IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/amerec/v49y2005i2p78-86.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

From Poverty to Obesity: Exploration of the Food Choice Constraint Model and the Impact of an Energy-Dense Food Tax

Author

Listed:
  • Seth S. Martin

Abstract

Obesity has reached epidemic proportions in the United States and is disproportionately concentrated in poor populations. This paper explores the role that poverty may play in driving the present obesity epidemic. Current literature supports a food choice constraint model in which one's ability to purchase healthy foods falls with income in a standard budget constraint shift fashion because healthy foods (nonenergydense foods) are relatively costly. This model is reinforced by a biological preference for energy-dense foods. Theoretically, a tax on energy-dense food would reduce the prevalence of obesity, along with obesity-related disease, and therefore should be carefully considered by the American people.

Suggested Citation

  • Seth S. Martin, 2005. "From Poverty to Obesity: Exploration of the Food Choice Constraint Model and the Impact of an Energy-Dense Food Tax," The American Economist, Sage Publications, vol. 49(2), pages 78-86, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:amerec:v:49:y:2005:i:2:p:78-86
    DOI: 10.1177/056943450504900210
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/056943450504900210
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/056943450504900210?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. Bowman, Shanthy A. & Lino, Mark & Gerrior, Shirley A. & Basiotis, Peter P., 1998. "The Healthy Eating Index: 1994-96," CNPP Reports 257277, United States Department of Agriculture, Center for Nutrition Policy and Promotion.
    2. Center for Nutrition Policy and Promotion, 1995. "The Healthy Eating index," CNPP Reports 311249, United States Department of Agriculture, Center for Nutrition Policy and Promotion.
    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. Banterle, Alessandro & Cavaliere, Alessia, 2009. "The social and economic determinants of obesity: an empirical study in Italy," 113th Seminar, September 3-6, 2009, Chania, Crete, Greece 90889, European Association of Agricultural Economists.

    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. repec:mpr:mprres:2472 is not listed on IDEAS
    2. Philip M. Gleason & Anu Rangarajan & Christine Olson, "undated". "Dietary Intake and Dietary Attitudes Among Food Stamp Participants and Other Low-Income Individuals," Mathematica Policy Research Reports 7de7096e094445cba404d4e97, Mathematica Policy Research.
    3. repec:mpr:mprres:2443 is not listed on IDEAS
    4. Grainger, Corbett & Senauer, Benjamin & Runge, C. Ford, 2005. "Analyzing Health Innovations in a School Lunch Program," Working Papers 14393, University of Minnesota, Center for International Food and Agricultural Policy.
    5. Philip Gleason & Carol Suitor, "undated". "Children's Diets in the Mid-1990s: Dietary Intake and Its Relationship with School Meal Participation," Mathematica Policy Research Reports 8db693ba4d8640ec87d978a34, Mathematica Policy Research.
    6. Philip Gleason & Carol Suitor, "undated". "Changes in Children's Diets: 1989-1991 to 1994-1996," Mathematica Policy Research Reports 58765ecbba164e49b7d7069bc, Mathematica Policy Research.
    7. repec:mpr:mprres:2567 is not listed on IDEAS
    8. Variyam, Jayachandran N. & Blaylock, James R. & Smallwood, David M. & Basiotis, P. Peter, 1998. "USDA's Healthy Eating Index and Nutrition Information," Technical Bulletins 33588, United States Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service.
    9. Thiele, S., 2001. "Die Nachfrage nach Ernährungsqualität als Gesundheitsaspekt in der Lebensmittelnachfrage," Proceedings “Schriften der Gesellschaft für Wirtschafts- und Sozialwissenschaften des Landbaues e.V.”, German Association of Agricultural Economists (GEWISOLA), vol. 37.
    10. Jayanta Bhattacharya & Janet Currie & Steven J. Haider, 2006. "Breakfast of Champions?: The School Breakfast Program and the Nutrition of Children and Families," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 41(3).
    11. Nocella, Giuseppe & Srinivasan, C.S., 2019. "Adherence to WHO’s nutrition recommendations in the UK: Dietary patterns and policy implications from a national survey," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 86(C), pages 1-1.
    12. Alston, Julian M. & Mullally, Conner C. & Sumner, Daniel A. & Townsend, Marilyn & Vosti, Stephen A., 2009. "Likely effects on obesity from proposed changes to the US food stamp program," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 34(2), pages 176-184, April.
    13. Kantor, Linda Scott, 1996. "Many Americans are not Meeting Food Guide Pyramid Dietary Recommendations," Food Review/ National Food Review, United States Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service, vol. 19(1), pages 1-9.
    14. Galizzi Matteo M. & Miraldo Marisa, 2017. "Are You What You Eat? Healthy Behaviour and Risk Preferences," The B.E. Journal of Economic Analysis & Policy, De Gruyter, vol. 17(1), pages 1-25, February.
    15. Elizabeth Condon & Susan Drilea & Carolyn Lichtenstein & James Mabli & Emily Madden & Katherine Niland, "undated". "Diet Quality of American School Children by National School Lunch Program Participation Status: Data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, 2005-2010," Mathematica Policy Research Reports 36c1ee6e851445d5957fb99ac, Mathematica Policy Research.
    16. Peters, Christian & Bills, Nelson L. & Wilkins, Jennifer & Smith, R. David, 2002. "Vegetable Consumption, Dietary Guidelines and Agricultural Production in New York State—Implications for Local Food Economies," Research Bulletins 122636, Cornell University, Department of Applied Economics and Management.
    17. Renuka Mahadevan & Vincent Hoang, 2016. "Is There a Link Between Poverty and Food Security?," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 128(1), pages 179-199, August.
    18. Fox, Mary Kay & Hamilton, William L. & Lin, Biing-Hwan, 2004. "Effects Of Food Assistance And Nutrition Programs On Nutrition And Health: Volume 4, Executive Summary Of The Literature Review," Food Assistance and Nutrition Research Reports 33871, United States Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service.
    19. Bhattacharya, Jayanta & Currie, Janet & Haider, Steven, 2004. "Poverty, food insecurity, and nutritional outcomes in children and adults," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 23(4), pages 839-862, July.
    20. Schnettler, Berta & Grunert, Klaus G. & Lobos, Germán & Miranda-Zapata, Edgardo & Denegri, Marianela & Lapo, María & Hueche, Clementina & Rojas, Juan, 2019. "Maternal well-being, food involvement and quality of diet: Profiles of single mother-adolescent dyads," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 96(C), pages 336-345.
    21. Jayanta Bhattacharya & Steven Haider & Janet Currie, 2002. "Food Insecurity or Poverty? Measuring Need-Related Dietary Adequacy," NBER Working Papers 9003, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    22. Ruel, Marie T., 2002. "Is dietary diversity an indicator of food security or dietary quality?," FCND briefs 140, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
    23. Fragkiskos Bersimis & Demosthenes Panagiotakos & Malvina Vamvakari, 2017. "Investigating the sensitivity function's monotony of a health-related index," Journal of Applied Statistics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 44(9), pages 1680-1706, July.

    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:sae:amerec:v:49:y:2005:i:2:p:78-86. 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: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://journals.sagepub.com/home/aex .

    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.