Abstract
Milk, due to its affordability and nutritional value, can fortify the diets of families that experience food insecurity or find a high-quality diet cost-prohibitive. However, it can also be a leading source of excess calories and saturated fat. Yet, little is known about what influences consumer behavior of Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) recipients toward the type of milk used or the prevalence of low-fat milk use among this population. This cross-sectional telephone survey of SNAP recipients (n = 520) documented that 7.5% of this population usually consumes low-fat milk, a prevalence that lags behind national figures (34.4%) for the same time-period. There was a weak association between sociodemographic characteristics of SNAP recipients and low-fat milk use. Instead, less low-fat milk consumption was associated with a knowledge gap and misperceptions of the nutritional properties of the different types of milk. Promoting low-fat milk use by correcting these misperceptions can improve the diet of America’s low-income population and reduce food insecurity by maximizing the nutritional value of the foods consumed.
Highlights
The prevalence of food insecurity has declined as the economy has recovered from the Great Recession that began in December 2007, nearly 16 million US households experienced food insecurity at some point in 2015 [1]
Less low-fat milk consumption was associated with a knowledge gap and misperceptions of the nutritional properties of the different types of milk
Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) provides most of the nutrition support and SNAP-Ed agencies, an ancillary program, deliver free nutrition education for low-income households based on the Dietary Guidelines for Americans [2]
Summary
The prevalence of food insecurity has declined as the economy has recovered from the Great Recession that began in December 2007, nearly 16 million US households experienced food insecurity at some point in 2015 [1] This means that 12.7% of US households do not have the resources to ensure consistent and dependable access to a healthy diet. SNAP provides most of the nutrition support and SNAP-Ed agencies, an ancillary program, deliver free nutrition education for low-income households based on the Dietary Guidelines for Americans [2] Milk, because it is affordable, can fortify the diets of families that experience food insecurity or find a high-quality diet cost-prohibitive [3,4,5,6,7,8,9]. On average, milk contributes 49.5% of Vitamin D, 25.3% of calcium, 17.1% of Vitamin
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