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Healthy diets in rural Victoria—Cheaper than unhealthy alternatives, yet unaffordable

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journal contribution
posted on 2024-06-15, 08:02 authored by Penny LovePenny Love, Jill WhelanJill Whelan, Colin BellColin Bell, F Grainger, Cherie RussellCherie Russell, M Lewis, A Lee
Rural communities experience higher rates of obesity and reduced food security compared with urban communities. The perception that healthy foods are expensive contributes to poor dietary choices. Providing an accessible, available, affordable healthy food supply is an equitable way to improve the nutritional quality of the diet for a community, however, local food supply data are rarely available for small rural towns. This study used the Healthy Diets ASAP tool to assess price, price differential and affordability of recommended (healthy) and current diets in a rural Local Government Area (LGA) (pop ≈ 7000; 10 towns) in Victoria, Australia. All retail food outlets were surveyed (n = 40). The four most populous towns had supermarkets; remaining towns had one general store each. Seven towns had café/take-away outlets, and all towns had at least one hotel/pub. For all towns the current unhealthy diet was more expensive than the recommended healthy diet, with 59.5% of the current food budget spent on discretionary items. Affordability of the healthy diet accounted for 30–32% of disposable income. This study confirms that while a healthy diet is less expensive than the current unhealthier diet, affordability is a challenge for rural communities. Food security is reduced further with restricted geographical access, a limited healthy food supply, and higher food prices.

History

Journal

International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health

Volume

15

Article number

ARTN 2469

Pagination

1 - 16

Location

Switzerland

Open access

  • Yes

ISSN

1661-7827

eISSN

1660-4601

Language

English

Publication classification

C1 Refereed article in a scholarly journal

Copyright notice

2018, the authors

Issue

11

Publisher

MDPI