At the beginning of this week a Government proposal to give women £120 to pay for healthy food during pregnancy has been widely reported in the news media. Is this going to lead to healthier children or is this the "nanny state" wasting money.

A few facts seem undeniable:

a) The UK has a horribly growing divide between the fat cats who are getting richer and those caught in a poverty trap.
b) We have a massively growing problem of obesity in the UK due to poor eating and poor exercise - relentlessly following the US in this!
c) We have a large problem of binge drinking in younger people worse than most of our European neighbours and the US
d) We seem to have a large number of underweight babies for a developed country apparently caused by drinking, smoking and poor diet in pregnancy.
e) The UK has the smallest proportion of people preparing food from fresh ingredients and the largest consumption of ready meals and fast food in Europe - the UK apparently also apparently consumes about half of the European crisp production.

Critics of the new proposal point out that there is nothing to compel receipients of the proposed grant to use the money for fresh food. On the other hand these days governments are not keen to provide vouchers rather than money.

So the problem of poor diet in pregnancy is a real public health concern, but will money solve it. I doubt it! Just as I doubt if increasing the tax on alcohol proposed by Ian Duncan-Smith will reduce binge drinking. People do not change bad habits due to money or even lack of it. If pregnant women are caught in a poverty trap then it would make more sense to address the mainstream social security system than to have a scheme like this.

I certainly do not have a good solution to propose. However I think it would be better for the Government to invest in public education on the importance of good fresh food in pregnancy and the dangers of alcohol and smoking than to give out £120 grants.