Figures from a survey by the Health Food Manufacturers’ Association (HFMA) of 10,000 UK adults has revealed that the average Brit spends just £8.82 each week on keeping healthy.
The Health of the Nation survey – one of the largest of its kind – also found that men spend a little more than women at £9.18 compared with £8.46 per week, and 45% of those over 65 spend no money on their health on a weekly basis.
The research revealed than only 44.6% felt ‘very healthy’ or ‘quite healthy’ – a significant fall of 33.5% since 2016, and that health only makes up 1.5% of Brits’ average weekly spend. Nationally, the highest spend is in England (£8.96), followed by Northern Ireland (£8.71) and Scotland (£8.34), with the least amount spent being in Wales (£7.37).
On average Londoners spend the most on their health, with 8.9% spending over £30 a week on keeping healthy – more than three times the national average.
This survey tells us that the number of people who think they are ‘very’ or ‘quite’ healthy has reduced by a third in the last two to three years. This is borne out by the fact that, for every £10 of weekly household expenditure, only around 15p of this is spent on maintaining good health
69% of the adult population now include food supplements in their diets (up 8.9% from 2016), with 41% of these (16.5 million people) taking them on a daily basis, and just over half of parents (50.9%) are now giving supplements to their children.
The most popular supplement among over 65s is fish oil, while Baby Boomers prefer to take multivitamins and Gen Z and millennials mostly favour taking Vitamin C.
The rising CBD trend is clear from the Health of the Nation survey – 15% of Brits reported taking CBD supplements, with one third taking them daily. People living in Bristol (21.5%) and 25-24year-olds (23%) are the biggest CBD advocates.
“The findings from this latest survey confirm what we have always known – that it is a fallacy to believe that people consider they are fundamentally healthy, or that they can maintain good health simply through their diet alone,” says HFMA executive director, Graham Keen. “This survey tells us that the number of people who think they are ‘very’ or ‘quite’ healthy has reduced by a third in the last two to three years. This is borne out by the fact that, for every £10 of weekly household expenditure, only around 15p of this is spent on maintaining good health.
“It also reaffirms that the UK natural products industry, which the HFMA is proud to represent, remains a national success story, helping millions of people to lead healthier lives. And this looks set to continue as we see that record numbers are now taking food supplements, food supplement consumption is increasing, two in three adults expect to increase their consumption of food supplements as they get older, and more than half of parents now give food supplements to their children.”
