Eating healthy doesn’t just lead to better health. It may also lower how much Americans spend on healthcare, according to new research from the University of Georgia.

The study is the first of its kind to examine healthy food behavior alongside health expenditures, which include health insurance and copays, doctor or hospital visits, and prescription drugs.

Janani Rajbhandari

“Every household is in a constant state of managing household finances. It’s important to understand how the expenses made have consequences on household health and vice versa,” said Janani Rajbhandari, corresponding author of the study and a professor in the UGA College of Public Health.

The goal of the study was to understand and inform the policy shift around nutritious diets as a form of preventive medicine to alleviate the growing burden of medical costs.

Researchers from the College of Public Health and UGA’s College of Family and Consumer Sciences reviewed data from more than 4,000 households across the United States, collected in the National Household Food Acquisition and Purchase Survey (FoodAPS). The survey is a unique dataset that captures the cost of buying groceries that align with national dietary guidelines and other health-related expenses, alongside total household expenditures.

Families that identified as “eating more healthy food” spent about $1,082 overall in a month. Of that, $181 were health expenditures and $900 were other costs. Researchers also looked at families who said they didn’t eat healthy foods. Each month, those participants spent about $1,097 in all, with $197 going toward health expenditures and $899 in other costs.

The numbers show while families who ate healthily spent less overall monthly and spent less on health expenditures. They were then able to apply those savings to other household needs, Rajbhandari said.

For the 43.4% of households that believe eating healthy foods costs too much, these findings could show that a higher grocery bill can have other budgetary benefits, she added.

“We know that diet is an integral part of health,” said Rajbhandari. “We also know that people perceive eating healthy as costlier, but our results emphasize that healthy eating should be a priority in household spending.”

For example, families can choose to avoid high calorie, low nutrient foods and opt for more nutrient-dense options at the store. A similar approach could also be applied to programs like the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, to impact more families.

The next step is continued research, said Rajbhandari. Better understanding of the relationship between healthy food costs and health expenditures can help influence diet recommendations from healthcare providers, shape food assistance program guidelines and more.

By Mackenzie Patterson