What's on your plate, San Diego? – An analysis of food expenditures in San Diego County

Intro: Public health efforts to reduce the burden of chronic disease are heavily focused on improving the diets of community residents. As part of health promotion efforts in San Diego County, we analyzed household purchases for foods intended for consumption at home. Our goal was to determine how closely purchases matched components of the MyPlate Dietary Guidelines.

Methods: Household food expenditures were estimated by converting how much food by weight was purchased using detailed census-tract level data on household spending on food items from ESRI and data on average food costs per weight from the U.S.D.A. Average annual household purchases of food by weight were calculated for census tracts and summarized to estimate the amounts of foods purchased for each Region and the County. Proportions of foods in the categories of grains, fruits, vegetables, and proteins were calculated to see if purchases in these components matched those recommended by MyPlate.

Results: Although there was variability in the dollars spent by census tract, the proportional expenditure on food items by food group was similar across all census tracts and Regions. Overall, food purchases included more than recommended amounts of protein, too few whole grains, and over one third empty calories.

Conclusions: Household food purchases differ in dollars spent, but expenditures as proportions of the food budget, were nearly identical across census tracts. On average, more than one-third of household food expenditures were on empty calorie items. This will help determine purchasing patterns needing changing as we work towards promoting healthy lifestyles.