What is driving increases in dietary quality in the United States?

Travis Smith, Pourya Valizadeh, Biing-Hwan Lin and Ellen Coats

Food Policy, 2019, vol. 86, issue C, -

Abstract: Over 1994–2010, adult dietary quality in the United States increased by 10 percent. We find a shift in consumption between at-home and away-from-home food played a relatively minor role as compared to changes in demographics and educational attainment. The two largest contributors we identify include an increased usage of nutritional information and a shift away from relying heavily on price, taste, storability and ease of preparation when shopping for food. Our findings suggest nutrition policy discussions could focus on further shifting attitudes/preferences towards healthier diets while allowing consumers to better extract nutrition information when making food choices.

Keywords: Diet quality; Nutrition labels; Dietary information; Food characteristics; Socioeconomic status; Oaxaca-Blinder decomposition (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (6)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:jfpoli:v:86:y:2019:i:c:2

DOI: 10.1016/j.foodpol.2019.05.003

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