The cost of adhering to the Norwegian food-based dietary guidelines

Changing the contemporary Norwegian diet towards adherence to the food-based dietary guidelines does not necessary cost considerable more.

Introduction: Last year, the Norwegian health authorities introduced new food-based dietary guidelines (FBDG). There has been a debate about whether the recommended healthy food choices are affordable for everyone. Our objective was to assess the price of a diet in line with the FBDG compared with the contemporary Norwegian diet, which does not follow the FBDG, given todays food prices.

The food environment is defined as the physical, economic, political, and sociocultural system that we interact with. Food prices are a central part of the food environment, influencing what we buy and eat.

Method: To investigate this question, we created two 14-day menus. One represents the average intake as reported in the national dietary surveys, illustrating todays’ typical diet for each household member. The comparative menu incorporates the food-based dietary guidelines for milk, fish, red meat, wholemeal cereals, alcohol, nuts, fruit, and vegetables (dietary guideline menu).

The menus were designed for a household of four: one woman, one man, one 4-year-old girl and one 13-year-old boy.

Food prices vary daily and sometimes even within the same day. We created the menus and found prices for all food items, whether as ingredients, whole foods, or ready-made foods, depending on how the food was prepared and consumed. The food prices were collected on a single day in February 2025, from the website “Oda”, a home delivery grocery service, along with a few other speciality shop websites (such as Vinmonopolet). To ensure comparability, the cheapest price for each food item was chosen, but special value sales was avoided.

Results: The differences between todays’ menu and the dietary guideline menu include an increased intake of milk, fish, wholemeal cereals, nuts, fruit, and vegetables, and a reduced intake of red meat and alcohol. For women, there was hardly any difference between cost of the two menus, with a daily price of 113 Norwegian kroner (NOK) for today’s menu, and 112 NOK for the dietary guideline menu. The increased intake of fruit and vegetables from 350 g/day to 600 g/day amounted to an additional 20 NOK/day, while the reduction in beverages, including alcohol, saved 20 NOK/day. The results for the rest of the household will be presented at the conference.

Conclusion: By making the best food choices by changing the contemporary Norwegian diet towards the FBDG does not necessary cost more money. However, this requires food knowledge, cooking skills, and will involve considerable change in habits.