The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) is the nation’s largest nutrition program, helping 41 million participants afford “nutritious food essential to health and well-being.”
But a new study from the University of Notre Dame found that SNAP participants in low-income households may not be able to meet the nutrition levels set by the Dietary Guidelines for Americans (DGA).
The case study set out to examine whether SNAP participants would be able to afford a healthy diet based on DGA’s recommended nutritional values. The DGA was created by the U.S. Departments of Agriculture and Health and Human Services to advise Americans on what they should eat and drink to meet nutrient needs, promote health and prevent disease.
“Healthy eating is a critical problem, especially within low-income communities where there’s a combination of economic and geographic constraints making healthy and affordable food less attainable,” said Nitesh Chawla, director of the Lucy Family Institute for Data and Society and the Frank M. Freimann Professor of Computer Science and Engineering at Notre Dame. “Individuals working within these constraints live in food deserts, and they have to consider multiple factors as they make decisions about their family’s diet.”
As a baseline, the research team used the maximum SNAP allotment offered for a single person in Indiana as of October 2021, which was $250 per month. They divided this amount by day to determine what a person’s daily budget would be. Then the team created a linear programming model that considers product nutrition and price for items available within a nationwide grocery store chain in South Bend.
“We found that people essentially make trade-offs based on the information they have to try to stretch their funds and maximize nutrition,” said Ronald Metoyer, professor of computer science and engineering and vice president and associate provost for teaching and learning. “Our idea for this study was to use computation to aggregate all of the relevant information (e.g., inventory, prices and nutritional content) and use optimization to make those choices.”
Researchers took into consideration the cost per serving for a meal and the different diet guidelines for men and women ages 31-50, while also minimizing the cost of the diet however possible. Although they found it was possible to create a realistic woman’s diet that fits the monetary allotment of SNAP and the nutritional needs of the DGA, it was not possible to do the same for men.
Source: eurekalert.org
Photo Credit: gettyimages-shotbydave
Categories: Indiana, General