In Australia, Mediterranean Diet Costs Less than Alternatives, Study Finds

New research from the University of Southern Australia con­firmed the Mediterranean diet is good for health and fits a lower weekly bud­get.

The study com­pared food bas­kets of the Mediterranean, the typ­i­cal Australian Western and the Australian Guide to Healthy Eating diets.

The Mediterranean diet was more cost-effec­tive than other stan­dard diets, sav­ing 28 Australian dol­lars (€17) per week while offer­ing higher nutri­tional value.

“Many peo­ple may think that eat­ing ​‘healthy’ is expen­sive and it takes a lot of time to pre­pare and cook food,” Karen Murphy, an asso­ciate pro­fes­sor at the University of Southern Australia, told Olive Oil Times.

“We know from pre­vi­ous research from around the world and from our stud­ies here in Australia that the Mediterranean diet is a healthy dietary pat­tern; Australians can fol­low the pat­tern and, as a result, achieve ben­e­fits to their car­dio­vas­cu­lar health and mem­ory,” she added.

Ella Bracci, a Ph.D. can­di­date at the University of Southern Australia and first author of the study, told Olive Oil Times that the research sought to update the con­cept of healthy food bas­kets, designed to mon­i­tor food afford­abil­ity and pric­ing for indi­vid­u­als and tra­di­tional nuclear fam­i­lies.

“They have been mod­eled from our dietary guide­lines but may no longer apply to the com­po­si­tion of house­holds (cou­ples, sin­gles, sin­gle par­ents, etc.), may not meet 100 per­cent of dietary require­ments and may use sim­ply the cheap­est brand pos­si­ble, which does not reflect the lat­est con­sumer pur­chas­ing trends,” she said.

The study aimed to achieve two main out­comes. The first was to update the Healthy Food Basket for Australia with rel­e­vant pur­chas­ing trends and house­hold com­po­si­tions, includ­ing a cou­ple with chil­dren, a sin­gle par­ent with two chil­dren, two elderly pen­sion­ers and a sin­gle adult.

The sec­ond out­come was to com­pare the cost of fol­low­ing a Mediterranean dietary pat­tern with Australian dietary rec­om­men­da­tions for healthy eat­ing – the Australian Guide to Healthy Eating – and with that of a typ­i­cal Western diet based on the most recent sur­vey of what Australians eat.

“If dietary guide­lines are mov­ing towards pre­dom­i­nantly plant-based diets like the Mediterranean diet, we need to under­stand the costs and afford­abil­ity for all Australians,” Murphy said. ​“A healthy food bas­ket does not cur­rently exist for Australians.”

The Mediterranean diet food bas­ket was mod­eled from a seven-day meal plan. The design met all house­hold nutri­ent rec­om­men­da­tions except the dietary zinc needed for a 44-year-old male.

“The Mediterranean diet bas­ket was gen­er­ally the most inex­pen­sive way of eat­ing. It costs 78 Australian dol­lars (€46) for a sin­gle-per­son house­hold and 285 Australian dol­lars (€170) for a four-per­son house­hold,” Murphy said.

Vegetables were the main con­trib­u­tor to all house­hold food bas­kets. In con­trast, meat and veg­eta­bles were the main cost for the Australian Guide to Healthy Eating bas­kets, and dis­cre­tionary foods such as bis­cuits and processed meats were the most sig­nif­i­cant con­trib­u­tors to the Western diet bas­kets.

“Vegetables were, in fact, the low­est-cost com­po­nent of the Western diet,” Bracci said.

The authors said the study could inspire action­able steps for peo­ple seek­ing a bud­get-friendly approach to the Mediterranean-style diet.

“Use the prin­ci­ple of a din­ner plate with a ratio of plant to ani­mal foods of 4:1,” Murphy said. Keeping a few prin­ci­ples in mind, she advised home chefs to sub­sti­tute red meat with legumes and beans.

“Choose foods in sea­son,” she added. ​“Frozen fruit and veg­eta­bles are fine, and canned veg­eta­bles and fruits (in nat­ural) juice are great to con­sume. Dried or canned legumes and beans are another good way of includ­ing pulses in your diet.”

“Choose white meat over red, and choose the appro­pri­ate por­tion size – gen­er­ally, use the palm of your hand to esti­mate the size of meat in a serv­ing,” Murphy said.

”If you have the space, pur­chase prod­ucts in bulk,” Bracci rec­om­mended. ​“Home brand prod­ucts may just be as good as branded prod­ucts – give them a try.”

Her favorite tip starts in the gar­den. ​“Grow your own herbs – oregano, pars­ley, thyme, and mint are good ones to start with.”

Simplifying cook­ing and shop­ping often starts with plan­ning a weekly menu. ​“Plan your weekly menu so you can shop to a menu and avoid food wastage,” Murphy said. ​“Choose sim­ple recipes with com­mon ingre­di­ents, so you don’t have to pur­chase spe­cialty prod­ucts and 15 dif­fer­ent herbs and spices.”

“A lot of Mediterranean dishes are sofrito based – extra vir­gin olive oil, gar­lic, onion and toma­toes – we can cheat by cook­ing some onion and fresh gar­lic in good qual­ity extra vir­gin olive oil and adding pas­sata or a can of diced or chopped toma­toes – a great base for soups, pasta and sauces,” Bracci said.

“When peo­ple think about the Mediterranean diet, they some­times think about pizza and pasta, com­mon foods con­sumed in Italy,” she added. ​“We must rec­og­nize that there are many dif­fer­ent diets and cuisines from many coun­tries sur­round­ing the Mediterranean basin.”

The study authors note that many peo­ple have a good gen­eral under­stand­ing of the com­po­si­tion of a Mediterranean diet. However, Bracci said, ​“peo­ple might not under­stand that it is really a way of life.”

“It is not just about eat­ing and focus­ing on food groups, but it also rec­og­nizes fru­gal­ity, includ­ing choos­ing foods in sea­son,” she con­cluded. ​“The lifestyle includes eat­ing socially, con­sum­ing wine in mod­er­a­tion, being active, tak­ing time to rest and choos­ing eco-friendly prod­ucts for a sus­tain­able envi­ron­ment.”

• University of South Australia