IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/plo/pone00/0178348.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Taking dietary habits into account: A computational method for modeling food choices that goes beyond price

Author

Listed:
  • Rahmatollah Beheshti
  • Jessica C Jones-Smith
  • Takeru Igusa

Abstract

Computational models have gained popularity as a predictive tool for assessing proposed policy changes affecting dietary choice. Specifically, they have been used for modeling dietary changes in response to economic interventions, such as price and income changes. Herein, we present a novel addition to this type of model by incorporating habitual behaviors that drive individuals to maintain or conform to prior eating patterns. We examine our method in a simulated case study of food choice behaviors of low-income adults in the US. We use data from several national datasets, including the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES), the US Bureau of Labor Statistics and the USDA, to parameterize our model and develop predictive capabilities in 1) quantifying the influence of prior diet preferences when food budgets are increased and 2) simulating the income elasticities of demand for four food categories. Food budgets can increase because of greater affordability (due to food aid and other nutritional assistance programs), or because of higher income. Our model predictions indicate that low-income adults consume unhealthy diets when they have highly constrained budgets, but that even after budget constraints are relaxed, these unhealthy eating behaviors are maintained. Specifically, diets in this population, before and after changes in food budgets, are characterized by relatively low consumption of fruits and vegetables and high consumption of fat. The model results for income elasticities also show almost no change in consumption of fruit and fat in response to changes in income, which is in agreement with data from the World Bank’s International Comparison Program (ICP). Hence, the proposed method can be used in assessing the influences of habitual dietary patterns on the effectiveness of food policies.

