Latest news with #WenhuiFeng
6 days ago
- Health
Dollar store food shopping isn't derailing American diets: Study
Dollar stores tend to sell less healthy food, but households that shop there appear to compensate by making healthier purchases elsewhere, a new study suggests. Researchers from Tufts University in Boston analyzed more than a decade of household food purchasing data from 183,000 U.S. households between 2008 and 2020. The study, published Monday in the Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, found that dollar stores now account for 6.5% of household calories, double the 3.4% they made up in 2008. To track the healthfulness of household food purchases and diet quality, the team looked at data from the Healthy Eating Index (HEI), which ranges from 0 to 100. The HEI measures how closely a person's diet aligns with national dietary guidelines, considering factors such as fruit and vegetable intake, whole grains and fat consumption. Higher scores indicate better alignment with these recommendations. Researchers excluded non-food items like alcohol and tobacco, as well as fresh foods like fruits, vegetables, meats, and seafood, which don't have standard nutrition labels. Meals eaten outside the home, such as those at restaurants, were also not included in the assessment. Households with substantial purchases at dollar stores had an HEI score of 46.3, which was similar to the 48.2 score of those with moderate purchases and the 50.5 score of those with no purchases. "Purchases directly from dollar stores were less healthy, but even households that bought a lot from dollar stores had overall diets similar in healthfulness to those who bought less -- suggesting they may be getting healthier options from other places," Dr. Wenhui Feng, a professor of health care policy research at Tufts University School of Medicine and lead author of the study, told ABC News. Families were likely strategizing by purchasing certain items at dollar stores for affordability, while continuing to buy healthier items at other grocery stores, Feng suggested. The study also found overall that household diet quality remained consistent long-term, even as the share of food calories from dollar stores doubled. "Most of what dollar stores sell is likely ultra-processed -- packaged, ready-to-eat foods that tend to be higher in salt and additives that aren't necessarily healthy," Dr. Marie-Pierre St-Onge, a professor of nutritional medicine at the Columbia University Irving Medical Center, who was not involved in the study, told ABC News. St-Onge said this is troubling given the rapid growth of dollar stores, especially in low-income and rural areas. In these areas, dollar stores play a much larger role in food access, sometimes serving as one of the few nearby retail options, she noted. But St-Onge added that the issue probably won't be solved by simply restricting dollar stores. "Everyone should have access to affordable, healthful foods no matter where they're sold," she said. "If dollar stores are more prevalent in certain neighborhoods, improving their offerings would be a great step." Feng stressed that food accessibility is clearly a nuanced issue that requires work beyond just stopping the expansion of dollar stores. Even if the issue of access is solved, he said that nutritional inequality may still exist due to consumer preferences and economic constraints. "I don't think there is one policy that can make food purchase immediately healthier. We should approach this as part of the greater discussion about food access and food affordability," Feng said.
The Hill
6 days ago
- Health
- The Hill
Dollar store food options might not be harming American diets overall: Study
Relying on dollar stores for the bulk of grocery purchases might not be harming American diets, despite the comparative lack of healthy products, a new study has found. As families look to free up funds on costly shopping lists, they are increasingly turning to their locals dollar stores to buy staple food items, according to the study, published on Monday in the Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics. 'People go to different types of stores for different reasons and the dollar store is one that people choose because of the price advantage,' lead author Wenhui Feng, a professor of health care policy of research at Tufts University, said in a statement. 'There are a lot of concerns that foods on dollar store shelves are less healthy, but what's on the shelf does not equal what each household takes home,' added Feng, who is also an assistant professor at the Tufts School of Medicine. What's on the shelf at the dollar stores also does not equal what each household puts on the table, as families are balancing their increased purchases there with more nutritious items elsewhere, the authors found. To understand the impacts of the dollar store proliferation and the convenient, calorie-rich snacks that these outlets offer, Feng and her colleagues assessed food purchases made by 180,000 nationally representative U.S. families between 2008 and 2020. They then combined the data with the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Economic Research Service's Purchase to Plate Crosswalk tool — allowing them to estimate the quality of these purchases. Ultimately, the scientists determined that calories obtained from dollar store items have nearly doubled, surging from 3.4 percent to 6.5 percent of a household's purchases, particularly in those with lower incomes and those headed by people of color. Meanwhile, in rural areas, where the nearest grocery stores tended to be much further than dollar stores, families were particularly reliant on the latter for their food supplies. Although these retailers provide discounts for lower-quality items, people who frequented these outlets were getting more than 90 percent of their calories on average from them. Dollar stores are now the fastest growing food retailers in the U.S., having transformed the shopping landscape with at least 37,000 storefronts nationwide, according to the authors. These outlets — which have a particularly strong footprint in the South — usually sell packaged foods and beverages that are high in calories and low in nutrients, with just a small share carrying produce or meats, the researchers noted. 'Some people seem to be going to dollar stores strategically to buy sweets and snacks, along with other packaged foods,' senior author Sean Cash, a global nutrition professor at the Tufts Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy, said in a statement. Cash noted, however, that those households that buy more prepackaged foods at dollar stores seem to be buying less of these items elsewhere. 'The results further suggest that many of those same households that are buying less-healthy foods from dollar stores are, at the same time, buying healthier foods from other types of retail outlets,' the authors added. And if dollar stores were not available, the researchers stressed that it remains unclear whether families would still opt for these same healthy mixes, due to higher cost burdens. As such, they concluded that recent legislative calls for restrictions on dollar store openings might not be beneficial if they are not accompanied by proposals for acquiring healthier foods at affordable prices. 'We need more data on the real effects of dollar stores on healthy eating as some communities may be putting the policy cart before the horse,' Cash added.
