A new study shows that choosing to eat healthy can be really expensive. Researchers from the University of Washington looked at the economic impact of following new U.S. dietary guidelines, which recommend eating more potassium, dietary fiber, vitamin D and calcium, and avoiding saturated fat and added sugar. These recommendations aimed at curbing the rising number of obese and overweight individuals, but the study findings underline some of the obstacles to adopting new habits.
The study was published in Health Affairs this Thursday where authors reported that eating more potassium, the most expensive of the four nutrients, can add $380 to the average person's yearly food costs. Americans spend about $4,000 on food each year, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. At the same time, getting more calories from saturated fat and sugar reduces overall food costs, the study said.
According to one of the authors Pablo Monsivais, acting assistant professor at the University of Washington the government should consider the economic impact of food guidelines. He said, “We know that dietary guidelines aren't making a bit of difference in what we eat and our health overall. And I think one missing piece is that they have to be economically relevant. They emphasize certain foods without much regard for which ones are more affordable.”
In the study, the authors sent in questionnaires on the typical eating habits of 1,123 people in King County, Washington, and calculated how much each diet cost based on retail food prices in three local supermarkets. However, they did not factor in costs for food bought outside grocery stores, such as fast food - which would likely increase the food cost for each person.
The study also found that it is more expensive to eat more dietary fiber and vitamin D, and that people with higher average incomes were more likely to eat healthier food. Monsivais said when talking about eating more fruits and vegetables, the government should also mention the most cut-price options. For examples, bananas and potatoes are the cheapest sources of potassium. He added, “Guidelines should tell people where you get the most bang for your buck. By putting the economic dimension on dietary guidelines, it would be very helpful for those on the economic margins, but also for everyone ... trying to save money in the current economy.”
He criticized some of the marketing for a healthy diet — for example, the image of a plate of salmon, leafy greens and maybe some rice pilaf — and said a meal like that is not affordable for many Americans. Food-assistance programs are helping people make healthier choices by providing coupons to buy fruits and vegetables, Monsivais said, but some also put stumbling blocks in front of the poor. He mentioned, as an example, a Washington state policy making it difficult to buy potatoes with food assistance coupons for women with children, even though potatoes are one of the least expensive ways to add potassium to a diet.
Hilary Seligman, assistant professor of medicine at the University of California, San Francisco, said Monsivais' research is an interesting addition to the debate about healthy eating and food insecurity, her area of expertise. A lot of people assume the poor eat cheap food because it tastes good, but they would make better choices if they could afford to, said Seligman, who was not involved in the Health Affairs study. “Almost 15 percent of households in America say they don't have enough money to eat the way they want to eat…Recent estimates show 49 million Americans make food decisions based on cost. Right now, a huge chunk of America just isn't able to adhere to these guidelines,” she said.
But Monsivais may have oversimplified the problem, according to another professor who does research in this area. Parke Wilde, associated professor at the Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy at Tufts University, said it's not expensive to get all the nutrients a body needs to meet the federal guidelines. What is expensive, in Wilde's opinion, are the choices Americans while getting those nutrients. He said diets get more and more expensive depending on how many rules a person applies to himself, such as eating organic or seeking local sources for food or eating vegetables out of season. “The longer your list gets, the more expensive your list will be,” he said.
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