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 COVID19 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.