Food stamps linked to weight gain in women
Posted on: Tuesday, 11 August 2009, 09:52 CDT
The use of food stamps is associated with weight gain in women, but U.S. researchers say they don't know exactly why.
The 14-year study, published in Economics and Human Biology, finds the average user of food stamps had a body mass index 1.15 points higher than non-users and the link was almost entirely based on women users, who averaged a 1.24 point higher BMI, or 5.8 pounds, than those not in the program.
Study co-author Jay Zagorsky of Ohio State University's Center for Human Resource Research said the government statistics showed that the average recipient received $81 in food stamps per month in 2002, the last year examined in this study.
That figure was shocking to me,
Zagorsky said in a statement. I think it would be very difficult for a shopper to regularly buy healthy, nutritious food on that budget.
Calorie-dense, high-fat, processed foods tend to be less expensive than more healthy choices such as whole-grains and produce, Zagorsky said.
Zagorsky and Patricia Smith of the University of Michigan-Dearborn used data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, which has questioned the same group of randomly selected Americans since 1979.
Source: United Press International
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