Pregnancy, Food Purchases and Nutritional Quality

Abstract

Pregnancy is a critical period for health investments, bolstered by extensive public health guidance and evidence that healthy prenatal environments foster child development with lifelong benefits. We provide new evidence on the causal impact of conception on household nutritional choices during pregnancy and infancy, using event study methodology and consumer scanner data. Households make considerable healthy adjustments in alcohol and fruit purchases. Yet, despite these, the nutritional quality of food choices declines substantially during pregnancy. The magnitude of the decline amounts to 50% of the mean difference in nutritional quality between normal weight and obese individuals. We identify ultra-processed, high-sugar foods currently in the focus of food regulation as the primary driver of this deterioration. This qualitative decline varies little by socio-economic status, pregnancy risk factors and food price environments, indicating a fairly universal worsening in prenatal nutritional environments.

Joint paper with Britta Augsburg, Gabriella Conti, Paula Spinola, and Stephanie von Hinke.