FOOD SECURITY AND HEALTH-STATUS IN THE UNITED-STATES

Food security is defined as access by all people at all times to enough food for an active, healthy life. This paper explores the relationships between food security and women's self-evaluated health status. A theoretical model is developed which suggests that our primary interests can be served by estimating health and food security production functions. We find that food security has a significant influence on a woman's self-evaluated health status. However, the exact manifestations are difficult to quantify; they may be psychological or physiological. The most food-insecure women tend to be poor and less educated. Tobacco use, lack of physical exercise and obesity also weigh heavily against good health status.