A new American Cancer Society study shows that participants in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), previously referred to as food stamp program, had lower dietary quality scores in contrast to income eligible non-participants. The authors the findings emphasize the need to bolster programs targeted at improving the dietary quality of SNAP participants.
The SNAP program aims to assist low-income individuals and households using the resources to acquire a nutritionally adequate diet. In 2013, approximately 47.6 million individuals, or about one out of seven Americans, participated in the program. Although SNAP aims to assist families “put food on the table” and stop food insecurity, some research has found that SNAP participation is also linked to increased probability of weight gain and obesity. The 2014 Farm Bill included several provisions targeted at facilitating and inspiring SNAP participants to consume healthier, including requiring SNAP retailers to hold foods from the selection of recommended food groups and more fresh foods and developing a pilot program to provide for grants to check using incentives to encourage fruit and vegetable purchases by SNAP participants. SNAP-Ed, the nutrition education companion towards the SNAP program, has been revamped in recent years with the goal of promoting healthier food choices.
For their study, published in Mayo Clinic Proceedings, researchers led by Binh T. Nguyen, PhD, from the American Cancer Society, explored the diet plan quality of SNAP participants using data from the nationally representative sample of over 4,000 adult Americans in the National Nutrition and health Examination Survey 2003-2010 (NHANES).
Their analyses revealed that in contrast to low-income nonparticipants, SNAP participants had lower dietary quality scores overall minimizing scores for vegetables and fruit, seafood and plant proteins, and had higher consumption of empty calories. The groups had comparable scores on intakes of whole grains, refined grain, total dairy, total protein, fatty acid, and sodium. The researchers discovered that the relationship between SNAP participation minimizing dietary quality was primarily noticed in women, Hispanics, teenagers and people who were food secure.
“The results suggest a requirement for interventions that encourage a healthier diet among SNAP participants generally but additionally especially in the subgroups we’ve identified as being particularly in danger,” said Dr. Nguyen. “We do, however, wish to emphasize the importance of SNAP; our findings underscore the need for additional education, incentives, and other interventions to ensure not only that people are getting calories, but also they are providing them with in the right foods.”
Additional coauthors on the study include Dr. Kerem Shuval from the American Cancer Society, and Drs. Valentine Y. Njike and David L. Katz from the Yale-Griffin Prevention Research Center.
Article: Nguyen, B. T., Shuval, K., Njike, V. Y., & Katz, D. L. (2014). The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program and Dietary Quality among U.S. Adults: Findings from a Nationally Representative Survey. Mayo Clinic Proceedings, 89(9), 1211
