Rebates a Cost-Effective Way to Boost Healthy Eating Among Low Income People

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A recent study conducted by the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign found that providing low income households who receive federal assistance with rebates for fruits and vegetables would improve their consumption of more healthy foods.  SNAP provides food assistance benefits to more than 46 million Americans. This study offered a 30% rebate to participants in the SNAP program when they bought fruits and vegetables at participating stores during the Healthy Incentives Pilot. This Pilot was implemented in one Massachusetts county from November 2011 to December 2012 to see if offering fruits and vegetables at a more affordable price to those on SNAP would be more likely to buy healthy foods. There were 75,000 homes that participated in the pilot and for every dollar of SNAP benefits spent on fruits or vegetables, which could be canned, dried, fresh, or frozen the family received a 30 cent rebate.

According to the USDA's final report by offering the fruit and vegetable incentive this increased fruit and vegetable consumption by 0.48 servings per person per day. The average household in the pilot received a total rebate of $3.65 per month. Some researchers are worried that providing this incentive would increase the consumption of junk food with the money from the rebate. The researchers of this study say that the monthly rebate totals are not that big, making the outcome very unlikely. I think this is a great idea. This goes to show that when provided the opportunity people will make healthy choices. I think it is great that the participants fruit and vegetable consumption increased since this is a major roadblock that dietitians are facing today.

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. (2015, October 6). Rebates a cost-effective way to boost healthy eating among low-income people, study finds.ScienceDaily. Retrieved October 16, 2015 from www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/10/151006083907.htm

 -KO

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