The affordability of diets that align with the UK's dietary advice and the Eatwell Guide.

Abstract

Unhealthy diets are a leading cause of preventable ill health. Healthy diets tend to be more expensive than less healthy diets and as such are more likely to be consumed by individuals with a higher income. This review paper discusses the development of the Eatwell Guide, evaluates the affordability of a diet consistent with the Eatwell Guide ('the Eatwell Guide diet') and explores how food pricing can be leveraged to encourage and support healthier dietary choices. The Eatwell Guide is the UK's food-based dietary guidelines. It provides healthy eating advice that is intended to facilitate policy cohesion but is also used as a public-facing health promotion tool. The cost of food has increased and recent estimates suggest that the Eatwell Guide diet is now more expensive than the current average diet. There is strong evidence that subsidies would be effective at increasing the uptake of healthy diets. Monitoring the cost of a healthy diet is important for policy development; however, we should exercise caution when considering how to incorporate costs into food-based dietary guidelines and be mindful of the limitations of the data that could support this.