Katherine Ralston

Mother's Nutrition Knowledge and Children's Dietary Intakes

This article uses U.S. food consumption data to examine the effect of maternal nutrition knowledge on the dietary intakes of children between two and seventeen years of age. Results show that maternal knowledge influences childrens diets and that such influence decreases as children grow older. Nutrition knowledge acts as a pathway through which maternal education influences childrens diets. This finding supports the hypothesis that education affects health-related choices by raising the allocative efficiency of health input use. The results suggest that nutrition education may be more effective if targeted both toward mothers with young children and directly toward school-age children. Copyright 1999, Oxford University Press.

Exploring changes in middle-school student lunch consumption after local school food service policy modifications.

OBJECTIVE This study assessed the impact of changes in school food policy on student lunch consumption in middle schools. METHODS Two years of lunch food records were collected from students at three middle schools in the Houston, Texas area. During the first year, no changes occurred in the school food environment. After that school year was completed, chips and dessert foods were removed from the snack bars of all schools by the Food Service Director. Students recorded the amount and source of food and beverage items consumed. Point-of-service purchase machines provided a day-by-day electronic data file with food and beverage purchases from the snack bars during the 2-year period. Independent t-tests and time series analyses were used to document the impact of the policy change on consumption and sales data between the two years. RESULTS In general, student consumption of sweetened beverages declined and milk, calcium, vitamin A, saturated fat and sodium increased after the policy change. Snack chips consumption from the snack bar declined in year 2; however, consumption of snack chips and candy from vending increased and the number of vending machines in study schools doubled during the study period. Ice cream sales increased significantly in year 2. CONCLUSIONS Policy changes on foods sold in schools can result in changes in student consumption from the targeted environments. However, if all environments do not make similar changes, compensation may occur.

Food Stamps and Obesity: What Do We Know?

Results from reviewed studies indicate that for most participants in the Food Stamp Program—children, nonelderly men, and the elderly—use of food stamp benefits does not result in an increase in either Body Mass Index (BMI) or the likelihood of being overweight or obese. However, for nonelderly women, who account for 28 percent of the food stamp caseload, some evidence suggests that participation in the Food Stamp Program may increase BMI and the probability of obesity. Different results for age and sex subgroups remain unexplained. Further, because food stamp benefits are issued to households, not individuals, mixed results across age and sex subgroups make it difficult to target policy alternatives to address potential weight gain among some participants while not affecting others in the household.

Do health benefits explain the price premiums for organic foods

This paper examines whether the dollar value of health benefits that consumers derive from organic food could account for the price premiums they pay. Price and sales data from realized transactions are inadequate to reveal consumer preferences for health benefits. Our exploratory alternative method estimates the value of health benefits to a hypothetical consumer who assesses risks as risk assessors do and values a unit reduction in all fatal risks equally, regardless of the source of any risk. Under these assumptions, our estimates of the value of health benefits derived from substituting an organic diet for a conventionally produced diet approach zero. For a common organic product, apple juice, we estimated the cost of reducing risks by buying the organic characteristic. The cost of averting each adverse health outcome is 27 to 461 times as large as the value of benefits. If the characteristics of our hypothetical consumer match those of the typical consumer, two inferences follow from our estimates of benefits and costs. First, the typical consumer is unlikely to purchase organic food for health reasons. Second, consumers who choose organic food could differ from typical consumers in several dimensions: perceptions of the level of risk from dietary intake of pesticides, perceptions of the nature of adverse health outcomes from pesticides, or in the importance attached to other attributes of organic food. Our analysis is exploratory partially because there are several behavioral assumptions implicit in the values we calculate. Also, we focus on risks that can be quantitatively estimated, measuring the probability of an adverse health outcome with readily accessible data. Currently, only cancer risks can be measured in terms of probabilities from readily accessible data.

Children's health as an input to labor: Intrahousehold food distribution in Rural Indonesia

Abstract This study tests the hypothesis that intrahousehold calorie allocation in rural West Java responds to differences in childrens labor contributions to the household. The results support the hypothesis, and also suggest that male childrens health is valued more highly by households in the surveyed village than that of female children even after current labor contributions are accounted for.

A Distributional Analysis of the Costs of Foodborne Illness: Who Ultimately Pays?

This paper traces the economic impact of the costs of foodborne illness on the U.S. economy using a Social Accounting Matrix (SAM) framework. Previous estimates of the costs of seven foodborne pathogens are disaggregated by type, and distributed across the population using data from the National Health Interview Survey. Initial income losses resulting from premature death cause a decrease in economic activity. Medical costs, in contrast, result in economic growth, though this growth does not outweigh the total costs of premature death. A SAM accounting of how the costs of illness are diffused through the economy provides useful information for policy makers.

Understanding School Food Service Characteristics Associated with Higher Competitive Food Revenues Can Help Focus Efforts To Improve School Food Environments

Many school food services sell extra foods and beverages, popularly referred to as “competitive foods,” in addition to USDA school meals. On the basis of national survey data, most competitive foods and beverages selected by students are of low nutritional value. Recent federal legislation will allow schools that participate in USDA school meal programs to sell competitive foods only if the food items they sell meet nutrition standards based on the Dietary Guidelines for Americans. Concerns have been raised about the potential effects of limiting competitive foods on local school food service finances. However, national data indicate that only in a subset of schools do food services receive large amounts of revenues from competitive foods. These food services are typically located in secondary schools in more affluent districts, serving higher proportions of students who do not receive free or reduced price meals. Compared to other food services, these food services couple higher competitive food revenues with lower school meal participation. Increasing school meal participation could increase meal revenues to offset any loss of competitive food revenues. Replacing less-healthful competitive items with healthier options could also help maintain school food service revenues while improving the school food environment. Nationally consistent nutrition standards for competitive foods may encourage development and marketing of healthful products.