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Economic assessment of nutritional recommendations

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  • Irz, Xavier
  • Leroy, Pascal
  • Réquillart, Vincent
  • Soler, Louis-Georges

Abstract

The effect of consumers’ compliance with nutritional recommendations is uncertain because of potentially complex substitutions. To lift this uncertainty, we adapt a model of consumer behaviour under rationing to the case of linear nutritional constraints. Dietary adjustments are thus derived from information on consumer preferences, consumption levels, and nutritional contents of foods. A calibration exercise simulates, for different income groups, how the French diet would respond to various nutrition recommendations, and those behavioural adjustments are translated into health outcomes through the DIETRON epidemiological model. This allows for the ex-ante comparison of the efficiency, equity and health effects of ten nutritional recommendations. Although most recommendations impose significant taste costs on consumers, they are highly cost-effective, with the recommendations targeting salt, saturated fat, and fruits and vegetables (F&V) ranking highest in terms of efficiency. A five percent change in consumption of any of those nutrients or food would reduce premature mortality in excess of 2100 lives annually. By contrast, urging consumers to modify their consumption of fibers, sugar-fat products and dietary cholesterol is unlikely to be socially desirable, often due to large unintended adjustments in some dimensions of dietary quality. Most recommendations are economically progressive, with the exception of that targeting F&V.

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  • Irz, Xavier & Leroy, Pascal & Réquillart, Vincent & Soler, Louis-Georges, 2014. "Economic assessment of nutritional recommendations," TSE Working Papers 14-473, Toulouse School of Economics (TSE).
  • Handle: RePEc:tse:wpaper:27927
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    Cited by:

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    2. Stéphan Marette, 2017. "Jill E. Hobbs, Stavroula Malla, Eric K. Sogah and May T. Yeung, 2014, Regulating Health Foods. Policy Challenges and Consumer Conundrums," Review of Agricultural, Food and Environmental Studies, Springer, vol. 98(1), pages 93-94, July.
    3. Irz, Xavier & Jensen, Jørgen Dejgaard & Leroy, Pascal & Réquillart, Vincent & Soler, Louis-Georges, 2017. "A Cross-Country Comparison of the Sustainability Effects of Dietary Recommendations," 2017 International Congress, August 28-September 1, 2017, Parma, Italy 261114, European Association of Agricultural Economists.
    4. Stéphan Marette, 2021. "Sustainability and Consumer Willingness to Pay for Legumes: A Laboratory Study with Lentils," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(6), pages 1-16, March.
    5. Irz, Xavier & Mazzocchi, Mario & Réquillart, Vincent & Soler, Louis-Georges, 2015. "Research in Food Economics: past trends and new challenges," Revue d'Etudes en Agriculture et Environnement, Editions NecPlus, vol. 96(01), pages 187-237, March.
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    7. Cesar Revoredo-Giha & Hasibi Zavala-Nacul & Luiza Toma, 2022. "Assessing the Nutritional Impact of an Increase in Orphan Crops in the Kenyan Diet: The Case of Millet," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(5), pages 1-14, February.
    8. Monika Zurek & Aniek Hebinck & Adrian Leip & Joost Vervoort & Marijke Kuiper & Maria Garrone & Petr Havlík & Thomas Heckelei & Sara Hornborg & John Ingram & Anneleen Kuijsten & Lindsay Shutes & Johann, 2018. "Assessing Sustainable Food and Nutrition Security of the EU Food System—An Integrated Approach," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(11), pages 1-16, November.
    9. Cliona Ni Mhurchu & Helen Eyles & Murat Genc & Peter Scarborough & Mike Rayner & Anja Mizdrak & Kelechi Nnoaham & Tony Blakely, 2015. "Effects of Health-Related Food Taxes and Subsidies on Mortality from Diet-Related Disease in New Zealand: An Econometric-Epidemiologic Modelling Study," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 10(7), pages 1-17, July.
    10. Requillart, V. & Irz, X. & Jensen, J. & Leroy, P. & Soler, L.-G., 2018. "Promoting Climate-Friendly Diets: What Should We Tell Consumers in Demark, Finland and France?," 2018 Conference, July 28-August 2, 2018, Vancouver, British Columbia 277057, International Association of Agricultural Economists.
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    12. Wisdom Dogbe & Cesar Revoredo-Giha, 2021. "Nutritional and Environmental Assessment of Increasing the Content of Fruit and Vegetables in the UK Diet," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(3), pages 1-23, January.
    13. Sophie Drogue & Marlène Perignon & Nicole Darmon & Marie Josèphe Amiot, 2020. "Does a better diet reduce dependence on imports? The case of Tunisia," Agricultural Economics, International Association of Agricultural Economists, vol. 51(4), pages 567-575, July.
    14. Chalmers, N. & Revoredo-Giha, C., 2018. "Increasing fruit and vegetable consumption whilst incorporating consumer preferences," 2018 Conference, July 28-August 2, 2018, Vancouver, British Columbia 277060, International Association of Agricultural Economists.
    15. Sanjib Saha & Jonas Nordstrom & Ulf-G Gerdtham & Irene Mattisson & Peter M Nilsson & Peter Scarborough, 2019. "Prevention of Cardiovascular Disease and Cancer Mortality by Achieving Healthy Dietary Goals for the Swedish Population: A Macro-Simulation Modelling Study," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 16(5), pages 1-11, March.
    16. Irz, Xavier & Leroy, Pascal & Réquillart, Vincent & Soler, Louis-Georges, 2016. "Welfare and sustainability effects of dietary recommendations," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 130(C), pages 139-155.
    17. Cesar Revoredo-Giha & Luiza Toma & Faical Akaichi & Ian Dawson, 2022. "Exploring the effects of increasing underutilized crops on consumers’ diets: the case of millet in Uganda," Agricultural and Food Economics, Springer;Italian Society of Agricultural Economics (SIDEA), vol. 10(1), pages 1-21, December.
    18. Doro, Erica & Réquillart, Vincent, 2018. "Sustainable diets: are nutritional objectives and low-carbon-emission objectives compatible?," TSE Working Papers 18-913, Toulouse School of Economics (TSE).
    19. Young, Jeffrey S., 2021. "Measuring palatability as a linear combination of nutrient levels in food items," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 104(C).
    20. Linda Cobiac & Xavier Irz & Pascal Leroy & Vincent Requillart & Peter Scarborough & Louis Georges Soler, 2019. "Accounting for consumers’ preferences in the analysis of dietary recommendations," Post-Print hal-02244975, HAL.
    21. Rutten, Martine & Achterbosch, Thom J. & de Boer, Imke J.M. & Cuaresma, Jesus Crespo & Geleijnse, Johanna M. & Havlík, Petr & Heckelei, Thomas & Ingram, John & Leip, Adrian & Marette, Stéphan & van Me, 2018. "Metrics, models and foresight for European sustainable food and nutrition security: The vision of the SUSFANS project," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 163(C), pages 45-57.
    22. Anders, Sven & Schroeter, Christiane, 2015. "The Impact of Nutritional Supplement Choices on Diet Behavior and Obesity Outcomes," 2016 Allied Social Sciences Association (ASSA) Annual Meeting, January 3-5, 2016, San Francisco, California 212806, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    23. Stéphan Marette & Vincent Réquillart, 2020. "Dietary models and challenges for economics," Review of Agricultural, Food and Environmental Studies, Springer, vol. 101(1), pages 5-22, October.
    24. Revoredo-Giha, Cesar & Zavala-Nacul, Hasibi & Toma, L., 2021. "Assessing an Increase of Orphan Crops in the Kenyan Diet," 2021 Conference, August 17-31, 2021, Virtual 315174, International Association of Agricultural Economists.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    food choice; diet; rationing; norms; healthy;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D1 - Microeconomics - - Household Behavior
    • D6 - Microeconomics - - Welfare Economics
    • I1 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health

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