Suggested Citation

  • Rahmatollah Beheshti & Jessica C Jones-Smith & Takeru Igusa, 2017. "Taking dietary habits into account: A computational method for modeling food choices that goes beyond price," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 12(5), pages 1-13, May.
  • Handle: RePEc:plo:pone00:0178348
    DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0178348
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0178348
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0178348&type=printable
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1371/journal.pone.0178348?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Pamela S. Haines & Barry M. Popkin & David K. Guilkey, 1988. "Modeling Food Consumption Decisions as a Two-Step Process," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 70(3), pages 543-552.
    2. Nicole Darmon & Adam Drewnowski, 2015. "Contribution of food prices and diet cost to socioeconomic disparities in diet quality and health: a systematic review and analysis," Post-Print hal-01774670, HAL.
    3. James L. Seale & Anita Regmi, 2006. "Modeling International Consumption Patterns," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 52(4), pages 603-624, December.
    4. Zhang, D. & Giabbanelli, P.J. & Arah, O.A. & Zimmerman, F.J., 2014. "Impact of different policies on unhealthy dietary behaviors in an urban adult population: An agent-based simulation model," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 104(7), pages 1217-1222.
    5. Corné Van Dooren & Marcelo Tyszler & Gerard F. H. Kramer & Harry Aiking, 2015. "Combining Low Price, Low Climate Impact and High Nutritional Value in One Shopping Basket through Diet Optimization by Linear Programming," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 7(9), pages 1-19, September.
    6. Hall, K.D. & Hammond, R.A. & Rahmandad, H., 2014. "Dynamic interplay among homeostatic, hedonic, and cognitive feedback circuits regulating body weight," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 104(7), pages 1169-1175.
    7. Kuo S. Huang, 1996. "Nutrient Elasticities in a Complete Food Demand System," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 78(1), pages 21-29.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Yanfei Pan & Marian Rizov, 2022. "Consumer Behaviour in Sourcing Meals during COVID-19: Implications for Business and Marketing," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(21), pages 1-20, October.
    2. Angelo Corallo & Maria Elena Latino & Marta Menegoli & Alessandra Spennato, 2019. "A Survey to Discover Current Food Choice Behaviors," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(18), pages 1-17, September.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Schneider, Kate R., 2022. "Nationally representative estimates of the cost of adequate diets, nutrient level drivers, and policy options for households in rural Malawi," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 113(C).
    2. Bai, Yan & Costlow, Leah & Ebel, Alissa & Laves, Sarah & Ueda, Yurika & Volin, Natalie & Zamek, Maya & Herforth, Anna & Masters, William A., 2021. "Review: Retail consumer price data reveal gaps and opportunities to monitor food systems for nutrition," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 104(C).
    3. Jensen, Kimberly L., 1995. "Fluid Milk Purchase Patterns In The South: Effects Of Use Of Nutrition Information And Household Characteristics," Journal of Agricultural and Applied Economics, Southern Agricultural Economics Association, vol. 27(2), pages 1-14, December.
    4. Bond, Craig A. & Thilmany, Dawn D. & Bond, Jennifer Keeling, 2008. "What to Choose? The Value of Label Claims to Fresh Produce Consumers," Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics, Western Agricultural Economics Association, vol. 33(3), pages 1-26.
    5. Popp, Michael P. & Faminow, Merle D. & Parsch, Lucas D., 1998. "Adoption Of Backgrounding On Cow-Calf Farms," 1998 Annual meeting, August 2-5, Salt Lake City, UT 20800, American Agricultural Economics Association (New Name 2008: Agricultural and Applied Economics Association).
    6. Huang, Kuo S., 1996. "Price and Income Affect Nutrients Consumed From Meats," Food Review/ National Food Review, United States Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service, vol. 19(1), pages 1-4.
    7. Helen Jensen & Justo Manrique, 1998. "Demand for food commodities by income groups in Indonesia," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 30(4), pages 491-501.
    8. McGill, Elizabeth & Er, Vanessa & Penney, Tarra & Egan, Matt & White, Martin & Meier, Petra & Whitehead, Margaret & Lock, Karen & Anderson de Cuevas, Rachel & Smith, Richard & Savona, Natalie & Rutter, 2021. "Evaluation of public health interventions from a complex systems perspective: A research methods review," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 272(C).
    9. Rose, Chelsea M. & Gupta, Shilpi & Buszkiewicz, James & Ko, Linda K. & Mou, Jin & Cook, Andrea & Moudon, Anne Vernez & Aggarwal, Anju & Drewnowski, Adam, 2020. "Small increments in diet cost can improve compliance with the Dietary Guidelines for Americans," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 266(C).
    10. Michael Essman & Lindsey Smith Taillie & Tamryn Frank & Shu Wen Ng & Barry M Popkin & Elizabeth C Swart, 2021. "Taxed and untaxed beverage intake by South African young adults after a national sugar-sweetened beverage tax: A before-and-after study," PLOS Medicine, Public Library of Science, vol. 18(5), pages 1-17, May.
    11. Irz, Xavier & Mazzocchi, Mario & Réquillart, Vincent & Soler, Louis-Georges, 2015. "Research in Food Economics: past trends and new challenges," Revue d'Etudes en Agriculture et Environnement, Editions NecPlus, vol. 96(01), pages 187-237, March.
    12. Seale, James L. & Solano, Alexis A., 2012. "The changing demand for energy in rich and poor countries over 25years," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 34(6), pages 1834-1844.
    13. Chouinard, Hayley H. & Davis, David E. & LaFrance, Jeffrey T. & Perloff, Jeffrey M, 2005. "Milk Marketing Order Winners and Losers," Department of Agricultural & Resource Economics, UC Berkeley, Working Paper Series qt82q751hf, Department of Agricultural & Resource Economics, UC Berkeley.
    14. Soumya Gupta & Payal Seth & Mathew Abraham & Prabhu Pingali, 2022. "COVID-19 and women's nutrition security: panel data evidence from rural India," Economia Politica: Journal of Analytical and Institutional Economics, Springer;Fondazione Edison, vol. 39(1), pages 157-184, April.
    15. Gabriela Simonet & Julie Subervie & Driss Ezzine-De-Blas & Marina Cromberg & Amy Duchelle, 2015. "Paying smallholders not to cut down the amazon forest: impact evaluation of a REDD+ pilot project," Working Papers 1514, Chaire Economie du climat.
    16. Cesar Revoredo-Giha & Neil Chalmers & Faical Akaichi, 2018. "Simulating the Impact of Carbon Taxes on Greenhouse Gas Emission and Nutrition in the UK," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(1), pages 1-19, January.
    17. Danielle L. Nunnery & Jigna M. Dharod, 2017. "Potential determinants of food security among refugees in the U.S.: an examination of pre- and post- resettlement factors," Food Security: The Science, Sociology and Economics of Food Production and Access to Food, Springer;The International Society for Plant Pathology, vol. 9(1), pages 163-179, February.
    18. Agossadou, A.J. & Fiamohe, R. & Tossou, H. & Kinkpe, T., 2018. "Agribusiness opportunities for youth in Nigeria: Farmers perceptions and willingness to pay for mechanized harvesting equipment," 2018 Conference, July 28-August 2, 2018, Vancouver, British Columbia 277553, International Association of Agricultural Economists.
    19. Lo Bello,Salvatore & Sanchez Puerta,Maria Laura & Winkler,Hernan Jorge, 2019. "From Ghana to America : The Skill Content of Jobs and Economic Development," Policy Research Working Paper Series 8758, The World Bank.
    20. Hongbo Liu & Kevin A. Parton & Zhang-Yue Zhou & Rod Cox, 2009. "At-home meat consumption in China: an empirical study ," Australian Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics, Australian Agricultural and Resource Economics Society, vol. 53(4), pages 485-501, October.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:plo:pone00:0178348. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: plosone (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.