Abstract
The study aimed to analyze the economic impact of the adoption of optimized and nutritionally balanced diets to Brazilian families, considering the Brazilian dietary guidelines and the economic disparities of the population. Data from the Brazilian Household Budget Survey from 2008-2009 (550 strata; 55,970 households) were used. About 1,700 foods and beverages purchased by the Brazilians were classified into 4 groups according to NOVA system. Linear programming models estimated isoenergetic diets preserving the current diet as baseline and optimizing healthier diets gradually based on the "golden rule" of the Brazilian dietary guidelines, respecting nutritional restrictions for macronutrients and micronutrients (based on international recommendations) and food acceptance limits (10th and 90th percentiles of the per capita calorie distribution from the population). The diet cost was defined based on the sum of the average cost of each food group, both in the current and optimized diets (BRL per 2,000Kcal/person/day). The economic impact of the Brazilian dietary guidelines to Brazilian household budget was analyzed by comparison the cost of the optimized diets to the cost of the current diet, calculated for the total population and by income level. Three healthier diets were optimized. Current diet cost was BRL 3.37, differed among low- and high-income strata (BRL 2.62 and BRL 4.17, respectively). Regardless of income, diet cost decreased when approaching the guidelines. However, low-income strata compromised their household budget more than two times the high-income strata (20.2% and 7.96%, respectively). Thus, the adoption of healthier eating practices can be performed with the same or lower budget.
Highlights
The non-communicable diseases (NCD) are the leading causes of death worldwide; their greatest burden can be seen among low- and middle-income countries
The relative contribution of unprocessed or minimally processed foods and of processed culinary ingredients in the current diet was greater among low-income strata when compared with the high-income strata (55.3%, compared to 43.4% and 25.4%, compared to 22.8%, respectively), whereas the relative contribution of processed and ultraprocessed foods was greater in the high-income strata (9.5%, compared to 7.5% and 24.3%, compared to 11.8%, respectively) (Table 3)
The relative contribution of unprocessed or minimally processed foods gradually increased in the optimized diets from 54.9% to 69.4%, the relative contribution of processed foods remained stable (8.9%), whereas the relative contribution of processed culinary ingredients and ultra-processed foods decreased from 18.4% to 12.7% and from 17.8% to 9.1%, respectively
Summary
The non-communicable diseases (NCD) are the leading causes of death worldwide; their greatest burden can be seen among low- and middle-income countries. Efforts must be focused on reducing the prevalence of major risk factors for NCD, with special focus on unhealthy food consumption [2,3]. In this sense, food-based dietary guidelines offer a unique opportunity to benefit population health. Brazil has an innovative and a worldwide-recognized dietary guideline 5, based on the NOVA food classification system 6 This system has been used in several countries to effectively address the quality of diets and their effect on all forms of malnutrition, and on the sustainability of food systems 6. The consumption of fresh food (unprocessed or minimally processed foods) is enforced as the basis of food consumption, whereas the consumption of ultra-processed foods is discouraged 6
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