New research finds healthiest restaurants in the country are in the richest areas

Restaurants and takeaways with the unhealthiest menus are more likely to be found in deprived areas whereas tourist hotspots show the healthiest options, new research suggests.

Known tourist destinations including Westminster, Kensington and Chelsea and the City of London, were found to have the healthiest menus. Areas with the unhealthiest menus were north-east Lincolnshire, Luton and Kingston-upon-Hull.

The study from the University of Cambridge looked at menus from almost 55,000 food outlets across the UK on Just Eat, the online food delivery service.

Each menu was given a score between 0 and 12, with 12 being the healthiest. As not every food outlet is on Just Eat, researchers used artificial intelligence (AI) to predict the healthiness of almost 180,000 menus.

Researchers not only found that more deprived areas had lower average healthiness levels, but that more food outlets were clustered in these areas compared with richer locations.

Figures showed 8.39 food outlets per 1,000 to 3,000 people in local authorities with the highest levels of deprivation, compared with just 3.85 in the least deprived areas.

This means people living in poorer areas face a “double burden” of more food outlets that are less healthy.

Yuru Huang, a Gates Cambridge scholar at the Medical Research Council (MRC) Epidemiology Unit at the University of Cambridge, said: “On top of this, there are studies that show, for example, that people with the lowest income were more likely to be obese when living in areas with a high proportion of fast food outlets. 

“This could even create a ‘triple burden’ for people living in these areas.”

“It’s important to understand how healthy this environment is at a local level. This will empower local authorities to take action to try and improve the consumer food environment.”

(Picture: Pexels/Ellie Burgin)