Cheap junk food expands waistlines in EMs: study

Rome

EATING healthy is becoming an expensive luxury in emerging market countries, where vegetable prices have spiked while high fat, sugary junk foods have become cheaper, economists said on Monday.

Prices of fruit and vegetables rose by 91 per cent from 1990 to 2012, while the costs of ultra-processed ready-to-eat meals dropped by up to 20 per cent in Brazil, China, South Korea and Mexico, researchers wrote in the first study of its kind on emerging economies.