Having a healthy diet is a requirement of every individual but is it really possible for people to have this recommended diet? A research conducted in 10 countries has analyzed diet and price information to reveal results that having a healthy diet indeed costs much more to the average individual compared to a less healthy one.
People that are having healthy diets which include vegetables, fruits, nuts and fish are spending around $1.50 extra every single day as compared to the people who are eating a diet which is not as healthy. These people are subsisting on a diet of processed foods, refined grains and meats according to the study.
People choosing to have a healthy diet are spending an extra $550 annually which is proving to be a real burden for many families. Policies to help offset the costs are being suggested by the researchers from the Harvard school of public health. Despite the high cost of having a healthy diet, researchers also pointed out that having healthy food is comparatively affordable when considering the long-term costs of chronic diseases like diabetes and heart conditions. These conditions are costing Americans approximately $1200 every year.
What Is the Cost Of Having A Healthy Diet?
People have always complained they find it unaffordable to have a healthy diet but until this moment, no evaluation had been conducted to collect scientific evidence of the statements made by them. The actual differences in the cost of the diet had not been characterized either. To come up with these conclusions, researchers analyzed information from 27 studies which had been collected earlier. 52% of the studies had been conducted in the United States, Japan, Brazil, South Africa or New Zealand. The researchers compared the differences in food cost per servings as well as calories differentiating between 200 cal and 2000 cal. A comparison was also made for foods in the same food category along with prices for overall diets.
The largest differences in prices were observed in meats and proteins where the healthy versions of the foods were costing about $0.30 more for a serving as compared to $0.47 more for every 200 cal in the versions which were not quite healthy.
The Mediterranean diet, which is considered to be one of the healthiest, is more expensive costing $1.48 extra per day or $1.54 extra for every 2000 cal as compared to diets that were not healthy. The results were similar when the researchers considered studies conducted in the United States. Healthy diets were costing $1.49 extra per day and $1.79 more for every 2000 cal. This information led to believe that efforts need to be made to reduce the cost of foods.
Reducing Food Cost To Provide Healthy Diets
Reducing the cost of foods may not be an easy task for the authorities governing the country simply because some healthy foods like lean beef and skinless chicken will cost more because food manufacturers are required to indulge in more processing which can make it a time-consuming and a labor-intensive task. On the other hand, unhealthy diets may not cost a huge amount because food policies which are in place, are currently focusing on producing affordable and high-volume commodities. The policies which are followed have led to the development of a system which favors the sale of highly processed foods.
A drastic change in the policy will be required from the governing authorities if they intend to create a system which will support the production, transportation and marketing of healthier foods before recommendations are made to include a healthy diet among the daily habits of people. An effort must also be made to increase the availability which will automatically help to reduce prices.
Experts from the industry of food and nutrition must be suggesting changes to the governing authorities and the manufacturers before they provide recommendations to the people to have a healthy diet. Unless positive changes are visible in this direction, it will be practically impossible for the average individual to consider adding a burden of $550 annually per person within the family. It will be difficult to convince people they are exposing themselves to higher costs in the long-term simply by overlooking the need to have a healthy diet regularly. The better option to deal with this problem effectively would be for the governing authorities to spring into action and get the manufacturers to produce healthy foods at a lower cost making it affordable for everyone to have a healthy diet.
