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Are Healthy Foods Really More Expensive? It Depends on How You Measure the Price

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  • Carlson, Andrea
  • Frazao, Elizabeth

Abstract

Most Americans consume diets that do not meet Federal dietary recommendations. A common explanation is that healthier foods are more expensive than less healthy foods. To investigate this assumption, the authors compare prices of healthy and less healthy foods using three different price metrics: the price of food energy ($/calorie), the price of edible weight ($/100 edible grams), and the price of an average portion ($/average portion). They also calculate the cost of meeting the recommendations for each food group. For all metrics except the price of food energy, the authors find that healthy foods cost less than less healthy foods (defined for this study as foods that are high in saturated fat, added sugar, and/or sodium, or that contribute little to meeting dietary recommendations).

Suggested Citation

  • Carlson, Andrea & Frazao, Elizabeth, 2012. "Are Healthy Foods Really More Expensive? It Depends on How You Measure the Price," Economic Information Bulletin 142357, United States Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service.
    • Handle: RePEc:ags:uersib:142357
    DOI: 10.22004/ag.econ.142357
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    3. Oleksandr Zhylyevskyy & Helen H. Jensen & Steven B. Garasky & Carolyn E. Cutrona & Frederick X. Gibbons, 2013. "Effects of Family, Friends, and Relative Prices on Fruit and Vegetable Consumption by African Americans," Southern Economic Journal, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 80(1), pages 226-251, July.
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    5. Gregory, Christian & Ver Ploeg, Michele & Andrews, Margaret & Coleman-Jensen, Alisha, 2013. "Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) Participation Leads to Modest Changes in Diet Quality," Economic Research Report 262225, United States Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service.
    6. Katare, Bhagyashree & Binkley, James K. & Chen, Kaiyan, 2021. "Nutrition and diet quality of food at home by Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) status," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 105(C).
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    8. Adam Drewnowski & Nicole Darmon & Pablo Monsivais, 2021. "Affordable Nutrient Density: Toward Economic Indicators of Sustainable Healthy Diets," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(16), pages 1-9, August.
    9. Richard Volpe & Edward C Jaenicke & Lauren Chenarides, 2018. "Store Formats, Market Structure, and Consumers’ Food Shopping Decisions," Applied Economic Perspectives and Policy, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 40(4), pages 672-694, December.
    10. Young, Jeffrey S. & Binkley, James K., 2020. "Low Income and Access to Healthy Food: The Case of Milk," 2020 Annual Meeting, July 26-28, Kansas City, Missouri 304539, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    11. Kristen Cooksey-Stowers & Marlene B. Schwartz & Kelly D. Brownell, 2017. "Food Swamps Predict Obesity Rates Better Than Food Deserts in the United States," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 14(11), pages 1-20, November.
    12. Carlson, Andrea & Dong, Diansheng & Lino, Mark, 2014. "Association between Total Diet Cost and Diet Quality Is Limited," Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics, Western Agricultural Economics Association, vol. 39(1), pages 1-22, April.
    13. Daniel, Caitlin, 2016. "Economic constraints on taste formation and the true cost of healthy eating," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 148(C), pages 34-41.
    14. Just, David R. & Gabrielyan, Gnel, 2018. "Influencing the food choices of SNAP consumers: Lessons from economics, psychology and marketing," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 79(C), pages 309-317.
    15. Gillespie, Jeffrey & Hatzenbuehler, Patrick & O'Neil, Carol & Lin, Bo & Niu, Huizhen, 2015. "The Impact of Neighborhood Income on the Cost of Energy-Dense and Nutrient-Dense Foods in Supermarkets," Journal of Food Distribution Research, Food Distribution Research Society, vol. 46(3), pages 1-23, November.
    16. Rafael Moreira Claro & Vargas Hernandez & Joel Alberto & Satoru Shimokawa & Euna Han & Sharada Keats & Steve Wiggins, 2015. "The Rising Cost of a Healthy Diet – Changing Relative prices of Foods in High- Income and Emerging Economies," Working Papers id:7250, eSocialSciences.
    17. Suzanne Bryce & Inawantji Scales & Lisa-Maree Herron & Britta Wigginton & Meron Lewis & Amanda Lee & Ngaanyatjarra Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara (NPY) Women’s Council, 2020. "Maitjara Wangkanyi: Insights from an Ethnographic Study of Food Practices of Households in Remote Australian Aboriginal Communities," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(21), pages 1-22, November.
    18. Nicholas R V Jones & Annalijn I Conklin & Marc Suhrcke & Pablo Monsivais, 2014. "The Growing Price Gap between More and Less Healthy Foods: Analysis of a Novel Longitudinal UK Dataset," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 9(10), pages 1-7, October.
    19. He, Xi & Lopez, Rigoberto A. & Boehm, Rebecca L., 2018. "Medicaid Expansion and Sugar Consumption in Carbonated Soft Drinks," 2018 Annual Meeting, August 5-7, Washington, D.C. 273909, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
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