New research from the University of Auckland shows that eating healthily in New Zealand costs around $7 per week more than eating less healthy foods.

The Clinical Trials Research Unit looked at the weekly cost of food shopping for a family of two adults and two children. A shopping basket containing popular (but less healthy) foods cost NZ$90.21 compared with healthier alternatives, which cost NZ$96.63.

Two competing shopping baskets were made up from ninety popular food choices, one basket containing regular items and the other the healthier options. The baskets included meat and poultry, butter and margarine, cheese, soft drinks, canned fruit, milk, bread, breakfast cereal and canned fish. The study’s main focus consisted of shopping baskets from 2004.

It turned out that healthy shopping cost more for meat and poultry (27%), butter and margarine (44%) and cheese (19%).

Buying healthier was cheaper for fish, breakfast cereal and bread.

Weight for weight, the healthier basket contained fewer calories (29%), less fat (35%), less saturated fat (52%), less sugar (56%), and less sodium (20%) than the regular basket.

“With New Zealand’s high rates of heart disease and diabetes, people should be looking to make healthier lifestyle choices,” says Dr Cliona Ni Mhurchu of the Faculty of Medical and Health Sciences.”

However, it is popularly thought that eating healthier means spending more. Our research has shown that making some important healthier choices, such as eating chicken breast instead of drumsticks or drinking low-fat milk rather than full-fat, would only make about a $7 difference in a weekly family shop. This should not cause a major impact on the diet in terms of taste or choice, but could have important health benefits.”

Note: The ENZ Cost of Living Calculator assumes a typical family of four will spend considerably more on food than $90 or $97 per week. We believe the calculator more closely reflects the expected lifestyles of typical migrants in New Zealand.