http://wrvo.org/post/most-people-food-stamps-eat-less-nutritious-food-everyone-elseThe poor are eating less nutritious food than everyone else.
So concludes a new review of 25 studies published between 2003 and 2014 that looked at the food spending and quality of diets of participants in SNAP, the federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, also known as food stamps.
Compared with both higher-income Americans and low-income people eligible but not enrolled in the program, SNAP participants on average ate about the same number of calories. But they consumed fewer fruits and vegetables and whole grains and more added sugars, says Tatiana Andreyeva, the study's lead author and a researcher with the Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity at the University of Connecticut.
In the studies Andreyeva reviewed, the average American scored just 58 out of 100 – a failing grade – on the Healthy Eating Index, a measure of how well diets meet the federal dietary guidelines. But the average food stamp recipient scored even worse: 47 out of 100 in one study, and 51 out 100 in another. Their scores were even lower than what low-income people not in the program got on average: 51 out of 100 in one study and 57 out 100 in the other.
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