Economic Costs and Benefits of Healthy Eating

Most Americans fail to meet federal dietary recommendations. This may be partly due to the costs of healthy eating. This article reviews the costs and benefits of healthy eating. On the cost side, we discuss food prices, food preparation and other time costs, transportation costs, psychological costs, costs of obtaining nutrition information, and costs of longer life expectancy. We do not summarize these costs with a single dollar value as the current literature does not provide estimates to support such quantification. In terms of benefits, we focus on five health conditions for which poor diet is a major risk factor: coronary heart disease, cancer, stroke, diabetes, and osteoporotic hip fractures. We estimate the benefits of healthy eating in the United States to be $114.5 billion per year (in 2012 dollars) in medical savings, increased productivity, and the value of prolonged life that are associated with reductions in these five conditions.