U.S. News: Joblessness Takes Another Toll: Diet
Increases in unemployment lead to a decrease in fruit and vegetable consumption, with potentially long-term effects on workers' health, new economic research suggests.</br></br>Among people predicted to be at the highest risk of unemployment, based on socioeconomic characteristics, a one-percentage-point increase in the unemployment rate is associated with a 2% to 4% reduction in the frequency of fruit and vegetable consumption and an 8% reduction in the consumption of salad, economists Dhaval Dave of Bentley University in Waltham, Mass., and Inas Rashad Kelly of Queens College in Flushing, N.Y, found.</br></br>In the paper, circulated by the National Bureau of Economic Research, the researchers couldn't pinpoint the reasons for this.</br></br>They did note, however, that respondents to surveys who reported mental-health issues or psychological distress tended to report eating fewer fruits and vegetables.</br></br>The research relies on the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System, a telephone survey in which 350,000 Americans are interviewed each year.