The cost of healthy and sustainable diets as purchased by consumers in Scotland

The COVID-19 pandemic has increased food insecurity worldwide, yet there has been limited assessment of shifts in the cost and affordability of healthy, equitable and sustainable diets. This study explores the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and income supplements provided by the Australian government on diet cost and affordability for low-income households in an Australian urban area. The Healthy Diets ASAP method protocol was applied to assess the cost and cost differential of current and recommended diets before (in 2019) and during the COVID-19 pandemic (late 2020) for households with a minimum-wage and welfare-only disposable household income, by area of socioeconomic disadvantage, in Greater Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. Data were collected between August and October, 2020, from 78 food outlets and compared with data collected in the same locations between May and October, 2019, in an earlier study. The price of most healthy food groups increased significantly during the pandemic—with the exception of vegetables and legumes, which decreased. Conversely, the price of discretionary foods and drinks did not increase during the pandemic. The cost of the current and recommended diets significantly increased throughout this period, but the latter continued to be less expensive than the former. Due to income supplements provided between May and September 2020, the affordability of the recommended diet improved greatly, by 27% and 42%, for households with minimum-wage and welfare-only disposable household income, respectively. This improvement in the affordability of the recommended diet highlights the need to permanently increase welfare support for low-income families to ensure food security.

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The cost of eating more sustainable diets: A nutritional and environmental diet optimisation study

Global Public Health ◽

10.1080/17441692.2021.1900315 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 1-14

Author(s):

Eliseu Verly-Jr ◽

Aline Martins de Carvalho ◽

Dirce Maria Lobo Marchioni ◽

Nicole Darmon

Keyword(s):

Sustainable Diets ◽

The Cost

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Affordability of current, and healthy, more equitable, sustainable diets by area of socioeconomic disadvantage and remoteness in Queensland: insights into food choice

International Journal for Equity in Health ◽

10.1186/s12939-021-01481-8 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 20 (1) ◽

Author(s):

Amanda Lee ◽

Dori Patay ◽

Lisa-Maree Herron ◽

Ella Parnell Harrison ◽

Meron Lewis

Keyword(s):

Low Income ◽

Food Choice ◽

Food Prices ◽

Socioeconomic Disadvantage ◽

Policy Action ◽

Remote Areas ◽

Sustainable Diets ◽

Preventable Risk Factor ◽

The Government ◽

The Cost

Abstract Background Poor diet is the leading preventable risk factor contributing to the burden of disease globally and in Australia, and is inequitably distributed. As the price of healthy foods is a perceived barrier to improved diets, evidence on the cost and affordability of current (unhealthy) and recommended (healthy, more equitable and sustainable) diets is required to support policy action. Methods This study applied the Healthy Diets ASAP (Australian Standardised Affordability and Pricing) methods protocol to measure the cost, cost differential and affordability of current and recommended diets for a reference household in Queensland, Australia. Food prices were collected in 18 randomly selected locations stratified by area of socioeconomic disadvantage and remoteness. Diet affordability was calculated for three income categories. Results Surprisingly, recommended diets would cost 20% less than the current diet in Queensland as a whole. Households spent around 60% of their food budget on discretionary choices (that is, those not required for health that are high in saturated fat, added sugar, salt and/or alcohol). Queensland families would need to spend around 23% of their income on recommended diets. However, recommended diets would not be affordable in low socioeconomic or very remote areas, costing 30 and 35% of median household income respectively. The government supplements due to the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic would improve affordability of recommended diets by 29%. Conclusions Study findings highlight that while price is one factor affecting consumer food choice, other drivers such as taste, convenience, advertising and availability are important. Nevertheless, the study found that recommended diets would be unaffordable in very remote areas, and that low-income families are likely experiencing food stress, irrespective of where they live in Queensland. Policy actions, such as increasing to 20% the current 10% tax differential between basic healthy, and unhealthy foods in Australia, and supplementing incomes of vulnerable households, especially in remote areas, are recommended to help improve diet equity and sustainability, and health and wellbeing for all.

