individual’s level of education (less than high school, high school alone or more than high
school) because this variable is highly predictive of income and health knowledge. We include a
dummy variable to indicate whether or not an individual lives in a household that is owned or
rented. Similar to other national surveys on dietary intake, there is no information on the food
prices or expenditures. Typically, researchers have circumvented this problem by including
geographic indicators, such as state, region or whether an individual lives in an urban or rural
setting (Variyam, Blaylock, and Smallwood, 1996). Due to confidentiality concerns, this
information is not released to the public. Also missing is information on household size, and
whether or not an individual has children living in the household. Currently, we can only assess
whether an individual is married/living with an adult partner or single.
From the literature, we know that some characteristics correlate with shifts in food demand. For
example, two individuals’ energy requirements may differ because of age, gender and size.
Rather than BMI, we use an individual’s measured waist circumference relative to the gender
specific overweight classification (88cm for women, 102 cm for men). Cultural norms and level
of acculturation also have an influence on our diet (Aldrich and Variyam, 2000). We attempt to
capture these through an individual’s reported ethnicity and whether a language other than
English is considered to be one’s primary language.
We define an individual as having diabetes if, in the questionnaire regarding medical conditions,
he or she indicates that he has been diagnosed with the disease. We also include a dummy
variable to indicate if an individual currently takes either insulin or blood sugar pills for this
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