Affordability of fruits and vegetables and dietary quality worldwide
Authors: Amanda Lee
Journal: The Lancet Global Health (2016)

The major preventable risk factor contributing to the burden of disease worldwide is a poor diet, including inadequate fruit and vegetable consumption.1Healthy dietFact sheet number 394. World Health Organization, Geneva2015http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs394/enGoogle Scholar, 2Global nutrition report 2016From promise to impact: ending malnutrition by 2030. International Food Policy Research Institute, Washington, DC2016http://ebrary.ifpri.org/utils/getfile/collection/p15738coll2/id/130354/filename/130565.pdfGoogle Scholar In many low-income and middle-income countries, undernutrition—ie, not having enough food—has been a major concern. However, the diet-related burden of disease in these regions is shifting towards non-communicable diseases, such as heart disease, type 2 diabetes, and some cancers. Improving nutrition in all countries now requires both interventions to reduce the intake of harmful foods high in saturated fat, added sugar, and salt, and interventions to increase consumption of healthy foods, such as fruits and vegetables.2Global nutrition report 2016From promise to impact: ending malnutrition by 2030. International Food Policy Research Institute, Washington, DC2016http://ebrary.ifpri.org/utils/getfile/collection/p15738coll2/id/130354/filename/130565.pdfGoogle Scholar WHO recommends a minimum intake of 400 g (ie, five servings) of fruits and vegetables (excluding potatoes and other starchy tubers) per person per day.1Healthy dietFact sheet number 394. World Health Organization, Geneva2015http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs394/enGoogle Scholar Interventions to improve diets require a greater understanding of the social, economic, and political determinants of healthy eating.2Global nutrition report 2016From promise to impact: ending malnutrition by 2030. International Food Policy Research Institute, Washington, DC2016http://ebrary.ifpri.org/utils/getfile/collection/p15738coll2/id/130354/filename/130565.pdfGoogle Scholar In The Lancet Global Health, Victoria Miller and colleagues3Miller V Yusuf S Chow CK et al.AAvailability, affordability, and consumption of fruits and vegetables in 18 countries across income levels: findings from the Prospective Urban Rural Epidemiology (PURE) study.Lancet Glob Health. 2016; (published online August 23.)http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S2214-109X(16)30186-3Google Scholar estimate the consumption, availability, and affordability of fruits and vegetables in 18 countries across a range of economic levels, and subsequently relate affordability to consumption. Mean per-person intakes were low in all countries studied (3·76 servings [95% CI 3·66–3·86] per day), and ranged from 2·14 servings (1·93–2·36) per day in low-income countries to 5·42 servings (5·13–5·71) per day in high-income countries. Affordability of fruits and vegetables decreased as the economic level of countries decreased; the proportion of household income required to purchase recommended quantities (two servings of fruits and three servings of vegetables) ranged from 1·85% (95% CI −3·90 to 7·59) in high-income countries to 51·97% (46·06–57·88) in low-income countries. Consumption of fruits and vegetables decreased with affordability. Although such findings are not unexpected, this study3Miller V Yusuf S Chow CK et al.AAvailability, affordability, and consumption of fruits and vegetables in 18 countries across income levels: findings from the Prospective Urban Rural Epidemiology (PURE) study.Lancet Glob Health. 2016; (published online August 23.)http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S2214-109X(16)30186-3Google Scholar is the first to investigate the relation between fruit and vegetable consumption and affordability worldwide. As with all multicountry collaborative studies, this ambitious research project faced many methodological challenges. Several limitations of the study are addressed by the authors.3Miller V Yusuf S Chow CK et al.AAvailability, affordability, and consumption of fruits and vegetables in 18 countries across income levels: findings from the Prospective Urban Rural Epidemiology (PURE) study.Lancet Glob Health. 2016; (published online August 23.)http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S2214-109X(16)30186-3Google Scholar Another limitation is that definitions of fruits and vegetables can vary, thus affecting comparability between countries. For example, the definition includes starchy varieties in some countries such as Australia, where at least two servings (150 g) of fruits and five servings (75 g) of vegetables (total 675 g) are recommended per adult per day.4Australian Dietary GuidelinesCanberra: National Health and Medical Research Council.http://www.eatforhealth.gov.auDate: 2013Google Scholar Serving sizes and population perception of these can also vary. Such challenges might have affected quantitative estimates of fruit and vegetable intakes in this study. The semi-quantitative food frequency questionnaires used a serving size of 125 g.3Miller V Yusuf S Chow CK et al.AAvailability, affordability, and consumption of fruits and vegetables in 18 countries across income levels: findings from the Prospective Urban Rural Epidemiology (PURE) study.Lancet Glob Health. 