Article
Household food shop and unconditional food assistance: can we talk of healthy eating?
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1The monitoring of the Mediterranean diet of the whole sample of beneficiaries of the Red Cross assistance is situated below the empirical evidence for the Spanish population: 42.4 vs. 53, and the Healthy Eating Index (50.5 vs. 71.3) is also lower.
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2As regards the three benchmark indexes for France (PNNS, HPI, and FSA-NPS-DI), a country with a diet similar to that of Spain, the sample of beneficiaries also registers values below those evidenced for the French population.
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3By characteristics, there are no differences in the type of consumption by sex or age of the card beneficiary. However, considerable heterogeneity can be seen by nationality: the healthiest purchases correspond to individuals from the Maghreb region, from Asia and from the rest of Africa, with 13.5%, 12.0% and 8.2%, respectively, above the value of the Spaniards.
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4Although the data only allow us to analyse purchases made thanks to the assistance, the results indicate that this adherence to a healthy eating pattern by this population is lower than the overall value for Spain. This suggests that interventions are needed to improve food purchasing patterns among the most economically disadvantaged segments of the population.
