Understanding the impact of COVID-19 on healthy and sustainable diets and wellbeing in UK parents

The COVID-19 pandemic has had a profound influence on people’s lives worldwide and created an opportunity for insights into where and how resilience needs to be improved for a variety of systems. This study assessed the impact of COVID-19 on the diets, physical activity levels, and wellbeing of a sample of UK parents. Parents are likely to be particularly impacted by the pandemic due to the changes in childcare and schooling during the pandemic. Key data regarding food consumption, physical activity, and well-being were gathered through an online survey conducted during the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2021. Changes in the health and sustainability of individuals’ diets at this point in comparison to their pre-COVID-19 norms (based on dietary recall) were assessed, along with changes in physical activity and wellbeing scores. Among survey participants, dietary changes were split, with some participants increasing consumption of healthy and sustainable foods (such as vegetables) while others increased consumption of unhealthy and unsustainable foods (such as processed red meat). Emotional eating was identified as a maladaptive way of coping with COVID-19 related stress that resulted in an unhealthier diet