2020: the year of carbs?
In my previous blog, I noted that — with bars and restaurants closed — 2020 saw an increase in alcohol purchases (and indeed other food and drink) for home consumption. So far so expected. In today’s blog, though, I decided to the consumption changes by income decile. And here, the picture is anything but uniform. [Note that all of the following excludes food and drink consumption in restaurants, cafes, bars, and so on. Due to the particularly harsh impact of COVID-19 restrictions on the hospitality sector, spending in those establishments was down by nearly 40% from 2019.]
While purchases of spirits and liqueurs — as a share of overall household expenditure — increased significantly in all income groups except the second poorest, there was much more divergence in spending on wine and beer. Households in the lower income brackets (from decile 1 to 4) spent more money on wine, whereas higher income households (deciles 5, 6, 8 and 9) actually spent less. As for beer, the picture was very mixed: the poorest households spent more on beer, too, but so did some of the highest (decile 9).
What is interesting is that, across almost all items, it is the second poorest households that seem to have really tightened their belt when it comes to food and drink purchases. In contrast to the overall trend in 2020, their expenditure seems to have decreased for most items, or only increased by a very small amount. Notable, too, is the reduction in expenditure on smoking, especially among lower-income households. It is plausible that finances in these households have been particularly squeezed, relative to 2019 (see, e.g., the 8 February 2021 post here).
The one theme in the data that struck me as remarkably consistent regardless of income was the increased consumption of carbohydrates. With the exception of the second poorest households, we all increased our spending on bread, rice, cereals, chocolate, preserved vegetables (baked beans?), buns, cakes and biscuits*. Clearly, not everyone was only eating just home-baked banana bread or sourdough loaves; and few seem to have been restricting their carbohydrate intake. [* I intentionally simplified the message here. The fifth poorest households also reduced their purchases of buns, cakes and biscuits. Maybe it was mostly them making all the banana bread?]
It’s not possible to say yet how such shifts in consumption have changed the overall nutritional content of people’s diets. Home eating (and, to a lesser extent, home deliveries of restaurant food) has replaced eating out. However, if I had to make a guess as to the macronutrient content of different types of food, I would say that what people tend to eat in a restaurant, cafe or bar is probably higher in fat than the average shop-bought item. Given that UK households’ fat consumption has historically been well above recommended (see 12th December here), maybe these extra carbs are not so bad*.
[* Note: I’m aware that I am simplifying this by several orders of magnitude. For example, obviously shop bought chocolate and cakes also contain a lot of fat. And the amount someone might eat at home vs. at a restaurant will be different. Plus a million other caveats. All I’m saying is that the food one would have in a restaurant or cafe is probably fattier, all other things equal.]
