Between 702 and 828 million people were affected by hunger worldwide in 2021. Undernourishment relentlessly continues to hit the world, and particularly Sub-Saharan Africa. This research presents a diet optimization approach to analyse economic affordability of nutritionally adequate diets across 4 African countries: Ethiopia, Kenya, South Africa and Uganda. The targeted population includes dyads of women in reproductive age and their children between 6 and 24 months. The approach allows contrasting the outcomes of the model with data from food consumption surveys in primary and secondary cities of each country. Results provide food intakes (by food groups) enabling nutritional adequacy while minimizing changes to consumption preferences, otherwise, the outcomes indicate which nutrient recommendations are unattainable under the current scenario. We evaluate the nutritional impacts of maintaining diet affordability, and include scenarios with extremely scarce resources. Conclusions include paths for further modelling development and for supporting discussion for future dietary guidelines.