Nutrient Prices and Other Socio-Economic and Health Determinants of the Body Mass Index of Canadians

We examine the effect of nutrient prices and other socio-economic and health factors on the Body Mass Index (BMI) of Canadians using the Canadian Community Health Survey (CCHS). The CCHS data does not include information on nutrition intake, and so the price of fat, carbohydrates and protein are included to capture the effects of diet on BMI. The results indicate that changes in nutrient prices in the model have statistically significant impacts on BMI and the direction of the impacts corresponds to hypotheses from the nutrition literature. However, all estimates are inelastic so that the effect of fat taxes or thin subsidies is small. The results also indicate that education is negatively related and income is positively related to BMI. Copyright International Atlantic Economic Society 2014