Higher price inflation for fruit and vegetables compared to other foods may be a key factor in understanding high obesity rates, a recent report by the U.K.'s Overseas Development Institute (ODI) has found.

Photo: Tony Alter, via Flickr Creative Commons

The study 'The rising cost of a healthy diet' covered the U.K., the U.S., Mexico, Brazil, China and South Korea, with a key finding that produce prices had risen 2-3% on average per year since 1990, while for other foods the rate stood at around 1-2%.

From 1990 to 2012, fruit and vegetable prices increased by 55-91% depending on the crop and region, while for some processed foods like ready meals the price actually fell by 20%.

"In high income countries over the last 30 years it seems that the cost of healthy items in the diet has risen more than that of less healthy options, thereby encouraging diets that lead to excess weight," the report said.

"It seems the same may apply in emerging economies, such as Brazil, China, Korea and Mexico, where prices of fruit and vegetables have been rising more than most other foods, including energy-dense processed foods.

"Foods that are typically dense in energy make it possible to eat large amounts of calories before feeling full. They include the two categories of fats, oils and sugar; and highly processed foods."

On the more extreme ends of the spectrum, U.K. ice cream prices have fallen by 50% since 1980 while fruit and vegetable prices are up 199%. In Korea, the price of cabbage – a common ingredient of traditional dishes such as kimchi – has risen by 60%, and in China green vegetables have become twice as expensive over the last two decades.

To prevent distortion in the data, the researchers factored inflation across the whole economy out of price comparisons in order to spotlight specific trends in food budgets.

"If, for example, technical progress in farming were uniform, so that unit costs of production were falling for all agricultural output, and if advances in the logistics of food wholesaling and retailing were similarly uniform, then we might expect the costs of most foods to move roughly in line with one another. But that is not the case," the report said.

"So why have fruit and vegetables become more costly compared to other items? It is not as though there have not been technical advances in horticulture; on the contrary some of the most sophisticated seeds, oil, nutrition, water control, and prevention of pests and diseases are seen precisely in the gardens and glasshouses in which so many fruit and vegetables are grown.

"While there is a world of difference between Dutch heated glasshouses and the tiny plots of green beans of central Kenya, in both cases, compared to other agriculture in their neighbourhoods, these systems are both more intensive and use more sophisticated technology than most other local farm enterprises."

The report authors said this raised a few potential hypotheses, one being that horticulture had a 'stepped supply function', and others being that cost increases had gone into raising quality or perhaps there was simply higher demand from consumers who appreciated fruits and vegetables.

However, they emphasized evidence from the literature review suggested prices did affect consumption, especially for people on low incomes.

Obesity rates

The report included not only data on food prices, but also a literature view of existing studies into obesity and food consumption.

"In Brazil, the consumption of 'ultra-processed' ready-to-eat food and has risen from 80 kg per person per year in 1999 to around 110 kg per person per year by 2013," said ODI researcher and report co-author Steve Wiggins.

"Using the weight of the food as a measure, this is equivalent to each person eating an extra 140 Big Macs a year."

In Brazil, the annual cost of disease related to excess weight is US$1.2 billion, while another Latin American country - Mexico has had diabetes as the leading cause of death since 2002.

China has seen the smallest proportional increase in overweight and obesity rates, but because of its sheer population size it outstrips the burden of the U.K. and the U.S. by 50 million people.

What can be done?

Wiggins said he hoped the report would help prompt policymakers to consider market mechanisms to "nudge diets in the right direction", such as moderate taxes on less healthy foods.

"In January 2014, in an attempt to curb obesity, Mexico introduced taxes on sugary drinks and energy-dense food. Everyone is watching to see what effects these taxes have, as policy-makers in rich and poor countries struggle to respond to the looming health epidemic caused by changing diets," he said.

"Research in the UK in 2009 predicted that imposing a VAT-style 17.5% tax on less healthy food and using the proceeds to subsidise fruit and vegetables would save between 3,600 and 6,400 premature deaths a year from diet-related disease.

"Even the lower estimate (3,600) is more than twice as many as the amount of people that die on the roads in the UK and a huge effort is put into road safety."

The report is very timely given today is Food Revolution Day, an initiative championed by British celebrity chef Jamie Oliver with a focus on increasing food education around the world, calling on G20 leaders to take action.

"In most countries around the world diet-related disease kills more people than it ever has done before. Why does that matter? Because it’s preventable," Oliver said in a video.

"By fighting for every child’s right for quality food education, we can help reverse the global rise of obesity and diet-related disease. Together we can force governments around the world to stop ignoring this issue."

The ODI study shows governments will need to consider a range of policies to incentivize fruit and vegetable consumption in order to cut obesity rates.

Last year, Hunger Hero award recipient and International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) head Dr. Shenggen Fan told www.freshfruitportal.com government subsidies for commodity crops were prompting the “wrong” dietary patterns with either undernutrition, a lack of micronutrients or overnutrition.

"Policy has failed. Governments have subsidized the production of grains, such as rice, maize and wheat, and that makes it easier for these crops to compete with the cost of vegetables," Fan said.

"Right now we don’t have the right price. The price is distorted for grains; they’ve been distorted because of the over-subsidization of grain production, and the taxation of fruits and vegetables."

www.freshfruitportal.com