Study: Wealth gap in eating habits widens

A 12-year study of American eating habits by Harvard researchers found that food choices are improving, except among the poor, creating a widening wealth gap in diets (Source: “Disparity in US eating habits is evidence of widening wealth gap,” Associated Press via Youngstown Vindicator, Sept. 2, 2014).

On an index of healthy eating where a perfect score is 110, the Harvard School of Public Health study found  that U.S. adults averaged only 40 points in 1999-2000, climbing steadily to 47 points in 2009-10. Scores for adults with low incomes were lower than the average and barely budged during the years studied. They averaged almost four points lower than those for high-income adults at the beginning; the difference increased to more than six points in 2009-10.

The widening rich-poor diet gap is disconcerting and “will have important public-health implications,” said study co-author Dr. Frank Hu of the Harvard School of Public Health.