Scientific Abstract
Introduction: The USDA Thrifty Food Plan is a federal estimate of a balanced healthy diet at lowest cost. The USDA food plans are designed for the entire US population stratified by age and gender groups.
Objective: The present goal was to develop a Hispanic version of the USDA Thrifty Food Plan 2021 (H-TFP 2021) that was more closely linked to the observed eating patterns of that population.
Subjects & Methods: Dietary intakes were for the Hispanic sample in the National Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys (NHANES 2013-16). We followed the same procedures as the USDA, using the same nutrient composition data, national food prices for June 2021, and quadratic programming (QP) optimization algorithm. In modeling categories, fresh pork was separated from non-poultry red meats. Healthy Eating Index 2015 was the measure of diet quality. The H-TFP was set to be cost neutral with respect to TFP 2021 ($186/week for a family of 4). Two models were developed: the H-TFP and version with pork replacing both poultry and red meat. The feasibility of a vegetarian H-TFP was explored in additional analyses.
Results: NHANES Hispanic participants were younger and with lower education and incomes but had equivalent or higher HEI 2015 scores compared to non-Hispanic. Dietary patterns had more pulses and bean dishes, more fruit and 100% juice, more grain based mixed dishes and soups and less pizza, coffee, candy, and sweet desserts. The H-TFP market basket featured more pork and less poultry, more whole grain cereals, more 100% fruit juice, and more cheese compared to the TFP 2021. Attempts to create a cost neutral vegetarian H-TFP yielded no feasible mathematical solution for most age-gender groups.
Conclusion: Healthy food plans on a budget that are culturally relevant can be developed for specific subpopulations in the US.
