Food and Nutrition Assistance Programs and Obesity: 1976-2002

By Michele Ver Ploeg, Lisa Mancino, and Biing-Hwan Lin

Economic Research Report No. (ERR-48) 42 pp, September 2007

Economic Research Reports present original economic analysis, findings and implications primarily for public and private decisionmakers’ staff and researchers. This Economic Research Report analyzes multiple years of cross-sectional data to understand trends in the relationship between food assistance program participation and body weight. The purpose is to examine whether the relationship is consistent over time and across population subgroups.

Keywords: Food and nutrition assistance programs, food stamps, WIC, overweight, obesity, Body Mass Index, weight trends, National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, ERS, USDA

In this report ...

Chapters are in Adobe Acrobat PDF format.

• Report summary, 109 kb.

• Entire Report, 514 kb.

Updated date: September 21, 2007