories of food energy from different types of food.

“The cheapest way to get your 100 calories is to buy fats, processed starches and sugars. A hundred calories of broccoli costs 51p, but 100 calories of frozen chips only cost 2p. Good-quality sausages that are high in meat but low in fat cost 22p per 100 calories, but “value” fatty ones are only 4p per 100 calories. Poor quality-fish fingers are 12p per 100 calories compared with 29p for ones made with fish fillet that are higher in nutrients. Fresh orange juice costs 38p per 100 calories, while the same dose of energy from sugary orange squash costs 5p”.

The result? Rising obesity, and the associated diseases, among Britain’s poor. This is one reason why life expectancy can differ so radically within just a short distance in Britain, as you go between low-income and higher income areas: by as much as 28 years – yes 28 years – according to WHO.

One of the areas investigated by Engels was ‘Little Ireland‘, populated by those who escaped the Irish famine of the 1840s. The area that was Little Ireland is close to the University of Manchester and Manchester Metropolitan University.