PI: Galina Hale

Date Awarded: Unavailable

Results Summary: Undergraduate students believe that it is important to eat healthy and would like to shift to healthier diets. They also show good understanding of what healthy diets mean. Cost and access to healthy options is a problem, however, especially for lower income students. Therefore, improving access to and lowering costs of healthy options, such as fresh produce, is more important than educating students on benefits of healthy diets.

Abstract: This paper studies differences in the barriers to healthful food choices across different socioeconomic characteristics. The analysis is based on the interviews of undergraduate students conducted by their peers at the University of California, Santa Cruz (UCSC). The results show that the most important barriers to healthy eating are economic in nature and that they vary with family income and across demographic groups. Our findings suggest that improving access to and lowering costs of healthy options, such as fresh produce, is more important than educating students on benefits of healthy diets.

Further Information: A draft of the paper can be found here.