How Much More Expensive is Healthy Food in Every State?

We are what we eat, but we are also a product of the culture in which we consume it. Maintaining a healthy eating regime can be a source of anxiety even to informed and food-literate adults — due to the significant extra costs attached to buying many healthy food products.

“Following the Second World War, innovations in farming created a food system that could produce and sell us the most calories at the lowest cost, fulfilling the need that existed at the time,” explains a 2023 report from the Food Foundation on the difficulty of shopping healthy. “In doing so, we have created another set of problems — mass producing cheap foods that cause disease and damage the environment.”

Unfortunately, health-conscious consumers on tight budgets must make tough decisions in the grocery store aisle. However, buying cheaper, less healthy food can prove a false economy, leading to health conditions, income losses, increased living costs, and medical expenses. One Harvard study found that unhealthy diets result in $50 billion in additional healthcare costs every year, with copays and rising insurance premiums inflating household bills.

So, how significant is the difference in cost between healthy and unhealthy food? We compared prices in every state to find out.

What We Did

We manually gathered the prices of 20 core healthy and 20 core unhealthy (Target’s own-brand products) before calculating the total calories of each product. We grouped this data by state to compare the price per healthy and unhealthy calorie. Lastly, we calculated the average cost in each state to eat only healthy calories. We compared these costs to the average state salary to determine the affordability of a healthy diet.

Key Findings

• In Hawaii, healthy food is 3.70 times more expensive than unhealthy food — the largest disparity of any state.       
• New York has the second-highest annual cost of eating healthy: $14,525, compared to a national average of $10,614.
• Colorado has the lowest annual cost of eating healthy: $10,268 per year.
• Healthy eating is most affordable in Washington, costing 17.38% of the average annual salary.
  
  

Which States Pay the Biggest Premium for Healthy Food?

First, we compared the price of healthy food per calorie in every state against its equivalent unhealthy calorie. Hawaii has the biggest disparity between healthy and unhealthy food prices.

Healthy food costs 3.70 times more than unhealthy food, against a national average of 3.02. Further, healthy food in Hawaii costs 27.89% more than the U.S. average (see second map below).

Hawaii imports 85-90% of its food, a costly affair that disproportionately affects fresh produce. Prices also differ dramatically between different districts of Hawaii, making access to affordable healthy food more difficult for some, especially those who work long hours in rural areas. Locals have found that Electronic Benefit Transfer—a type of food stamp—is less likely to be available in shops that stock healthy food.

New York has the second-largest jump between healthy and unhealthy food prices. Healthy food in the Empire State costs 3.19 times more than unhealthy food. New York has a high cost of living in general, and healthy food is likely to have greater availability and cost more in wealthier areas of the state and New York City in particular.

Oregon pays 2.94 times more for healthy food than unhealthy food  — the lowest of any state. And Colorado has the cheapest healthy food basket, at $69.47 or -2.36% below the national average. However, Colorado residents may have trouble accessing healthy food: some 11% of Coloradans are food insecure, and while 5% of low-income Coloradans live more than ten miles from a grocery store, those in urban areas often find that grocery stores lack healthy options.

How Much You’d Pay Annually to Only Eat Healthy in Every State

Next, we added up the total cost of buying only healthy groceries for a year. Again, Hawaii ($14,525) and New York ($12,239) have the highest bills, and Colorado ($10,268) has the lowest. Alaska ($12,031) is the third most expensive state for healthy food. Like Hawaii, Alaska is subject to the raised costs of long-haul transport over the non-contiguous U.S., often in severe weather conditions.

Alaskan families face the further complication of accessing and integrating healthy traditional foods into their diet. The USDA’s Food Distribution Program on Indian Reservations (FDPIR) Self Determination Demonstration Project is a government scheme to provide 18 tribes on reservations in Alaska to do so. “This project is helping families and kids served by the program get more access to traditional foods, such as Alaska halibut, cod, and Alaska-grown potatoes, that are both healthy and valued by their cultures,” says the USDA’s Food and Nutrition Service Administrator, Cindy Long.

The States Where Healthy Food is Most and Least Affordable

Finally, we compared the cost of a year of healthy food to the local average salary in each state to determine where healthy eating is most affordable. Hawaii remains the state with the harshest deal, with the average local employee needing to pay 28.76% of the salary to cover the local cost of healthy food. However, New York slips out of the top ten as high average wages offset the added expense of buying healthy food locally.

Despite ranking 22nd for price, Washington (17.38%) has the best affordable healthy food due to the local average salary of $59,925.

However, one study “found systematic differences in healthy food availability based on neighborhood-level income and racial composition,” with low-income neighborhoods with a larger proportion of Black residents less able to access healthy food. However, the price of grains, eggs, and meat in these areas was found to be lower. The study concluded that “policies that increase community resources and availability of healthy food in the local food environment could benefit neighborhoods with lower incomes and larger proportions of Black residents.”

A Healthy Home

The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Dietary Guidelines for Americans, 2020-2025, suggests several small changes you can make to improve your diet, including:

•   Saving half your plate for fruit and vegetables.
•   Eating whole fruits and varying vegetable choices.
•   Opting for whole grains as at least half of your grain intake.
•   Limiting foods and drinks high in added sugars, saturated fat, and sodium.
•   Paying attention to portion size.

While culture and economics have a major bearing on what we eat, the most proactive solution may be to foster a mindful and engaged culture of food and nutrition in the home.

Methodology & Sources

To find out how much more residents in each U.S. state pay for healthy food compared to unhealthy food, we calculated the price per calorie of 20 core healthy and 20 core unhealthy foods in major cities in each state using data from Target.com.

This study was completed in July 2024, following the methodology below:

1. We curated a list of healthy and unhealthy products recommended in the American Journal of Lifestyle Medicine and Harvard Health:
   1. Healthy: Eggs, Apples, Potatoes, Blueberries, Sardines, Quinoa, Whole Grain Bread, Kale, Spinach, Broccoli, Green Beans, Bananas, Avocados, Almonds, Kidney Beans, Tofu, Salmon, Asparagus, Chicken Breast, Carrots.
   2. Unhealthy: Turkey Bacon, Bacon, Cheesecake, Hot Dogs, Pepperoni Pizza, Pretzels, Deli Ham Slices, French Fries, Pancakes, Crackers, Cheese Slices, Popcorn, Chocolate Cereal, Croissants, Potato Chips, White Bread Sliced, Milk Chocolate Bar, Breakfast Bar, Donuts, Cookies.
2. Focusing on Target's brands, we retrieved the prices of these products in at least three stores in every state. This yielded information for 7,200 products across 180 locations.
3. We calculated the total calories for each product using the disclosed nutritional information or by researching their average serving sizes and calories (primarily for fresh products like bananas or avocados).
4. With the prices and calorie counts in hand, we grouped the data by state. We calculated the price per healthy and unhealthy calorie, allowing us to determine how much more expensive healthy calories are.
5. Using the average annual calorie allowance recommended by the DGA (Dietary Guideline for Americans), we calculated the cost for an individual in each state to eat only healthy calories. The annual cost was also used to calculate the affordability of healthy calories in each state by comparing it to the median yearly state salary.
6. Finally, we ranked states based on the price premium for buying healthy food compared to the national median cost of healthy foods.