Food costs, diet quality and energy balance in the United States

Carlson, Andrea; Frazão, Elizabeth

doi:10.1016/j.physbeh.2014.03.001

Cited by 55 publications

(50 citation statements)

References 40 publications

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“…The effect of this can be to completely change the relationship observed, which has considerable implications for any research on food costs or food security. This finding is in line with previous work, 5, 14 which also found that fruits and vegetables went from being the most expensive to the least expensive food group depending on the price metric. As has been previously stated, 5 this finding is likely due to the low energy density of fruits and vegetables, which results in a low price per gram and a high price per calorie.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 93%

Comparing Prices for Food and Diet Research: The Metric Matters

Jones

Monsivais

2016

Journal of Hunger & Environmental Nutrition

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An important issue in research into access to healthy food is how best to compare the price of foods. The appropriate metric for comparison has been debated at length, with proponents variously stating that food prices should be compared in terms of their energy content, their edible mass, or their typical portion size. In this article we assessed the impact of using different food price metrics on the observed difference in price between food groups and categories of healthiness, using United Kingdom consumer price index data for 148 foods and beverages in 2012. We found that the choice of metric had a marked effect on the findings and conclude that this must be decided in advance to suit the reason for comparing food prices.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 93%

Comparing Prices for Food and Diet Research: The Metric Matters

Jones

Monsivais

2016

Journal of Hunger & Environmental Nutrition

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“…Two main methods have been used to quantify the community nutrition environment. The most common approach for determining neighborhood food availability involves enumerating the number of food outlets within a specified area such as a census tract or a predefined circular buffer using geographic information systems (GIS), whereas a second approach involves on-the-ground audits of stores in a neighborhood (20, 21, 84). Most studies enumerate food sources around the home, but more studies are now assessing food sources in reference to other places such as workplaces and schools.…”

Section: Neighborhood-level Food Availability (Community Nutrition Enmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Most studies enumerate food sources around the home, but more studies are now assessing food sources in reference to other places such as workplaces and schools. Studies have typically used GIS technology to quantify density and proximity measures of food outlets within defined geographical units (20, 84). Linking extant geospatial data to individual-level observational data is attractive to many investigators because this approach is less time- and resource-intensive than is field enumeration of neighborhood food outlets.…”

Section: Neighborhood-level Food Availability (Community Nutrition Enmentioning

confidence: 99%

Identifying the Effects of Environmental and Policy Change Interventions on Healthy Eating

Bowen

Barrington²,

Beresford

2015

Annu. Rev. Public Health

103

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Obesity has been characterized as a disease. Strategies to change the incidence and prevalence of this disease include a focus on changing physical and social environments, over and above individual-level strategies, using a multilevel or systems approach. We focus our attention on evidence published between 2008 and 2013 on the effectiveness of interventions in nutrition environments, i.e., environmental interventions designed to influence the intake of healthful foods and amount of energy consumed. An overarching socioecological framework that has guided much of this research was used to characterize different types of environmental strategies. Intervention examples in each area of the framework are provided with a discussion of key findings and related conceptual and methodological issues. The emphasis in this review is on adults, but clearly this literature is only one part of the picture. Much research has been focused on child-specific interventions, including environmental interventions. Some evidence suggests effectiveness of policy-based or other types of interventions that aim to regulate or restructure environments to promote healthy dietary choices, and these strategies would apply to both children and adults. Opportunities to evaluate these policy changes in adults’ social and physical environments are rare. Much of the existing research has been with children. As conceptual and methodological issues continue to be identified and resolved, we hope that future research in this domain will identify environmental strategies that can be included in intervention toolboxes to build healthy nutrition environments for both adults and children.

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“…Research based on alternative metrics such as cost per meal, cost per day, or cost per food weight has demonstrated weak positive, null, or inverse associations between diet cost and quality 12, 16–19 , including one cross-sectional analysis among youth with type 1 diabetes in which there was no significant association between diet cost and diet quality 19 . Cross-sectional, nationally representative data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey and the Center for Nutrition Policy and Promotion Food Prices Database demonstrated considerable variation in diet quality across all food spending levels 17 , suggesting that healthful eating may not require additional cost. A recent meta-analysis reviewed 27 studies from 10 different countries and concluded that results were largely mixed depending on how food cost was defined.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Can Families Eat Better Without Spending More? Improving Diet Quality Does Not Increase Diet Cost in a Randomized Clinical Trial among Youth with Type 1 Diabetes and Their Parents

Nansel¹,

Lipsky²,

Eisenberg³

et al. 2016

Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics

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Background Although cost is a frequently cited barrier to healthful eating, limited prospective data exist. Objective This study examined the association of diet cost with diet quality change. Design An 18-month randomized clinical trial evaluated a dietary intervention. Participants/setting Youth with type 1 diabetes duration ≥1 year, age 8.0 to 16.9 years (N=136), receiving care at an outpatient tertiary diabetes center in Boston, Massachusetts participated along with a parent from 2010 to 2013. Eighty-two percent of participants were from middle to upper income households. Intervention The family-based behavioral intervention targeted intake of whole plant foods. Main outcome measures Diet quality as indicated by the Healthy Eating Index-2005 (HEI-2005, measures conformance to 2005 Dietary Guidelines for Americans) and whole plant food density (WPFD, cup/oz equivalents per 1000 kcal of target food groups) were calculated from three-day food records of youth and parent dietary intake at six and four time points, respectively. Food prices were obtained from two online supermarkets common to the study location; daily diet cost was calculated by summing prices of reported foods. Statistical analyses performed Random effects models estimated treatment group differences in time-varying diet cost. Separate models for youth and parent adjusted for covariates examined associations of time-varying change in diet quality with change in diet cost. Results There was no treatment effect on time-varying diet cost for either youth [β (95%CI) = −0.49 (−1.07, 0.08), p=.10] or parents [β=0.24 (−1.61, 2.08) p=.80]. Additionally, time-varying change in diet quality indicators was not associated with time-varying change in diet cost for youth. Among parents, a 1 cup/oz-equivalent increase in whole plant food density was associated with a $.63/day lower diet cost [β=−0.63 (−1.20, −0.05), p=0.03]. Conclusions Improved diet quality was not accompanied by greater cost for youth with type 1 diabetes and their parents participating in a randomized clinical trial. Findings challenge the prevailing assumption that improving diet quality necessitates greater cost.

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Food costs, diet quality and energy balance in the United States

Cited by 55 publications

References 40 publications

Comparing Prices for Food and Diet Research: The Metric Matters

Comparing Prices for Food and Diet Research: The Metric Matters

Identifying the Effects of Environmental and Policy Change Interventions on Healthy Eating

Can Families Eat Better Without Spending More? Improving Diet Quality Does Not Increase Diet Cost in a Randomized Clinical Trial among Youth with Type 1 Diabetes and Their Parents

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