Food Assistance and Nutrition Information Series
The SRDC is pleased to announce its new Food Assistance and Nutrition Information Series as a part of the Economic Research Service's Research Innovation and Development Grants in Economics (RIDGE) program. These briefs take a look at existing RIDGE reports and make me them more accessible for general audiences.
Food Stamps Target Those Most in Need
The federal food stamp program helps approximately 15 million households (about 34 million individuals) put food on the table each year. At $39 billion in 2008, the budget of the program, now called the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, is nearly two-thirds of the USDA’s food assistance budget. Not surprisingly, given the outlay, policymakers want to know its impact on participants’ nutrition and health. Steven Yen, Donald Bruce, and Lisa Jahns in their recent paper offer some insights on who benefits from the program and how. Specifically, they examine the relationship between SNAP participation and health and participants’ social and demographic characteristics.
Incomes or Attitudes? What Determines Whether Mothers in the WIC Program Dilute or Concentrate Baby Formula
The first few months of life may help cement more than bonding for an infant. These important months may also imprint patterns of eating that can contribute to obesity later in life. Several studies have found that infant feeding practices, particularly breast-fed versus formula-fed options, can contribute to early weight gain, which in turn increases the risk of childhood weight issues. Infants fed formula, for example, tend to take in more energy and grow at a faster rate than breastfed infants in the first year. Formula-fed infants are also more likely to be overfed and may be less able to self-regulate their intake. What leads to this trend among formula-fed infants is unclear, but some have pointed to a mother’s attitudes, abilities, and beliefs about infant feeding as a possible reason for the distinctions. Katherine Kavanagh and Cary Springer, in their recent paper, explore mothers’ attitudes toward feeding patterns, and add a new possibility: how the mother prepares the formula—whether she concentrates or dilutes it.
Rural Seniors Have Fewer Options for Healthy Diets
Eating well is a critical component in a healthy lifestyle. A balanced diet can help prevent or ease chronic conditions such as heart disease, high cholesterol or blood pressure, or obesity. For seniors, who suffer more chronic conditions, diet can be an important (and less expensive) way to manage their health. However, choosing the right foods is only one part of eating well. Having access to quality foods at affordable prices is an often overlooked second component to a healthy diet. As Joseph Sharkey, Scott Horel, and Cassandra Johnson report in their recent study, seniors in rural communities find that getting to a well-stocked and affordable grocery store is frequently a challenge.
The South Does Not Make You Fat: A Study of Nutrition, Food Security, and Obesity
By now it is common knowledge that America is fat. Two-thirds of adults, according to a recent study, are overweight or obese, up from 15 percent in 1980. It is also frequently reported that obesity rates are higher in the South, but can region itself be a contributing factor? Researchers Patricia A. Duffy, Claire Zizza, and Henry Kinnucan asked this question in their recent paper "Nutrition, Food Security, and Obesity among Low-Income Residents of the South," and they found that the South does not make you fat.
