Nutrition, Grocery | featured news

Part of this has to do with changes in consumption: Americans eat more processed foods and sweets than they did in the early 1980s, which likely accounts for why we’re spending more on those groceries. It is also tied up in pricing. The cost of meat has dropped significantly; adjusted for inflation, pork chops cost 37 percent less than they did 30 years ago. That probably has a lot to do with why we’re spending less on meat: We can get a lot more of it for each of our grocery dollars.

The results run counter to the idea that more supermarkets can curb obesity in low-income neighborhoods. Better access to supermarkets — long touted as a way to curb obesity in low-income neighborhoods — doesn't improve people's diets, according to new research.