Meeting UK dietary recommendations is associated with higher estimated consumer food costs: an analysis using the National Diet and Nutrition Survey and consumer expenditure data, 2008-2012

Abstract

Objective: To test whether diets achieving recommendations from the UK's Scientific Advisory Committee on Nutrition (SACN) were associated with higher monetary costs in a nationally representative sample of UK adults.

Design: A cross-sectional study linking 4 d diet diaries in the National Diet and Nutrition Survey (NDNS) to contemporaneous food price data from a market research firm. The monetary cost of diets was assessed in relation to whether or not they met eight food- and nutrient-based recommendations from SACN. Regression models adjusted for potential confounding factors. The primary outcome measure was individual dietary cost per day and per 2000 kcal (8368 kJ).

Setting: UK.

Subjects: Adults (n 2045) sampled between 2008 and 2012 in the NDNS.

Results: On an isoenergetic basis, diets that met the recommendations for fruit and vegetables, oily fish, non-milk extrinsic sugars, fat, saturated fat and salt were estimated to be between 3 and 17 % more expensive. Diets meeting the recommendation for red and processed meats were 4 % less expensive, while meeting the recommendation for fibre was cost-neutral. Meeting multiple targets was also associated with higher costs; on average, diets meeting six or more SACN recommendations were estimated to be 29 % more costly than isoenergetic diets that met no recommendations.

Conclusions: Food costs may be a population-level barrier limiting the adoption of dietary recommendations in the UK. Future research should focus on identifying systems- and individual-level strategies to enable consumers achieve dietary recommendations without increasing food costs. Such strategies may improve the uptake of healthy eating in the population.

Keywords: Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension; Dietary guidance; Dietary intake; Food prices; National Diet and Nutrition Survey; Nutritional surveillance; Scientific Advisory Committee for Nutrition.

Fig. 1

Scatter plot and best-fit line of dietary cost and dietary energy intake. Dietary data from 2045 adults participating in Years 1–4 of the UK National Diet and Nutrition Survey Rolling Programme, 2008–2012 (1 kcal=4·184 kJ)

Fig. 2

Mean diet cost (with 95 % CI represented by vertical bars) for diets in relation to the number of UK dietary recommendations met for key nutrient and food groups (advised by the Scientific Advisory Committee on Nutrition (SACN)) adjusted for age, sex and occupational social class. Dietary data from 2045 adults participating in Years 1–4 of the UK National Diet and Nutrition Survey Rolling Programme, 2008–2012 (1 kcal=4·184 kJ)