2016; (published online August 23.)http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S2214-109X(16)30186-3Google Scholar Hence, extrapolation produces a mean global intake of 470 g per day, which exceeds WHO recommendations. Most self-reported dietary survey methods are subject to social desirability bias, and consumption of perceived healthy foods tends to be overestimated. Although answers to the questionnaires were validated against 24 h dietary recalls, further validation against objective biomedical indicators of fruit and vegetable intake might be warranted. Nevertheless, this issue should not compromise the internal validity of the findings. So what could be done to improve the affordability of fruits and vegetables? Governments can regulate food prices using a range of complex policy approaches that target underlying political, economic, sociocultural, and environmental determinants at local, national, and international levels.5WHO EuropeUsing price policies to promote healthier diets. WHO Regional Office for Europe, Copenhagen2015http://www.euro.who.int/__data/assets/pdf_file/0008/273662/Using-price-policies-to-promote-healthier-diets.pdfGoogle Scholar, 6Lee A Mhurchu CN Sacks G et al.Monitoring the price and affordability of foods and diets globally.Obes Rev. 2013; 14: 82-95Crossref PubMed Scopus (120) Google Scholar At a national level, the most common strategies to reduce the price of fruits and vegetables relative to less healthy foods are exemption of healthy foods from a goods and services tax or a value-added tax; subsidies to agriculture and related industries, such as rural and transport subsidies; and subsidies or voucher systems targeted to high-risk groups.6Lee A Mhurchu CN Sacks G et al.Monitoring the price and affordability of foods and diets globally.Obes Rev. 2013; 14: 82-95Crossref PubMed Scopus (120) Google Scholar The promotion of fruits and vegetables is often considered the so-called low-hanging fruit of nutrition interventions, because their intake can indicate the nutritional quality of diets. Moreover, promotion of fruits and vegetables is likely to be more palatable economically to governments and the food industry than are interventions that restrict intake of unhealthy choices. But a sole focus on increasing fruit and vegetable consumption might not be enough to improve diets. Between 1986 and 2012, remote Aboriginal communities in Australia successfully doubled fruit and vegetable intake when the relative affordability of these foods improved by 30%.7Lee A Rainow S Tregenza J et al.Nutrition in remote Aboriginal communities: lessons from Mai Wiru and the Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara Lands.Aust N Z J Public Health. 2015; 40: S81-S88PubMed Google Scholar However, the overall effect was a decline in total diet quality, characterised by increased supply and intake of foods high in saturated fat, added sugar, or salt, particularly sugar-sweetened beverages, convenience meals, and takeaway foods, reflecting broader concomitant changes to the Australian food supply.7Lee A Rainow S Tregenza J et al.Nutrition in remote Aboriginal communities: lessons from Mai Wiru and the Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara Lands.Aust N Z J Public Health. 2015; 40: S81-S88PubMed Google Scholar Australian households now spend around 58% of their food budget on these unhealthy foods; only 10–15% is spent on fruits and vegetables, compared with 29% of the food budget (around 7% of disposable household income) required to achieve recommended intakes.8Lee AJ Kane S Ramsey R Good E Dick M Testing the price and affordability of healthy and current (unhealthy) diets and the potential impacts of policy change in Australia.BMC Public Health. 2016; 16: 315Crossref PubMed Scopus (79) Google Scholar The International Network for Food and Obesity/non-communicable diseases Research, Monitoring and Action Support (INFORMAS)9Swinburn B Sacks G Vandevijvere S et al.INFORMAS (International Network for Food and Obesity/non-communicable diseases Research, Monitoring and Action Support): overview and key principles.Obes Rev. 2013; 14: 1-12Crossref Scopus (333) Google Scholar is working globally to benchmark and monitor the healthiness of food environments, including diet price and affordability,6Lee A Mhurchu CN Sacks G et al.Monitoring the price and affordability of foods and diets globally.Obes Rev. 2013; 14: 82-95Crossref PubMed Scopus (120) Google Scholar using standardised methods. It is not clear from Miller and colleagues' study3Miller V Yusuf S Chow CK et al.AAvailability, affordability, and consumption of fruits and vegetables in 18 countries across income levels: findings from the Prospective Urban Rural Epidemiology (PURE) study.Lancet Glob Health. 2016; (published online August 23.)http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S2214-109X(16)30186-3Google Scholar whether the investigators have plans to repeat this cross-sectional survey; but if so, the methods could articulate within the INFORMAS stepwise framework.9Swinburn B Sacks G Vandevijvere S et al.INFORMAS (International Network for Food and Obesity/non-communicable diseases Research, Monitoring and Action Support): overview and key principles.Obes Rev. 2013; 14: 1-12Crossref Scopus (333) Google Scholar Ideally, intracountry variation should also be examined to better target strategies to improve diet and health equity. Miller and colleagues show that purchasing the recommended amount of fruits and vegetables can be beyond the household budget, particularly in low-income countries. If fresh produce is unavailable or unaffordable, education alone will not increase consumption. Policy actions to increase affordability of fruits and vegetables will require market intervention and supportive regulations, and are essential to tackle global malnutrition in all its forms. I declare no competing interests. Availability, affordability, and consumption of fruits and vegetables in 18 countries across income levels: findings from the Prospective Urban Rural Epidemiology (PURE) studyThe consumption of fruit and vegetables is low worldwide, particularly in LICs, and this is associated with low affordability. Policies worldwide should enhance the availability and affordability of fruits and vegetables. Full-Text PDF Open Access