A study led by Penn State reveals that American diets significantly improved in quality and diversity during the initial COVID-19 lockdowns. The findings suggest that reduced restaurant dining can positively impact public health.
While the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted lives globally, it also prompted a positive shift in American eating habits, according to a team of researchers led by Pennsylvania State University. During the early months of the pandemic, as lockdowns and school closures took effect, there were noticeable improvements in the quality and diversity of American diets.
Published in PLOS ONE, the study highlights that diet quality rose by up to 8.5% and food diversity increased by up to 2.6% following the pandemic onset. Edward Jaenicke, a professor of agricultural economics at Penn State, believes these findings offer insights into dietary changes in the absence of regular restaurant dining.
“When dine-in restaurants closed, our diets got a little more diverse and a little healthier,” Jaenicke said in a news release. “One post-pandemic lesson is that we now have some evidence that any future shifts away from restaurant expenditures, even those not caused by the pandemic, could improve Americans’ food diversity and healthfulness.”
Historical Diet Trends
Prior to 2020, American dietary patterns were often poor, as noted in the Dietary Guidelines for Americans. Minimal improvements in the nation’s Healthy Eating Index score between 2005 and 2016 underscored the challenges. Against this backdrop, the pandemic-induced dietary shifts make the study’s outcomes particularly encouraging.
An Unexpected Opportunity
Originally part of a grant-funded project studying consumer behavior following catastrophic events, Jaenicke’s team pivoted to harness data from the pandemic. This shift allowed them to analyze a unique real-world phenomenon.
“At first, the most impactful events we could study using actual, real-world data were hurricanes and other natural disasters. But then, along came the COVID-19 pandemic, and we realized that this event was an opportunity to study the closest thing we had to a true global catastrophe,” added Jaenicke.
Study Methodology
The research team analyzed data from the NielsenIQ Homescan Consumer Panel, which encompasses 41,570 nationally representative U.S. households. They compared grocery purchases from before and after pandemic-induced closures, identifying causal effects by matching each household’s food purchases to those from one year earlier.
“To establish causality, an individual household’s pre- and post-pandemic food purchases were first compared to the same household’s food purchases from one year earlier,” Jaenicke added. “This way, we controlled for the food-purchasing habits, preferences and idiosyncrasies of individual households.”
Findings and Explanations
From March to June 2020, the study observed a modest increase in food diversity and a more significant, temporary improvement in diet quality, as measured by adherence to the USDA’s Thrifty Food Plan. This trend spanned across various household demographics, though it was less pronounced in households with young children, lower incomes or no car.
Several factors could explain these changes. With restaurants closed, home-cooked meals likely became more frequent and healthier. The pandemic’s stresses might have made some consumers more health-conscious, and supply chain disruptions might have forced shifts to less familiar, potentially healthier options. Additionally, more time at home may have enabled some to invest more effort into meal preparation, while others, particularly those with young children, faced the opposite.
Looking Forward
Jaenicke hopes future research will continue to examine how different disasters impact food purchasing and eating habits. Alongside co-authors Douglas Wrenn from Penn State and Daniel Simandjuntak from Newcastle University, the team underscores the significant potential for improving public health through understanding changes in dietary behaviors.
This study connects the dots between reduced restaurant dining and improved diet quality and diversity. As the world navigates the post-pandemic era, these insights pave the way for policies and personal habits fostering better nutrition.