CDC Report Links Income to Fresh Produce Consumption as Food Aid Cuts Bite
A new CDC data brief shows U.S. adults are more likely to eat fruits and vegetables as income rises, with sharp gaps between the poorest and higher-income Americans. The findings arrive as Republican cuts to food assistance reduce enrollment and revised dietary guidelines raise the cost of recommended foods.
The brief, from the CDC's National Center for Health Statistics, found that more than nine in 10 Americans ate any vegetable on a given day and about seven in 10 ate any fruit. It covered adults older than 20 from August 2021 to 2023.
Consumption of vegetables, dark green vegetables, red or orange vegetables, and other vegetable types increased with family income, the brief found, with deep divides between low-income and middle-class adults. The percentage of adults who ate any fruit on a given day was 56% for people living on less than 130% of the federal poverty level, or $20,748 for a single adult. By contrast, 76% of people earning 350% of the federal poverty level, or $55,860, ate any fruit. A single person earning $55,860 was almost twice as likely to eat berries, citrus and melons as the poorest people in the study, 38% versus 19.6%. Although most Americans ate a vegetable in a day, only 29% of the lowest-income Americans in the data brief ate a dark green vegetable, compared with 42% of the highest-income group.
The findings come amid policy changes that affect food affordability. Republican cuts to food assistance programs, colloquially called 'food stamps,' have led enrollment to 'plummet,' according to The Guardian. Changes to U.S. dietary guidelines led by Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. have also made a government-recommended diet more expensive. A new 'food pyramid' released in January emphasized animal protein, fresh fruit and vegetables, all of which cost more, according to studies cited by The Guardian.
'Particularly for people with lower incomes this is really infeasible, especially when millions of people - and what will be probably millions of children - are going to lose access to a really critical benefit that keeps people food secure,' said Priya Fielding-Singh, director of policy and programs at the George Washington University Global Food Institute.
The income-based gap in diet is not new. According to The Guardian, years of studies have shown people with less money and time spend more on energy-dense, shelf-stable packaged foods that fill them up and do not spoil. A study of diet and income in the UK 91 years ago found that nearly everyone ate potatoes and bread, but the poorest bought far less milk, eggs, vegetables and fruits. 'A review of the state of health of the people of the different groups suggests that, as income increases, disease and death-rate decrease, children grow more quickly, adult stature is greater and general health and physique improve,' Sir John Boyd Orr wrote in 1935.
Contemporary research points to the same tension. A recent University of Washington study found that foods recommended by Kennedy's health department cost a mean of $15.82 per day. The average SNAP household is two people and receives $177 per month, or about $3 per day per person, and about 39% of SNAP beneficiaries are children.
Republican cuts in the 'Big Beautiful Bill' act mean fewer Americans are receiving food assistance. Republicans required states to pay toward food benefits for the first time, barred certain legal immigrants, particularly people in the U.S. on asylum and certain trafficking survivors, from food assistance programs, and required older people to submit to work requirements, raising the age for people required to prove they work 20 hours a week from 54 to 64. Republicans also required states to pay a share of food assistance benefits for the first time in the program's history, which could result in hundreds of millions of dollars of new costs in some states, according to the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities.
Food assistance enrollment fell 13% nationally between May 2025 and May 2026, according to an Associated Press analysis cited in The Guardian's report. In some states the declines have been more dramatic, including Florida, Georgia, Louisiana and Nevada. In these states, proponents of welfare cuts argue that people are no longer eligible because they are earning more money.
Republicans also imposed new documentation requirements, making it more likely that eligible people will fail to complete paperwork. In Arizona, some analysts said this appears to be contributing to a 47% reduction in enrollees, where new documentation requirements are running into severe staff shortages. Pamela Lachman, chief strategy officer for the Center for Employment Opportunities, a group that works with people recently released from jail and prison, said administrative burdens do not consider the reality of daily life for people seeking food assistance.