14 DAY TRIAL // A common misconception is that diets are automatically more expensive than eating “regular” food, which more often than not, is junk food. A new research shows that families can in fact save money by choosing to eat healthy.
Published in the latest issue of the esteemed British Journal of General Practice, the study indicates that parents of obese children may save £6.58 ($10.2) weekly, by choosing to buy healthy foods and stick to a diet, rather than eating junk food.
The investigation was led by experts at the University of Bristol, who were coordinated by professors Julian Hamilton-Shield and Debbie Sharp. They analyzed the shopping habits of a series of British families, and identified how they purchased foods and why.
While the conclusions of this study may appear to be obvious to many, there are those who cite costs as one of the main hurdles of undergoing a dietary change. Most often, this is an excuse hiding the real reasons why diets are not popular, but that excuse has now been removed.
During the experiment, the Bristol team looked at how much it would cost for families to replace unhealthy food options with healthier ones. They found out that the amount of money needed to do so would be far smaller than that currently being spent on junk food.
In the worst-case scenario, families would have to pay £2.31 ($3.6) per week to eat healthy. However, in most cases, there are savings to be made, especially if people change some of the shops they usually buy from.
“Food cost is frequently cited as a reason for failure to address eating behaviors in clinical practice, and this study demonstrates that for many this is a perceived rather than real barrier,” says Hamilton-Shield, who is based at the UB School of Clinical Sciences and the Bristol Royal Hospital for Children.
When compiling the new conclusions, the team also took into account a large number of other factors that may influence what family members eat, such as for example taste preferences, cooking times and skills, and other family circumstances.
With the modifications the UB researchers made to the test families' diets, the amount of extra calories consumed daily – in respect to the estimated average requirements (EAR ) – dropped from 221 to just 7.