Changes in food intake during the COVID-19 pandemic in New York City

The COVID-19 pandemic and stay-at-home orders across the nation have had substantial consequences on access to food and dietary behaviors. We investigated the dietary intake of adults in NYC, before and during the COVID-19 period. A subset of participants (n = 31) from an NIH-funded multi-level discount supermarket study were assessed. In this study, the experimental groups received a 0% (control), 15%, or 30% discount on fruits, vegetables, and noncaloric beverages for 8 months. The discount level for the participants who were selected for this study did not change from the pre-COVID to during COVID periods. Dietary intake data was collected using three unannounced 24-h dietary recalls (2 weekdays, 1 weekend) during each period. Changes in total daily kcal of food and beverages, total g of solid food, energy density of solid food (kcal/g), and g of fruit and vegetables, soda, non-caloric beverages, and snack foods were analyzed using multivariate linear regression. Energy density (ED) increased during COVID (+0.02 ± 0.5 [SD], F[4,26] = 3.0, p = 0.038). There was an interaction by gender (t = -3.2, p = 0.0035) such that ED increased for females (+0.27 ± 0.46, p = 0.037) and decreased for males (-0.22 ± 0.32, p = 0.012). The change in ED is likely due to the circumstances surrounding COVID-19, e.g. being at home, stress, and food shortages.