Gareth Edwards: Waistlines expand as we tighten our belts

TALK of recessions used to conjure up images of people struggling to get by, eating watered-down cabbage soup and old bread and huddling round a fire to keep warm.

The effects of a modern financial crisis may be a little different, but – at least for those of us not lucky enough to be investment bankers picking up fat bonus cheques – we are still used to the idea of "tightening our belts" to cope.

But while we may have to keep a closer eye on our finances, it seems today's recession is more likely to see us forced to loosen our belts – to cope with an expanding waistline.

The economic downturn may have hit businesses from builders and restaurants to holiday companies. But a new breed of recession winners is emerging, with sales of sugary drinks, chocolates and sweet snacks steadily rising over the last year, as people look to take their minds off everyday problems. So is the recession proving to be as bad for our waistlines as our bank balance?

AG Barr, maker of Scotland's national soft drink Irn-Bru, this week reported sales revenue from the drink had gone up 5 per cent over the last year, while Coca-Cola saw UK sales rise 47.6 million in the last 12 months.

And it's not just fizzy drinks. Greggs, the home of the doughnut, giant cookie and yum-yum, has seen a 7 per cent rise in profits.

This has been driven by sales of its most popular product, the sausage roll. Sales of sausage rolls have risen 15 per cent during the recession.

Chocolate is probably the most common comfort food, and Cadbury's has seen sales thriving in difficult economic times, with worldwide sales up 6 per cent.

Tunnock's has seen sales of its classic Caramel Wafers and Tea Cakes both soar by 10 per cent, and the firm's Fergus Louden says: "In time of hardship, people always give themselves a treat."

On top of all that, says Dr Liz Logie-MacIver, a lecturer in social and retail marketing at Edinburgh Napier University, many people are giving up costly gym memberships and indulging in comforting snacks and takeaways.

"There are two big problems that will have an effect here, and one of these is the stress of redundancy and the changes the recession has brought to a lot of workplaces," she says.

"People are losing their jobs, and colleagues are seeing others lose their jobs and having to cope with the extra work.

"Many workplaces will seem colder, more austere and more stressful as a result, and so people are looking for little comforts as a way of coping with this.

"The marketing side of things is also changing. In recent years the focus has been on healthy lifestyle choices, tackling obesity and achieving good, healthy goals. With the recession, however, a lot of people are putting off those long-term goals in favour of short-term comfort, so instead of going to a gym they will see having sweets or sugary drinks as a treat or even a reward after a long day at work.

"This sort of compensation consumption could have an effect on people's weight."

Of course, even with people giving up the gym, a little treat is not necessarily bad news for our health.

But as household budgets decrease, there are other temptations among the discount brands being heavily promoted by the supermarkets.

Emma Conroy, a nutritionist with Edinburgh Nutrition, warns: "A lot of items in the discount lines will be fine, but things such as sausages will be loaded with fats and goodness knows what else, and really people would be better off buying a few good quality sausages, so it can be a false economy."

She adds: "Sugary, caffeine-loaded drinks are a disaster in terms of nutrition, and while people associate them with comfort they can actually have a depressant effect."

Comfort eating may be on the rise, but can we really lay all the blame on the recession?

Christine Mitchell, a Scottish spokeswoman for Weight Watchers, argues that just as big an issue is the increasingly ready availability of food.

"Comfort eating is a problem we have been seeing for years, and I don't know if the recession will make that worse," she says.

"But it is a concern that, for people who are looking to comfort eat, food is more readily available then ever before. Nowadays, people can buy big multi-packs of crisps or biscuits, and anywhere they go they will be able to get food, and I think that is one of the big problems when it comes to resisting the temptation to comfort yourself with food."

As if shopping in the recession wasn't tricky enough, it seems we really should be keeping one eye on the bill and the other on the effects on our waistlines.