Healthy food is three times more expensive than less nutritious alternatives, a study has found.
And the cost of eating well is rising much faster than that of eating poorly, Cambridge University researchers have warned.
Researchers found that in 2012, the average price for 1,000 calories of healthy food was £7.49. This compared to £5.65 in 2002.
However, the same amount of unhealthy food was just £2.50 in 2012, compared to £1.77 a decade earlier.
The ‘cost per calorie’ of 94 key food and drink items was tracked by the team, which used government criteria to define what was ‘healthy’.
They suggested more could be done to take into account the cost of living well when making decisions about public health.
Dr Pablo Monsivais, from the university’s Centre for Diet and Activity Research, said: 'To help achieve long-term improvements in eating habits, we need to address the high and rising prices of healthier foods.
'This is likely to be influenced by a number of factors including agricultural policy, food distribution and retail pricing strategies.Additionally, there is growing evidence that targeted subsidies can promote healthy eating for people on low incomes.'
Diet-related illness costs the NHS an estimated £5.8billion annually, the research - published in the journal PLOS One - noted.
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