Florida ranks 44th out of all 50 states in a new Childhood Nutrition Index examining the conditions that support healthy nutrition for children ages 1 to 5.
The index, created by Juice Plus+, gives Florida a score of 41 out of 100, placing it in the report’s “Low” performance category. The ranking considers six indicators: children’s daily fruit and vegetable consumption, sugary drink consumption, household access to nutritious food, child poverty and household food insecurity.
The index is based on publicly available data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, U.S. Census Bureau and U.S. Department of Agriculture. Juice Plus+ notes that the index is intended to compare nutrition environments across states and does not measure the health or nutritional status of individual children.
Florida Falls Below National Leaders
Florida’s ranking places it among the 10 lowest-scoring states in the index. The other states in the bottom 10 are West Virginia, South Carolina, Tennessee, Alabama, Oklahoma, Texas, Arkansas, Louisiana and Mississippi.
All 10 of the lowest-ranked states are located in the U.S. Census Bureau’s South region, according to the report.
At the top of the index are New Hampshire, Vermont and Maine. New Hampshire received the highest overall score at 79, while Mississippi ranked last at 21—a 58-point difference between the two states.
Florida’s Childhood Nutrition Numbers
Several of the indicators used in the index contributed to Florida’s low overall score.
According to the report, 56% of Florida children ages 1 to 5 eat fruit at least once a day, while 39% eat vegetables daily.
Florida also scored below the national average on household access to nutritious food. 61% of Florida households reported that they could always afford to eat nutritious foods.
The report lists Florida’s under-five child poverty rate at 17% and its three-year average household food insecurity rate at 12%, based on the datasets used in the index.
One area where Florida performs comparatively better is sugary drink consumption. The report found that 50% of Florida children ages 1 to 5 drink a sugary beverage at least once a week. That compares with higher rates in several lower-ranked states, including Mississippi at 74%, Tennessee at 72%, and Oklahoma at 70%.
Report Finds Connection Between Economic Conditions and Diet
Beyond ranking states, the analysis examined whether economic conditions were associated with children’s dietary patterns.
The report found statistically significant relationships between food affordability, child poverty and household food insecurity and children’s reported consumption of fruits, vegetables and sugary drinks. States with higher levels of food affordability tended to have higher rates of daily fruit and vegetable consumption, while states with greater economic hardship tended to report lower fruit and vegetable intake and higher sugary drink consumption.
However, the report cautions that the findings show correlations at the state level and do not establish causation. In other words, the data cannot determine that economic hardship directly causes a particular dietary outcome for an individual child or family.
How the Index Was Calculated
Juice Plus+ calculated each state’s score using six equally weighted measures:
- Percentage of children ages 1 to 5 who eat fruit daily
- Percentage of children ages 1 to 5 who eat vegetables daily
- Percentage of children ages 1 to 5 who consume sugary drinks weekly
- Percentage of households that can always afford nutritious food
- Percentage of children under 5 living below the federal poverty line
- Household food insecurity
The measures were normalized to produce scores from 0 to 100, with higher scores representing stronger performance across the combined nutrition and socioeconomic indicators.
Heather Koenig, a registered dietitian with Juice Plus+, said the early childhood years are an important period for developing eating habits.
“Early years are a critical window for growth and development,” Koenig said. “During this time, children are developing eating habits that are often carried through adolescence and adulthood.”
The report’s findings highlight that children’s access to nutritious food is influenced by more than dietary choices alone, with household food affordability, poverty and food security also playing a role in the broader environment surrounding childhood nutrition.
For Florida, the 44th-place ranking places the state well below the national leaders and highlights areas including daily fruit and vegetable consumption and access to affordable nutritious food that the report identifies as opportunities for improvement.
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