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Healthy food costs increased by 11%: health unit report
Tuesday September 9 2008
By ADAM MARTIN-ROBBINS Banner Staff Writer
 
The weekly cost for a family of four to eat healthy meals has shot up by more than 11 per cent — the largest increase in 11 years, according to survey results released by the local health unit.
Results from this year’s Nutritious Food Basket survey, which was presented to the Wellington-Dufferin-Guelph (WDG) Board of Health Sept. 3, shows it costs on average $149.09 a week for a family of four — two adults, two children — to eat nutritious food. That represents an increase of 11.5 per cent from last year when it cost $133.67.
“It’s the biggest jump we’ve seen in the 11 years we’ve done this,” said Jane Bellman, a public health dietitian at WDG Public Health.
The local health unit has conducted Nutritious Food Basket survey annually since 1998.
WDG Public Health dietitians visited seven grocery stores in Wellington and Dufferin counties in June and compared prices on 66 specific items from the four food groups in Canada’s Food Guide to Healthy Eating, including grain and dairy products, vegetables and fruit, as well as meat and alternatives such as beans. The costs were then averaged to arrive at a total.  
The food items included a variety of less expensive options from the four food groups, while items with little nutritional value, such as soft drinks and potato chips were not included, noted Bellman. The basket also didn’t include other items frequently bought at the grocery store such as laundry detergent, soap, toothpaste or toilet paper.
Bellman attributes the significant jump to the rising price of grain and soaring transportation costs.
“I suspect all food prices are going to go up because of those reasons,” she said.
Grain-based products, such as bread and pasta, are up more than 13 per cent compared with last year, while the price at the pump, driven by a doubling of crude oil prices have climbed by about 30 per cent, according to Statistics Canada.
In light of the rising cost of eating healthy foods, Bellman says the local health unit – and health units across the province – will continue to press government to provide adequate assistance to low-income families to ensure they can afford to eat nutritious foods.
“Making healthy food choices is essential for normal growth and development, and to prevent disease,” she said in a news release.  “The survey results reinforce the need to assess the adequacy of social assistance in the province as well as increase the support of local initiatives to assist individuals and groups with limited incomes.”
Those local initiatives include providing information on dieting and how to eat healthily, she added.
But if the upward trend continues more drastic steps may be taken, said Bellman.
 “It’s only one year, it usually doesn’t jump this high. There has to be more of a trend to do anything more dramatic,” she said. “If next year, it stays high and if it is (high) across the province, we might do more advocacy with the province.”