Is healthy eating too expensive?: How low-income parents evaluate the cost of food

• Published in: Social science & medicine (1982) Vol. 248; pp. 112823 - 8
• Main Author: Daniel, Caitlin
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: England Elsevier Ltd 01.03.2020; Pergamon Press Inc
• Subjects: Affordability; Caregivers; Consumers; Cost estimates; Costs; Decision-making; Diet; Diet, Healthy; Food; Food choice; Food cost; Food prices; Food processing industry; Health disparities; Healthy food; Humans; Interviews; Low income groups; Needs assessment; Parents; Poverty; Qualitative methods; Refuse Disposal; Researcher subject relations; Shopping; United States; Decision-making; Qualitative methods; Poverty; Food choice; Diet; United States; Food cost; Health disparities
• ISSN: 0277-9536; 1873-5347; 1873-5347
• DOI: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2020.112823

Debates about whether a healthy diet is affordable often overlook how low-income consumers themselves evaluate food cost. This question is relevant to explaining food choices and measuring food prices. Drawing on interviews with 49 low-income primary caregivers and grocery-shopping observations with 34 of these interviewees, I find that respondents judge food cost in two ways: 1) absolute judgments, or assessments of whether a food covers a family's needs with scarce resources and 2) relative judgments, or interpretations of price relative to another food that frames an item as affordable or pricey by contrast. Absolute judgments reflect actual expenditures, including not just the sticker price, but also four underappreciated monetary costs. These underappreciated costs stem from food waste; packages containing more than is needed; food that is consumed too quickly; and unsatiating foods. When monetary costs go unmeasured and when consumers interpret prices in relative terms, researchers' views of food cost diverge from the experiences of low-income people. Divergent views have two results: food-cost estimates overstate the affordability of a healthy diet and observers may misconstrue purchases as financially imprudent. These findings can inform policy, programming, and public discourse. •Low-income people pay unmeasured monetary costs in food purchasing.•Low-income people judge food prices relative to other food prices.•Perceived and objective price differ due to unmeasured costs and relative judgment.•Unmeasured costs and relative judgments affect food choice and diet quality.•Food-cost estimates should reflect unmeasured monetary costs.