The theme of this year’s Scottish Section Conference was ‘Diet, Health and Inequalities’, which is a key societal challenge. Socio-economic differences in diet and nutrition contribute to health inequalities. Health inequalities are avoidable and unfair, and have been highlighted by the recent COVID pandemic, with disproportionate impact on ethnic minorities and people living in the most deprived areas. This problem is complex and has wide-ranging causes, seen worldwide.
The first plenary lecture opened the conference focusing on food insecurity in people living with obesity and how the retail food environment can be improved to encourage more sustainable and healthier food choices. Closing the conference, the second plenary discussed how working in harmony with the UN agencies, national and city governments, NGOs, thinktanks and academia can improve the food system. During the three fascinating symposia, leading experts from across the field took us from ‘Food insecurity and human health’ to ‘Lived experiences in food poverty’ and concluded with issues related to ‘Policy implementation’