Following a healthy and balanced diet can entail a higher financial cost that many cannot afford, and the repeated increases in the prices of healthy foods included in the Mediterranean diet, such as olive oil, fish, or fruits and vegetables, They prevent many people from consuming them with the recommended frequency and forcing them to choose cheaper and much less nutritious options.
In fact, a new study led by a team from the University of the Balearic Islands and the Center for Biomedical Research Network (CIBER) has found that the shopping basket to follow a healthy diet is associated with a higher price compared to with less healthy alternatives. The work is part of the PREDIMED-Plus project and its objective was to analyze how the price of food can influence the choice of diet and its effects on health. It has also had the participation of numerous teams linked to PREDIMED from CIBEROBN, CIBERESP and CIBERDEM in different institutions.
The results of the study have been published in the journal Frontiers in Public Health and are especially important taking into account the current context in which the prices of some foods have been increasing for months. Researchers have analyzed the eating habits of 6,838 people, proving that those with greater adherence to the Mediterranean diet, an anti-inflammatory diet, or a healthy version of the pro-vegetarian dietary pattern needed to invest more money in their shopping basket.
Prices can play a significant role in interventions and policies aimed at improving diet quality and preventing diet-related chronic diseases.
The price of food was obtained from the database of the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food during the recruitment period of the participants (2015-2017), and the total cost of the diet adjusted per 1,000 kcal has been calculated. Regarding the dietary intake of the participants, it was estimated based on a food frequency questionnaire, considering factors such as the severity of the metabolic syndrome, or adherence to the Mediterranean diet.
Foods that make the shopping basket more expensive
The foods whose high consumption was most related to an increase in the cost of the diet were: fruits and vegetables, whole grains, fish and seafood, white and processed meat, coffee and tea, sweetened beverages and alcoholic beverages. On the contrary, as the cost of the diet was lower, the consumption of foods such as: potatoes and refined cereals, eggs, milk and dairy products, fats and oils (including olive oil), sweets and cakes, and processed foods.
According to these results, the cost of food may be a key factor in making dietary decisions, and prices may play a significant role in interventions and policies aimed at improving diet quality and preventing chronic diseases. related to food. Dr. Josep A. Tur, principal investigator of the Obesity and Nutrition area of the CIBER (CIBEROBN) and the Balearic Islands Health Research Institute Foundation (IdISBa), has highlighted the importance of this study “to understand the dynamics between the costs of food and diet quality in vulnerable populations.”
How the socioeconomic and cultural level influences the type of diet
In research previously carried out in children or adolescent populations, a healthier diet was related to a higher cost. The fact that parents had a low sociocultural and socioeconomic level was associated with lower spending on food and, therefore, less healthy diets.
Healthier and more expensive diets in boys and girls were achieved through a varied diet, rich in fish and fruits, with a lower energy density. However, this association was true for poor or moderate diet quality, when measured by adherence to the Mediterranean diet. Within the high dietary quality range, the cost was similar. Therefore, the Mediterranean diet may be a dietary pattern that is easy to maintain and limited by cost when adherence is high.
Female participants, as well as those who live alone, were more likely to spend more money on their diet. Lower energy intakes and higher levels of energy expenditure were related to higher dietary costs per 1,000 kcal/day. Those with higher education and non-smokers spend more money on their food. On the other hand, the cost of the diet was directly associated with the prevalence of hyperglycemia and abdominal obesity, and inversely associated with the prevalence of hypertriglyceridemia and low HDL cholesterol.
Furthermore, adjusted analysis revealed that gender and educational level were confounding factors for most sociodemographic variables. Age, energy intake, and expenditure were not related to the economic cost of the diet after adjusting for one or both variables. On the other hand, it was determined that living alone was relevant only for women and those with an intermediate educational level, while smoking was relevant in the economic cost of the diet for men, and for those with a low educational level. -intermediate.
Among the parameters of the Metabolic Syndrome (interrelated medical conditions that significantly increase the risk of developing cardiovascular diseases), hyperglycemia, hypertriglyceridemia and the prevalence of abdominal obesity were more related to the economic cost of the diet only for men, while cholesterol HDL was related to both genders. For their part, hypertriglyceridemia, HDL cholesterol and abdominal obesity were related to the economic cost of the diet only at the lowest levels of education.
Source: Center for Biomedical Research Network (CIBER)