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Affordability of current diets and healthy, more equitable, sustainable diets, by area of socioeconomic disadvantage and remoteness in Queensland: Insights into the drivers of food choice

10.21203/rs.3.rs-272615/v1 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Amanda J. Lee ◽

Dori Patay ◽

Lisa-Maree Herron ◽

Ella Parnell Harrison ◽

Meron Lewis

Keyword(s):

Low Income ◽

Food Choice ◽

Food Prices ◽

Socioeconomic Disadvantage ◽

Policy Action ◽

Remote Areas ◽

Sustainable Diets ◽

Preventable Risk Factor ◽

The Government ◽

The Cost

Abstract Background Poor diet is the leading preventable risk factor contributing to the burden of disease globally and in Australia, and is inequitably distributed. As the price of healthy foods is a perceived barrier to improved diets, evidence on the cost and affordability of current (unhealthy) and recommended (healthy, more equitable and sustainable) diets is required to support policy action. Methods This study applied the Healthy Diets ASAP (Australian Standardised Affordability and Pricing) methods protocol to measure the cost, cost differential and affordability of current and recommended diets for a reference household in Queensland, Australia. Food prices were collected in 18 randomly selected locations stratified by area of socioeconomic disadvantage and remoteness. Diet affordability was calculated for three income categories. Results Surprisingly, recommended diets would cost 20% less than the current diet in Queensland as a whole. Households spent around 60% of their food budget on discretionary choices (that is, those not required for health that are high in saturated fat, added sugar, salt and/or alcohol). Queensland families would need to spend around 23% of their income on recommended diets. However, recommended diets would not be affordable in low socioeconomic or very remote areas, costing 30% and 35% of median household income respectively. The government supplements due to the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic would improve affordability of recommended diets by 29%. Conclusions Study findings highlight that, although price is one factor affecting consumer food choice, other drivers such as taste, convenience, advertising and availability are important too. Nevertheless, the study found that recommended diets would be unaffordable in very remote areas, and that low income families are likely experiencing food stress, irrespective of where they live in Queensland. Policy actions, such as increasing to 20% the current 10% Goods and Services tax differential between basic healthy, and unhealthy foods in Australia, and supplementing incomes of vulnerable households, especially in remote areas, are recommended to help improve diet equity and sustainability, and health and wellbeing for all.

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The IBM-PC in electron microscopy

Proceedings, annual meeting, Electron Microscopy Society of America ◽

10.1017/s0424820100165525 ◽

1996 ◽

Vol 54 ◽

pp. 612-613

Author(s):

James F. Mancuso

Keyword(s):

Head Start ◽

Image Acquisition ◽

Cost Effective ◽

Financial Applications ◽

Number Of Factors ◽

Instrument Control ◽

The Cost ◽

Training And Support ◽

Control Image ◽

Ibm Pc

IBM PC compatible computers are widely used in microscopy for applications ranging from control to image acquisition and analysis. The choice of IBM-PC based systems over competing computer platforms can be based on technical merit alone or on a number of factors relating to economics, availability of peripherals, management dictum, or simple personal preference.IBM-PC got a strong “head start” by first dominating clerical, document processing and financial applications. The use of these computers spilled into the laboratory where the DOS based IBM-PC replaced mini-computers. Compared to minicomputer, the PC provided a more for cost-effective platform for applications in numerical analysis, engineering and design, instrument control, image acquisition and image processing. In addition, the sitewide use of a common PC platform could reduce the cost of training and support services relative to cases where many different computer platforms were used. This could be especially true for the microscopists who must use computers in both the laboratory and the office.

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New Feasible Concepts of Aberration Correction for Realizing High-Resolution Electron Microscopes

Proceedings, annual meeting, Electron Microscopy Society of America ◽

10.1017/s0424820100179762 ◽

1990 ◽

Vol 48 (1) ◽

pp. 202-203

Author(s):

H. Rose

Keyword(s):

Spherical Aberration ◽

Wave Length ◽

Electron Wave ◽

Optical Lens ◽

Resolution Electron ◽

Rotationally Symmetric ◽

Electron Microscopes ◽

The Cost ◽

Imaging Performance ◽

Acceleration Voltage

The imaging performance of the light optical lens systems has reached such a degree of perfection that nowadays numerical apertures of about 1 can be utilized. Compared to this state of development the objective lenses of electron microscopes are rather poor allowing at most usable apertures somewhat smaller than 10-2 . This severe shortcoming is due to the unavoidable axial chromatic and spherical aberration of rotationally symmetric electron lenses employed so far in all electron microscopes.The resolution of such electron microscopes can only be improved by increasing the accelerating voltage which shortens the electron wave length. Unfortunately, this procedure is rather ineffective because the achievable gain in resolution is only proportional to λ1/4 for a fixed magnetic field strength determined by the magnetic saturation of the pole pieces. Moreover, increasing the acceleration voltage results in deleterious knock-on processes and in extreme difficulties to stabilize the high voltage. Last not least the cost increase exponentially with voltage.

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