Abstract
Background/AimsEAT–Lancet Commission’s Planetary Health Diet proposed a diet that integrates nutrition and sustainability considerations, however its affordability is unknown in many country-specific contexts, including Australia. The aim of this study is to develop a healthy and sustainable food basket modelled on the Planetary Health Diet to determine the affordability of the Planetary Health Diet basket across various socio-economic groups, and compare this affordability with a food basket modelled on the typical current diet, in an Australian setting.MethodsAn Australian-specific Planetary Health Diet basket was developed for a reference household (2 adults and 2 children) modelled on the Planetary Health Diet reference diet, and compared to a previously-developed Typical Australian Diet basket. The cost of each food basket was determined by online supermarket shopping surveys in low, medium and high socio-economic areas in each Australian state. Basket affordability was determined for the reference household by comparing the basket cost to disposable income in each socio-economic group in each state. Mann-Whitney U tests then determined if there were significant differences between the median costs and the median affordability of both baskets.ResultsThe Planetary Health Diet basket was shown to be less expensive and more affordable than the Typical Australian Diet basket nationally, in all metropolitan areas, in all socio-economic groups across Australia (median cost: Planetary Health Diet = AUD$188.21, Typical Australian Diet = AUD$224.36; median affordability: Planetary Health Diet = 13%, Typical Australian Diet = 16%; p = < 0.05).ConclusionsThis study showed the Planetary Health Diet to be more affordable than the Typical Australian Diet for metropolitan-dwelling Australians.ImplicationsThese results can help to inform public health and food policy aimed at achieving a healthy and sustainable future for all Australians, including reductions in overweight/obesity rates and increased food security.
Highlights
While the weekly cost of each basket was the same across all SEIFA-IRSAD quintiles for each metropolitan area (i.e. Coles did not vary their prices as postcodes were changed, within areas), the weekly family disposable income varied, meaning the proportion needed to purchase each basket was greater in the lower socio-economic areas (SEIFA-IRSAD quintile 1), and lesser in the higher socio-economic areas (SEIFA-IRSAD quintile 5)
At the time of the survey, the weekly cost of the Planetary Health Diet (PHD) basket was highest in Brisbane metropolitan area ($196.60) and lowest in Sydney metropolitan area ($182.31), with affordability highest in SEIFA-IRSAD quintile 5 of Darwin and Sydney metropolitan areas
This study found SEIFA-IRSAD quintile 1 households are required to dedicate an average of 17% of their weekly income to a healthy and sustainable diet, compared to 21% of their weekly income required for a typical diet, indicating that the PHD would be more affordable for metropolitan-dwelling Australians than what was typically consumed currently regardless of socio-economicadvantage
Summary
Global diets and food systems [1], and the populations relying on them, are experiencing major challenges in terms of both health and sustainability which are predicted to worsen – models project that if global eating patterns do not change away from the current diets characterised by excess energy, processed-meat and refined sugar consumption ( in high-incomeGoulding et al Nutrition Journal (2020) 19:109Recently released research has proposed a global diet which, if widely adopted (within the context of each country and culture), is predicted to help to alleviate these issues of malnutrition and unsustainability [3].The inherent link between food systems and climate change Food insecurity [6] is being exacerbated by climate change, with temperature changes, droughts and/or floods affecting food crops and food accessibility in regions worldwide, including Australia [6,7,8,9,10]. Global agriculture and food production accounts for 19–29% of greenhouse gas emissions [18], 70% of freshwater use [19], ≈40% of land use [20], 78% of eutrophication [21], and 94% of the biomass of non-human mammals is livestock [21] Together, this makes agriculture and food production one of the largest causes of environmental damage [22] which has a great effect on human and planetary health, but is an area that we have a degree of control over to bring about positive change [3, 23]. The EAT–Lancet Commission report provides some evidence that the most effective way to lessen the environmental impact of our food systems may be to change our diet to a more sustainable one, such as the Planetary Health Diet (PHD) discussed further below [3, 27]
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