An unhealthy diet comes with several health challenges, while a healthy and balanced diet can promote health and prevent non-communicable diseases such as cancer and cardiovascular disease.
An unhealthy diet has several health challenges, while a healthy and balanced diet can have a positive effect on health.
Diet is one of the most important factors in good health, and the socio-economic benefits come from more people following the dietary recommendations issued by the Directorate of Health for a healthy diet.
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The price is a barrier to healthy eating
Food prices in Norway increased in 2022. Researchers at the Norwegian Institute of Public Health investigated how income affects the ability to eat healthily.
– The price is a barrier to healthy eating. We wanted to investigate how much disposable income (after taxes and housing expenses) Norwegian families with children have to spend on healthy eating according to official dietary guidelines, says Maria Uldahl, author of the new FHI study.
Low-income families have to spend much more
Families with children in Norwegians have to spend on average 21,3 percent of their income available to have a diet in line with the SIFO references, which are based on nutritional recommendations. The corresponding figure for the lowest 10 percent of incomes is 39 percent of income, and for those with the highest incomes the figure is 11,9 percent.
These figures show that low-income families have to spend a much larger proportion of their income on healthy eating than higher-income families. Researchers believe that this affects the ability to address inequalities in health.
“If low-income groups can't afford enough healthy food, that is a public health challenge in itself. In addition, it will interfere with the right to food and national goals of redressing social inequalities in health, Uldahl points out.
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Health inequalities can be influenced by more expensive food
Leveling social inequalities in health is an important goal of Norwegian public health policy, which is reflected, among others, in the in the Public Health Report, the National Action Plan for Better Nutrition, the NCD Strategy 2013-2017 and the UN Sustainable Development Goals.
“Surveys both in Norway and internationally have shown that people with higher education consume more fruit, berries, vegetables and coarse grains, and less juices and soft drinks than people with lower education,” Uldahl points out.
Because we need to eat more healthy foods to get the same amount of energy as from less healthy foods, healthy foods often end up being more expensive. This helps explain why we have social inequities in diet.
“Empty calories are often cheaper than nutritious food when you consider the energy content,” explains Uldahl.
The researchers calculated the disposable income for families with children
The cost of a healthy diet for a family of two adults and two children was calculated on the basis of the SIFO reference budget. Housing income and expenditure figures are taken from Statistics Norway (SSB). From this, the researchers calculated the disposable income for families with children as the median in deciles and how much of that would be used to cover food in the reference budget.
The average monthly disposable income was NOK 63. Such a household would have to spend 416 percent. their income for meals in accordance with the reference budget. The corresponding rate for the highest income decile is 21,3%, and for the lowest income decile it is 11,9%.
It's easier to eat healthy if you have good advice
Even if absolute prices are the same for everyone, low-income households will have to spend a larger proportion of their income on healthy eating than higher-income households.
– It is easy to conclude that people with higher education and higher incomes take better care of themselves. But our study also shows that your ability to make healthy choices is most influenced by your income, concludes Uldahl.
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Source: Norwegian Institute of Public Health
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