Food is garbage, but dollar stores do not destroy our meals.

Some good news for fishermen of deals there: New research shows that although the food purchased in the dollar stores in general is generally less healthy, customer meals do not suffer greatly as a result.

Scientists at Tuffs and Economic Research Service in the US Department of Agriculture cooperated to study, which tracked food purchase habits that include about 200,000 American families. They found that an increasing number of people buy food from dollar stores, especially low -income people. At the same time, the quality of the total diet was not significantly different among those who shop and do not shop in these ports.

The dollar stores have become everywhere throughout the United States over the past few decades. Research showed how these stores have reshaped the local economy, especially in Small cities. For the new study, the researchers wanted to have a better feeling how to change our diet.

To this end, they analyzed the annual data from a representative sample at the national level of the purchases of home foods for Americans. They also used the US Department of Agriculture data to assess the quality of foods that are purchased from stores.

According to the study, the dollar store foods constituted 3.4 % of the total calories of the family in 2008, with nearly 6.5 % doubled by 2020. Colorful people, people living in rural neighborhoods, and those who have less income were more likely to buy foods than dollar stores.

As another research He appearsThe dollar store purchases are less healthy than the foods that were purchased elsewhere. These stores are unlikely to carry fresh products, for example, and they are more likely to contain sweets, snacks and other processed foods. But it is strange that the quality of people’s meals did not turn much regardless of whether they were eating food for the dollar.

People who reported the purchase of foods in the dollar stores got a healthy degree of 50.5, for example, while people who shop in these stores achieved a degree of 46.3 (scale He goes To 100). On average, even the most common store customers still get more than 90 % of calories at home from another place.

The results indicate that the impact of these stores on the health of Americans is more complicated than supposed. It seems that people who shop in these stores change their behavior in buying in other ways. “Although the foods purchased in the dollar stores are less healthy, families may compensate through health purchases elsewhere,” they wrote in their paper, Published Monday in the Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Nutrition.

Researchers note that some cities and neighborhoods have I took work To reduce the growth of these stores. But given the results they reached, they argue that more study is needed to understand exactly how these companies form eating habits for people.

“We need more data about the real effects of dollar stores on healthy eating because some societies may put a politician in front of the horse,” said chief researcher in the study. Sean Cash, an economist in a college, policy and feeding policy in Tatz, in a statement From the university.