Research
Mixed
Lower prices of fruits and vegetables are associated with lower gains in BMI, and higher availability of fruits and vegetables is inversely related to self-reported BMI.
Lower prices for fruits and vegetables are associated with lower BMI gains. Making healthy food more affordable can help improve health outcomes.
ModerateSupportsMEDIUM confidence
When studies use a food store audit tool to measure fruit and vegetable prices within stores and the association with intake or BMI, the results suggest that lower prices of fruits and vegetables are associated with lower increases in BMI [80]. Additionally, a cross-sectional study found an inverse relationship between neighborhood availability of fruits and vegetables and BMI [47], such that the higher fruit and vegetables availability, the lower the self- reported BMI.
Why this rating
The findings are based on cross-sectional and observational studies, which have limitations.
Source
Measures of the Consumer Food Store Environment: A Systematic Review of the Evidence 2000–2011
Alison Gustafson et al. · Journal of Community Health · 2011
DOI 10.1007/s10900-011-9524-x
systematic_reviewCited 232×
Read the paper DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10
More from this paper
- The availability of healthy food items (fruits, vegetables, overall quality) within consumer food stores is not consistently associated with lower BMI or improved dietary patterns, and proximity to healthy stores does not necessarily lead to better health outcomes.Moderate
- Stores in low-income or high-minority neighborhoods often have less availability of healthy food and higher prices for healthy items compared to stores in higher-income neighborhoods, although these findings are inconsistent across studies.Moderate
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