Community food bank study dispels belief healthy diets are costly
Research shows that such diets are less costly when compared to the cheapest USDA-recommended diet
- Date January 5, 2016
- Source: Lifespan
- Summary: Contrary to popular belief, healthy diets rich in fruits and vegetables are affordable, say researchers whose study focused on community food bank programs.
Research conducted by The Miriam Hospital and The Rhode Island Community Food Bank demonstrated that -- contrary to popular belief -- healthy diets rich in fruits and vegetables are affordable. In fact, the study found that a plant-based, extra-virgin olive oil diet is cheaper than the most economical recommendations for healthy eating coming from the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). The comparison to the USDA diet showed an annual savings of nearly $750 per person, while also providing significantly more servings of vegetables, fruits and whole grains. The study and its findings were published last month in the Journal of Hunger & Environmental Nutrition.
"We did this analysis because it is commonly said that healthy diets are expensive and that it is the fruits and vegetables that make them too expensive," said Mary Flynn, Ph.D., a research dietitian at The Miriam Hospital and the lead researcher on the study. "Extra-virgin olive oil is also thought to be expensive, but we suspected it was meat that made a diet expensive, and extra-virgin olive oil is cheaper than even small amounts of meat. We expected the two diets to be similar in fruit and vegetable content, but our plant-based diet was substantially cheaper, and featured a lot more fruits and vegetables and whole grains."
