Food Insufficiency and Prevalence of Overweight Among Adult Women

A limited number of studies have shown that, in the United States, women in food insufficient households are more likely to be overweight than women in food sufficient households (for example, see Olson; Townsend et al). However, these studies utilized self-reported heights and weights to define overweight. To further examine this paradoxical association between food insufficiency and overweight, we used data from the 1988-94 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES III). In that survey, heights and weights were measured. To gain additional insight, we also examined women’s overall diet quality as gauged by the Healthy Eating Index (HEI) and its components.