(WASHINGTON POST) Roberto A. Ferdman — The good news is that the nearly 50 million Americans who participate in the food stamp program are getting as many calories in food, on average, as everyone else.

The bad news is that those calories are coming from much less healthy things.

Researchers at the UConn Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity, hoping to evaluate the current state of the largest federal food assistance program in the United States, reviewed 25 different studies published between 2003 and 2014. Each of the studies analyzed data on the dietary quality, food choices, and spending habits of both those who use food stamps, known as the Supplementation Nutrition and Assistance Program (SNAP), and those who don’t.

The findings, published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine, are, in some ways, surprising. Soda consumption, for instance, has long been believed to be particularly high among poor people, but it turns out that may not be correct.

Source: The key difference between what poor people and everyone else eat – The Washington Post