MULTIMEDIA: The price of a healthy Malaysian diet

SUGGESTED TEASER TEXT: Rising food prices affect many Malaysians, but how much does it really cost to eat healthy? We pored over the data, went grocery shopping and cooked some meals to find out.

By DIYANA PFORDTEN and SHYAFIQ DZULKIFLI

PETALING JAYA: For Malaysians struggling with the cost of living, the price of a healthy diet is getting harder to swallow as food prices continue to go up.

The question is – how much does it cost to eat healthy?

Data from the World Bank offers one estimate, albeit at the lower end of the price range.

According to the international financial institution, the minimum cost of a healthy diet in Malaysia is RM5.94 per person per day.

Such an amount will buy the least expensive locally available foods to meet requirements for energy and food-based dietary guidelines for one person.

According to the World Bank, fruits make up the biggest portion of the cost for a healthy diet, at 24.9% or RM1.35 a day, followed by animal source foods at 23.8% (RM1.28) and vegetables at 20.8% (RM1.12).

Khazanah Research Institute’s (KRI) research associate Dr Teoh Ai Ni said the total price of of a healthy diet is much higher than the World Bank’s  estimate.

This is due to hidden costs such as time spent to acquire the food, food preparation, transportation cost, as well as energy and fuel costs.

“It does not fully capture the cost we incur every day. 

“One is reason is that the definitions used by World Bank and Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) reflect the most affordable locally available food. 

“The fact is that as a consumer, we don't constantly go hunting for the most affordable options for us,” said Teoh, who wrote a KRI discussion paper in June about food environment and nutrition inequalities in Malaysia.

 

 

The Star also referred to the Health Ministry’s 2020 Malaysia Dietary Guidelines to find out how much healthy eating costs.

The ministry’s guide contains a menu of recommended meals along with ingredients, serving sizes and nutritional information.

Using the information, we went to a grocery outlet in Petaling Jaya, Selangor, to buy all the items needed to create a week’s worth of healthy meals.

Calculating from the total bill, we found that it cost an average of RM17.90 per day to eat healthy, based on the meals listed in the guide.

Watch the video below for details.

 

 

Animal-source foods made up 30% of our bill, followed by vegetables (18.3%), starches (16.7%), oils and fats (16.2%), fruits (12.2%) and legumes, nuts and seeds (6.7%).

 

Teoh said that when prices of certain foods go up, many people in the lower income groups cope by adjusting their spending.

“In many cases, they opt to spend on food that is higher in starch such as like rice, bread, grains.

“These foods will give more carbohydrates and more energy versus a diet with more fruits and vegetables which are full of nutrients but lower in energy,” she said.

 

 

The World Bank’s data shows that an estimated 1.8% of the country’s population – which is about 600,000 people - could not afford to eat a healthy diet in 2022.

The figures also show that the share of Malaysia’s population who cannot afford a healthy diet has fallen over the years, from 4% in 2017 to 1.8% in 2022.

Teoh said the reduction is mainly due to numerous government policies.

They include food subsidies, cash transfer for the poor, food assistance and food bank.

Despite the drop, Teoh said the current situation cannot be taken lightly.

“We cannot underestimate the numbers because 600,000 is still a lot of people for Malaysia, an upper-middle-income country.”

Teoh said that the cost of a healthy diet would continue to rise in the future.

Without a commensurate increase in income and wages, more people would not be able to afford a healthy diet. 

“That means this problem will persist or might even turn into a bigger issue, especially when our country is also facing an issue of wage stagnation,” she said.

Teoh said bigger households are spending increasingly more money eating out due to time costs.

This, she said, exposes them to more unhealthy food options, compared to eating at home.

“When you are cooking at home, you are more in control. When we eat out we have more unhealthy options.” 

The cost of a healthy diet can also be affected by locality and cultural or ethnic influences, said Teoh.

To support a healthier diet in Malaysia, Teoh said that it is crucial to invest in research and infrastructure for increasing fruit and vegetable production and reduce food wastage, lower transportation costs, and to stabilise food prices. 

She said improving wages and addressing broader issues like urban planning and labour policies are essential to ensure that people can afford and have access to nutritious food.

 

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