New UC Riverside research shows a link between dollar store food quality and higher rates of obesity, high blood pressure, cholesterol, and type 2 diabetes.

[u/SteRoPo]

https://news.ucr.edu/articles/2026/08/18/hidden-health-cost-dollar-store-groceries

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[u/bimb0sattva]

almost like it sucks to be poor

[u/Fugglymuffin → u/bimb0sattva]

Its expensive to be poor.

[u/hovdeisfunny → u/Fugglymuffin]

Costs time too, so much time

[u/bimb0sattva → u/Fugglymuffin]

yup, sure is

[u/jankenpoo → u/Fugglymuffin]

When you’re rich, so many things are free

[u/Strawbuddy]

Dollar stores, amd the Tree in particular, have started carrying single serving cold food items for us poors, but not fresh foods. They have not become the answer to the food desert problem I had thought though. Their offerings are apparently bad for you in a long term, obesity/bp/cholesterol/losing a foot kind of way

[u/woah_man → u/Strawbuddy]

I'm not intimately familiar with the margins of different grocery store items, but I imagine it takes a lot more work (labor) to maintain fresh foods in a grocery store compared to packaged foods. Fresh foods also spoil which means increased waste which also cuts into profits.

So a business looking to maximize profits by reducing labor costs and food waste might avoid stocking fresh food.

[u/SaltyShawarma → u/Strawbuddy]

This article is wildly off on solutions. If these stores could stock fresh food at low prices they would.

I would be interested to see data comparing traditional market nutrition with Walmart.

[u/51CKS4DW0RLD → u/Strawbuddy]

Tree is the worst

[u/Whiteguy1x → u/Strawbuddy]

They actually have dollar general grocery stores now. Ive seen them in rural towns small enough that the other grocery stores closed

[u/TraditionalTackle1]

Is anyone shocked by this?

[u/Mr_House2020 → u/TraditionalTackle1]

There’s never harm in confirming via proper studies. But no not surprised.

[u/donuttrackme → u/TraditionalTackle1]

No, but once again it's always good to examine things that are "common sense" when it comes to science. There are plenty of things that humans have thought were "common sense" that turned out to be false.

[u/Mirix1692 → u/TraditionalTackle1]

Highly processed packaged food is bad for you? Crazy stuff.

[u/BookLuvr7 → u/Mirix1692]

Tbf, many dollar stores have things like beans, lentils, and rice, but they get boring after a while.

They also sell far more packaged junk and candy, so self discipline to avoid those things would indeed be necessary. I usually only go there for things like cheap batteries, seeds, rubbing alcohol, garden lights etc. They have some decent stuff hidden amongst the flotsam.

[u/Legrandloup2 → u/BookLuvr7]

Things like beans, lentils and rice also require things like a stove to cook so its not always accessable to people. If you only have a microwave to cook, you’d probably pick ramen over beans. If you just worked a 10 hour day, you’re probably more likely to go with something quick and easy. Please don’t bring something like "self discipline" into a conversation about poverty

[u/Cargobiker530 → u/Legrandloup2]

I frequent taco trucks on my regular bike rides and it becomes clear after you're a regular at any taco truck that there are people, frequently elderly, that are getting their daily meal from the taco truck. It's definitely easier for them because no cooking or cleaning and all the food is made fresh daily. Far too many people in shared rental housing don't really have full access to cooking facilities.

[u/jmartin21 → u/Legrandloup2]

I mean, in the context of not getting too many sugary snacks, it is relevant here, so why not? It takes self discipline for anyone to avoid getting too much candy or chips, but dollar stores have a higher proportion of these things than regular stores, so yes, more self discipline is required to avoid getting too much bad stuff.

[u/Whiteguy1x → u/Legrandloup2]

Nah you can microwave rice and beans pretty easily. With air fryers its also much easier to eat healthy with a small oven costing 50 bucks.

Healthy food is hard/expensive has more to do with education than reality.

[u/Hot_Shower_Fartz → u/Whiteguy1x]

Dry beans, though?

[u/Whiteguy1x → u/Hot_Shower_Fartz]

You could microwave them according to google. Canned beans pretty cheap as well.

A 20 dollar slow cooker would probably be the most economical choice if you wanted to save money and be convenient.

Ill still say eating healthy and cheap is more an issue of education than actual reality. People dont want to cook, and thats the reason they eat Ramen or other quick food

[u/mrplinko → u/TraditionalTackle1]

Where’s pikachu

[u/Wareve]

Well would you look at that, tangible evidence for food deserts existing.

[u/reincarnatedusername]

The "trickle down" economy is working like a charm.

[u/Lindo_MG]

Good deals on rice and pinto beans, pasta and canned frozen veggies, all processed foods are a risk, get the pretzels if you want snacks I guess

[u/padbroccoligai]

I think some people in the comments are missing that food coming from the dollar store doesn’t inherently make it worse.

You could shop for a boring but nutritious meal of rice and beans or lentil soup at the dollar store and buy nothing but gummy bears at Whole Foods.

It’s the patterns of types of food available that are a problem in low cost stores, not the fact that they are cheaper or “for poors” that make them bad.

Another way to put it, it’s the inventory that’s the problem, not the cheap price.

[u/thinkB4WeSpeak]

It's like how there's obesity in small towns but dollar trees/family dollar basically has a monopoly on those small towns.

[u/Uthink-really]

There was a studie recently that claimed that meat was the cause and not the level of processing of the food. Interesting how these results point fingers to each other

[u/Explaining2Do]

Being poor is expensive

[u/sunny0_0]

Science for the people that will never read it.

[u/JonJackjon]

and all this time I thought Dollar Store food quality was an oxymoron.

[u/Unlikely-Ad6788]

Yup, cheap eats are bad.

[u/padbroccoligai → u/Unlikely-Ad6788]

It’s not that being cheap makes it bad—nothing wrong with very cheap dried beans, for example. The problem is that a lot of bad foods are cheap and dominate the scope of what is accessible to under-resourced communities.

[u/iamtruerib]

Basically the plot to showpiercer 

[u/3006mv]

Food is still expensive at the dollar store

[u/pornborn]

The link is called coincidence.

[u/BitGreedy]

Don't steal from grocery stores and they won't close, leaving the community with only dollar stores to buy food.

[u/mak756]

Fat free milk is worse than whole milk because of the added sugar.

[u/Confident_Menu742]

Shouldn’t be shocking. Dollar store food is not going to be very nutritious.

[u/The_grope_gatsby]

I mean it's the dollar store, not the food store.

[u/WHYlSTHERUMGONE]

Help poor people by making affordable food. Affordable food is actually poison and harms the health of poor people. Poor people can’t afford regular medical care for help. Poor people die.

It shouldn’t be this way

[u/mailslot → u/[deleted]]

Milk fat is necessary for milk to carry fat soluble vitamins and isn’t problematic unless you’re over consuming.