In nearly all dietary components, participants of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, did not meet the recommendations for a healthful diet, according to findings recently published in JAMA Network Open.
“Among different dietary programs for low-income households, SNAP is by far the largest and most important safety-net program, providing monthly benefits to approximately one in seven U.S. individuals and representing more than half of the annual budget of the U.S. Dept. of Agriculture,” Fang Fang Zhang, of the Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy at Tufts University, and colleagues wrote.
The researchers analyzed National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey data during the eight cycles from 1999 to 2014, from 38,696 participants aged 20 years or older. Of this total, 25,842 were higher-income individuals, 6,692 were income eligible but did not participate in SNAP, and the remainder were SNAP participants.
When data from 2003 and 2004 were compared with that of 2013 and 2014, the researchers found that SNAP participants had less improvement in American Heart Association diet scores than both other groups. These differences continued for most nutrients and foods, and scores were even lower for nuts and seeds, added sugars, and processed meats.
Also, from 2013 to 2014, more SNAP participants had intermediate diet scores and poor diet scores versus the other groups. The proportion of participants with ideal diet scores was low in all three groups, and SNAP participants also consumed more sugar-sweetened beverages than the other groups analyzed.
“Our findings should not be interpreted as a causal effect of participating in SNAP, however. It is possible that dietary trends in this group could have been even worse without participation in SNAP,” Zhang and colleagues wrote. “Nevertheless, our findings underscore the need for robust new strategies to improve diet quality and reduce dietary disparities in the United States.”