The Wealth Gap Between Rich And Poor Americans Is Affecting Our Diets
Americans’ diets have gradually been improving, but the gains aren’t being shared equally across socioeconomic lines, according to a new study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association Internal Medicine. Low-income people’s diets have gotten worse over the past decade as richer people’s nutrition has been improving.
Researchers examined Americans’ diet quality over a 12 year period, using an index of healthy eating developed by the Harvard School of Public Health in which a perfect score is 110. Between 1999-2000, U.S. adults averaged about 40 points on that scale. Although the average climbed to 47 points in 2009-2010, the study authors caution that doesn’t necessarily signal a lot of good news. It’s only a modest improvement, and the gap in nutritional quality between rich Americans’ and poor Americans’ diets actually doubled over that time period.
The growing disparity is likely due to the recent recession, which deepened income inequality and made it harder for low-income Americans to afford healthy food. “Declining diet quality over time may actually widen the gap between the poor and the rich,” Dr. Frank Hu, one of the co-authors of the study, told the Associated Press.
The national obesity epidemic is inextricably related to poverty, as low-income Americans are more likely to struggle with their weight. More than 33 percent of adults who earn less than $15,000 per year are considered to be obese, compared with about 25 percent of people who earn more than $50,000 per year.
