Healthy meals cost too much
- From: NT News
- February 05, 2014
A LOW income family would have to spend half its weekly wage to eat the healthy diet of lean meat, fruit and vegetables recommended in official national dietary guidelines.
Eating healthily costs up to 30 per cent more than a diet high in carbohydrate, sugar and fat and it could be a key factor in the nation's obesity crisis, according to a new study.
The research comparing the cost of healthy food with the typical food basket has found middle-income earners face higher food prices than the most well off.
Study author Professor Sharon Friel says "without a doubt" the price of healthy food is one reason nearly two in three Australians is obese or overweight.
"Eating well is not an easy option for people and very sensibly they default to a less healthy diet because they can afford it," she said.
The study of 82 food outlets published in the Australian and New Zealand Journal of Public Health found the price disparity between healthy and unhealthy food was greatest in the most disadvantaged areas.
Income rises have failed to keep pace with the rise in food prices in low income households in the past six years, the study found.
Between 2003-04 and 2009-10, the overall price of food in Australia increased by 24 per cent while the disposable income of low income households increased by only 20 per cent.
Darren Sievers, of Winnellie, was treating himself to McDonalds after a two-week health kick off unhealthy food and meat. He thought the cost issue depended on whether or not people took the time to cook their own food.
"When you're eating healthy at a restaurant or something, it is expensive compared to buying McDonalds," he said. "But if you're cooking at home it's much cheaper to eat well."