Abstract
BackgroundFood-Based Dietary Guidelines (FBDGs) are developed to promote healthier eating patterns, but increasing food prices may make healthy eating less affordable. The aim of this study was to design a range of cost-minimized nutritionally adequate health-promoting food baskets (FBs) that help prevent both micronutrient inadequacy and diet-related non-communicable diseases at lowest cost.MethodsAverage prices for 312 foods were collected within the Greater Copenhagen area. The cost and nutrient content of five different cost-minimized FBs for a family of four were calculated per day using linear programming. The FBs were defined using five different constraints: cultural acceptability (CA), or dietary guidelines (DG), or nutrient recommendations (N), or cultural acceptability and nutrient recommendations (CAN), or dietary guidelines and nutrient recommendations (DGN). The variety and number of foods in each of the resulting five baskets was increased through limiting the relative share of individual foods.ResultsThe one-day version of N contained only 12 foods at the minimum cost of DKK 27 (€ 3.6). The CA, DG, and DGN were about twice of this and the CAN cost ~DKK 81 (€ 10.8). The baskets with the greater variety of foods contained from 70 (CAN) to 134 (DGN) foods and cost between DKK 60 (€ 8.1, N) and DKK 125 (€ 16.8, DGN). Ensuring that the food baskets cover both dietary guidelines and nutrient recommendations doubled the cost while cultural acceptability (CAN) tripled it.ConclusionUse of linear programming facilitates the generation of low-cost food baskets that are nutritionally adequate, health promoting, and culturally acceptable.
Highlights
In OECD countries micronutrient inadequacy can co-exist with excess calorie intake [1,2]
Linear Programming to Develop Cost-Minimized Health-Promoting Food Baskets baskets cover both dietary guidelines and nutrient recommendations doubled the cost while cultural acceptability (CAN) tripled it
Use of linear programming facilitates the generation of low-cost food baskets that are nutritionally adequate, health promoting, and culturally acceptable
Summary
In OECD countries micronutrient inadequacy can co-exist with excess calorie intake [1,2]. Evidence suggests that increased intake of micronutrient-dense foods with low energy density can help to prevent nutrition-related noncommunicable diseases (NCD) along with micronutrient inadequacies [5] and corresponding national food-based dietary guidelines (FBDGs) have been developed in many countries [6]. Micronutrientdense foods are relatively expensive [7] so people, especially those on low incomes, buy less and this increases risk of micronutrient inadequacies [8]. Even in high-income countries, economic constraints and actual lifestyles lead people to consume diets with a low micronutrientenergy ratio [9]. Both micronutrient inadequacy and excess weight gain is expected to increase along with inequalities during economic crises even in high-income countries [10]. The aim of this study was to design a range of cost-minimized nutritionally adequate health-promoting food baskets (FBs) that help prevent both micronutrient inadequacy and diet-related non-communicable diseases at lowest cost
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