How affordable is a healthy diet?

A recent Spanish study has found an improvement in diet quality and better weight management were both associated with an increase in diet cost.

The study found that the proportion of higher energy density foods in a diet was directly was related to a poorer diet quality and lower diet cost.

If consumers spent €2.95 more each day (slightly more than €1076/year), their diet was less energy dense and contained more fruit and vegetables and they lost weight. Essentially, this value was the difference between a low-quality and a high-quality diet. Every €1 increase in dietary cost per 8.36 MJ was associated with a 0.3 kg weight loss.

In the study, more than 2000 Spanish adults were surveyed about their diets in both 2000 and 2009.

A higher monetary diet cost was found to be associated with healthier food choices and better weight management. If consumers reduced their spend on their diet, they both reduced their fruit and vegetable intake and increased their fast food and soft drink consumption.

The study ‘Association of increased monetary cost of dietary intake, diet quality and weight management in Spanish adults’, by Helmut Schröder, Luis Serra-Majem, Isaac Subirana, Maria Izquierdo-Pulido, Montserrat Fitó and Roberto Elosua, can be found in the British Journal of Nutrition.