Just weeks after USDA published a high-profile study posing the
question ‘Are Healthy Foods Really More Expensive ?’,
researchers in Seattle, Baltimore and the UK have responded with
a new study providing the answer: ‘Yes’. In their paper
'Nutrient Intakes Linked to Better Health Outcomes Are
Associated with Higher Diet Costs in the US’, Adam Drewnowski,
Pablo Monsivais and Anju Aggarwal argue that nutrient-rich diets
cost more. Dr Drewnowski, who is director of the Center for
Public Health Nutrition at the University of Washington,
Seattle, has hit the headlines several times over the past two
years after publishing a series of papers highlighting the
challenges of meeting the 2010 Dietary Guidelines for Americans
, particularly for consumers on low incomes. He has also urged
policymakers to take a “reality check ” after repeatedly
highlighting the disparity between “aspirational” diets and hard
reality based on actual eating patterns identified from federal
nutrient composition and dietary intake databases.