Is healthy food more expensive?

Abstract

Introduction. Occasionally, the price of food has been linked to its nutritional quality so that foods with lower nutritional value are the cheapest. Thus, the high availability of low-priced food could be a factor to consider among the ones responsible for the increased frequency of obesity that is now been observed.

Objective. The main objective of this study was to make an economic comparison between the cost of healthy eating vs unhealthy eating.

Methods. A cross-sectional descriptive study. The sample was made up of 15 individuals aged 18-57. Eating  habits were collected for 3 days via 24- hour dietary recall and diet diary. The criteria for a healthy or  unhealthy diet was stablished according to the SENC Food Guidance- December 2016. Daily cost of shopping  basket, analysis of the average shopping basket for three days and the cost of food eating outside were  made. The cost of shopping basket was compared between healthy and unhealthy eaters. The BMI was also  considered in this study.

Results. The results obtained confirm that a healthy diet is cheaper than an unhealthy one and that there is  not direct and exclusive correlation between the BMI and healthy or unhealthy eating.

Conclusions. If we consider that the economic factor is the most important one regarding healthy eating patterns, further study based on a wider simple and an educational-nutritional intervention would be interesting in order to provide individuals with tools to make possible the most adequate election of the food  and a greater personal involvement in time, technical knowledge, etc. beyond the economic aspect.