Unhealthy Food Is Cheaper Than Fruit and Vegetables

Calculations from an upcoming paper published in yesterday's report The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World by the UN's Food and Agriculture Organization shows why it is so hard to eat healthy. People all over the world struggle with affording healthy foods, as the data shows. As of the latest 2021 numbers, vegetables were on average nine times more expensive than starchy food staples, while the same number of calories could be bought in ultra-processed foods or confectionaries at just 2.7-2.8 times the cost.

Calories from fruits were 5.8 times as expensive as the same energy ingested through starchy staples, the same as animal sourced foods. Processed foods were actually a little more expensive than unprocessed and minimally processed food, according to the findings, but both were more expensive than ultra-processed food items. An inexpensive and largely healthy source of food are legumes, nuts and seeds at only 1.8 times the price of the comparable amount of calories from starchy staples like bread, potatoes or rice.

Food inflation has been an issue throughout the coronavirus pandemic and the invasion of Ukraine by Russia, both of which disrupted global supply chains and the worldwide economy in general. While food insecurity - which can refer to having too little to eat as well as struggling to eat a healthy and balance diet - has subsided a little since then, it remains on a high level globally.