The Observatory team looked into the matter in a study recently published in the journal Public Health Nutrition.

The conclusion is that, for five categories of processed foods (sliced bread, breakfast cereals, salty snacks, cheese products, and cookies), foods high in salt or sugar are less expensive than their healthier alternatives.

“Processed foods aren’t necessarily of poor nutritional quality,” explains doctoral student Isabelle Petitclerc, the study’s first author. “For example, products such as whole-grain cereals or sliced bread that are low in sugar and sodium are of good nutritional quality.”

The authors of the study published in Public Health Nutrition are Isabelle Petitclerc, Sonia Pomerleau, Laure Saulais, Geneviève Mercille, Marie-Ève Labonté, and Véronique Provencher.

To read to article in Public Health Nutrition

To read the press release (French only)