Getting a healthy start: The effectiveness of targeted benefits for improving dietary choices.

ABSTRACT: There is growing policy interest in encouraging better dietary choices. We study a nationally-implemented policy - the UK Healthy Start scheme - that introduced vouchers for fruit, vegetables and milk. We show that the policy has increased spending on fruit and vegetables and has been more effective than an equivalent-value cash benefit. We also show that the policy improved the nutrient composition of households' shopping baskets, with no offsetting changes in spending on other foodstuffs.

SUBMITTER: Griffith R 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5887873 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature