CLEVELAND, Ohio — Eating healthy is getting harder for many Americans — and the cost of food is a big reason why, according to the findings of a recent Pew Research Center survey.
While 90% of adults said healthy food has gotten more expensive in recent years, 69% said these price hikes make it more difficult for them to eat healthy, according to the survey.
Lower-income people are especially feeling the pinch. Nearly half of lower-income Americans (46%) said increased food costs made it harder to eat healthy, compared with only 15% of upper-income adults.
Poor diets are a driver of major public health challenges in the United States, such as obesity and heart disease, health experts say.
Here are some highlights from the Pew survey, which looked at Americans’ views on healthy diets, how they decide what to eat and home cooking versus eating out. The survey was conducted from February to March among more than 5,000 U.S. adults.
About 21% described their own diets as extremely or very healthy, with a far larger share — 59% — characterizing their diets as somewhat healthy. One-fifth said their diets are not too healthy or not at all healthy.
How food tastes was a high priority for 83% of Americans when deciding what to eat. About half said the same of food healthiness.
About 88% eat home-cooked meals at least a few times a week, while 17% order takeout or delivery, and 12% eat at restaurants that frequently.
Americans who eat a home-cooked meal every day were more likely to describe their diets as extremely or very healthy (29%), compared with those who cook at home less often (12%).
Nearly half of Americans (49%) say they are extremely or very confident that they know which foods are healthy.
About 65% of Americans said it was very or somewhat easy to find healthy food close to them. In contrast, 13% said it is very or somewhat difficult to do that.
This story was written with the assistance of AI.
