Elizabeth Frazao

Are Healthy Foods Really More Expensive? It Depends on How You Measure the Price

Most Americans consume diets that do not meet Federal dietary recommendations. A common explanation is that healthier foods are more expensive than less healthy foods. To investigate this assumption, the authors compare prices of healthy and less healthy foods using three different price metrics: the price of food energy (

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

/calorie), the price of edible weight (

Can Low-income Americans Afford to Satisfy MyPyramid Fruit and Vegetable Guidelines?

/100 edible grams), and the price of an average portion (

Assessing the Effects of Diet/Health Awareness on the Consumption and Composition of Fat Intake

/average portion). They also calculate the cost of meeting the recommendations for each food group. For all metrics except the price of food energy, the authors find that healthy foods cost less than less healthy foods (defined for this study as foods that are high in saturated fat, added sugar, and/or sodium, or that contribute little to meeting dietary recommendations).

The Infant Formula Market: Consequences of a Change in the WIC Contract Brand

The high obesity rates and poor diet quality in the United States, particularly among low income populations, are often attributed to low income, low food access, and high food prices of healthy foods. This paper discusses these associations and questions some of the metrics used to measure food prices. The paper argues that 1. On average, Americans consume diets that need improvement and there is only a very limited relationship between income and diet quality; 2. The way the food price is measured makes a difference in the perception of how expensive healthy and less healthy food is; 3. The way Americans allocate their food budgets between healthy and less healthy foods is not in line with healthy diets; and 4. At any food spending level there are households that purchase healthy (and unhealthy) diets, including budgets at or below the maximum allotment for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) which provides a means for low-income households to purchase food. Our key finding is that healthy foods and diets are affordable, but policy makers, nutrition educators, researchers and the media need to focus on promoting this message, and providing additional guidance on making the changes for Americans to switch to a healthy and affordable diet.

Nutrition and Health Characteristics of Low-Income Populations: Clinic Measures of Iron, Folate, Vitamin B12, Cholesterol, Bone Density, and Lead Poisoning

OBJECTIVE To estimate the costs of satisfying MyPyramid fruit and vegetable guidelines, with a focus on whether low-income households can bear these costs. DESIGN Descriptive analysis of the 2008 National Consumer Panel with information on the food purchases of 64,440 households across the contiguous United States was used to analyze the cost of fruits and vegetables. Costs per MyPyramid cup-equivalents were calculated by accounting for cooking yields and the portion of a food items retail weight that is inedible. VARIABLES MEASURED Costs per cup-equivalent for less expensive fruits and vegetables by MyPyramid subgroup including whole and cut fruit, fruit juice, dark green vegetables, orange vegetables, starchy vegetables, other vegetables, and legumes. RESULTS In 2008, a variety of fruits and vegetables was available for an average cost of

WIC Households’ Bread and Cold Cereal Purchases: When They Use Benefits Versus Paying Out of Pocket

0.40 to

Nutrition and Health Characteristics of Low-Income Populations: Meal Patterns

0.50 per cup-equivalent. MyPyramid fruit and vegetable recommendations could be satisfied at this cost level. CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS Low-income Americans facing national average food prices can satisfy MyPyramid fruit and vegetable guidelines with a budget equal to the Thrifty Food Plan allocation to fruits and vegetables. However, many low-income households spend too much money on food that is low in fruit and vegetable content. Some money should be reallocated to fruits and vegetables.

Role of Food Prepared Away from Home in the American Diet, 1977-78 versus 1994-96: Changes and Consequences

Efforts to inform the general public about high fat intake as a possible risk factor for coronary heart disease (or CHD) started with nutrition information programs undertaken by the American Heart Association as early as the mid-1950s (Levy and Heimbach 1989). Additional scientific evidence on the link between fat intake and CHD, publication of the USDA/HHS Dietary Guidelines for Americans, the planning and implementation of the National Cholesterol Education Program, and evidence on the possible relationship between high fat intake and certain types of cancer all resulted in an intensification of these efforts in the 1980s.

Away-From-Home Foods Increasingly Important to Quality of American Diet

The Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) is the major purchaser of infant formula in the United States. To reduce cost to the WIC program, each State awards a sole-source contract to a formula manufacturer to provide its product to WIC participants in the State. As part of the contract, the WIC State agency receives rebates from the manufacturers. In this study, we use 2004-09 Nielsen scanner-based retail sales data from over 7,000 stores in 30 States to examine the effect of winning a WIC sole-source contract on infant formula manufacturers’ market share in supermarkets. We find that the manufacturer holding the WIC contract brand accounted for the vast majority—84 percent—of all formula sold by the top three manufacturers. The impact of a switch in the manufacturer that holds the WIC contract was considerable. The market share of the manufacturer of the new WIC contract brand increased by an average 74 percentage points after winning the contract. Most of this increase was a direct effect of WIC recipients switching to the new WIC contract brand. However, manufacturers also realized a spillover effect from winning the WIC contract whereby sales of formula purchased outside of the program also increased.