Pérez-Ramos, Eliezer

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    A quadratic model for budget planning related to the diet problem
    (2014) Pérez-Ramos, Eliezer; Córdova-Claudio, Mario; College of Business Administration; Fidalgo Córdova, Gloria; Rivera Santiago, Roberto; Department of Business Administration; Ortiz Rios, Gloribell
    This research deals with a variation of the notorious diet problem, which seeks to minimize the budget needed for an individual’s diet, subject to nutritional constraints, among others. Here, we address the problem from a different perspective, namely by proposing a model that seeks to maximize the nutritional value of a diet subject to a budgetary constraint. When viewing this problem from this angle, an administrator can determine at which point the money spent in providing nutritional value approaches diminishing returns for the investment. This tool can then be used to plan a reasonable budget for an individual’s diet. Here we illustrate its usefulness to the case of the Supplementary Nutritional Assistance Program (SNAP), taking into consideration the fixed budget given to the individuals and the price of every food of the Recommended Basic Food Basket for Puerto Rico. As part of the methodology to achieve this objective, we used two mathematical optimization models. The Linear and Quadratic Programming. The results of this research show those combinations of food that optimize the individual nutritional benefit. These results will allow the Federal Government determine the optimum budget for the SNAP effort, taking into consideration its policies, market prices and other restrictions.