

(Barbara Damrosch/THE WASHINGTON POST)

What didn’t matter, though, was the price of produce. Those who reported high cost as a barrier to the consumption of produce ended up eating just as much as those who didn’t.

“In fact, perceived cost was not associated with dietary intake among this predominantly minority and low-income audience,” write Jonathan Blitstein, Jeremy Snider and W. Douglas Evans. “Respondents who agreed that cost was a barrier to eating fruits and vegetables did not report lower dietary intake than respondents who disagreed that cost was a barrier.”

This study fits well with Mark Bittman’s recent argument that Americans aren’t skipping healthy food because of its high cost, but rather because cooking with fresh produce takes significantly more work.