Podcast: Cookie-Cutter Nutrition – The Problem with USDA's Thrifty Food Plan

By Cameron English and ChuckDinerstein — Jan 13, 2025

USDA's Thrifty Food Plan aims to help low-income Americans eat well without breaking their modest budgets. It's an altruistic attempt to promote public health. But this bureaucratic project to promote nutrition lacks what so many other government programs do: the ability to incentivize healthy living at scale.

Join Cameron English and Dr. Chuck Dinerstein on Episode 102 of the Science Dispatch podcast as they discuss:

Does the USDA's ‘One Size Fits All’ TFP Diet Fall Short?

Ever wonder how the USDA thinks you should eat on a budget? Meet the Thrifty Food Plan (TFP) — a bland, one-size-fits-all diet optimized for “nutrition” on a dime. But for food, we have a great many culturally appetizing choices. A new study in Nutrients takes aim at that oversight, proposing a Hispanic Thrifty Food Plan that’s more pork and less tofu.

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Cameron English

Director of Bioscience

Cameron English is a writer, editor and co-host of the Science Facts and Fallacies Podcast. Before joining ACSH, he was managing editor at the Genetic Literacy Project.