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Download AudioAn expert on diet and type 2 diabetes say leaving poor people with more money in their pockets to buy better food would be the best way to address diet and health inequities.
University of Auckland emeritus professor Elaine Rush, the Nutrition Foundation’s scientific director, says not taking the first $20,000 of income would allow people to eat better.
She says obesity and diabetes is an outcome of poor diet, in many cases from the moment of conception.
“When people talk about ‘it’s a choice,’ that’s such rubbish. There’s no choice. We’re soaking in it, particularly if you don’t have the money, if you’re not living in the right place, if you haven’t got the education or the time to prepare meals or go shopping or all those things, then you are going to eat to hunger, and that won’t be the best choice of food,” Professor Rush says.
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