Might rising food costs put a dent in obesity epidemic?

In a recent CalorieLab post, Sarah White noted a report from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities that painted a grim portrait of the effect that the soaring cost of food has had on whole segments of the public.

The report focused on families receiving public assistance, and how such assistance has increased little or not at all in the past year, even as the cost of providing a human being with the minimum of nutrition has risen over 7 percent with no inflationary slacking off in sight.

If you go to the source article in the New York Times, you are confronted with some anecdotal background that raises the question: Could there be a dietary silver lining in all this? Could one posit that our obesity epidemic and generally poor national diet are basically the fruits of our own excessive self-indulgence, and that if junk food becomes too expensive for us, it might be for the best?

The answer actually looks to be yes and no. The article cites a USDA report that the price of milk and dairy products has increased by 10 percent in the past year, and that of eggs by almost 20 percent. That might be a dietary plus, if the dairy products were all full-fat and the eggs fried in butter, but if the eggs have been replaced by bread fried in lard and the milk, which was nonfat, is now replaced by Pepsi, the economic disaster is a nutritional one as well.

On the one hand, a woman named June Jacobs-Cuffee in Brooklyn says she has had to give up red meat — nature’s own torpedo for the human artery — and one Yessenia Villar says she’s had to give up cookies and ice cream for her daughter, not the worst possible event amid widespread juvenile obesity and diabetes. On the other hand, Jacobs-Cuffee has also had to give up buying fresh fruit, and Villar is abandoning a family staple fruit, the singularly nutritious plantain.

A completely separate article in USA Today reports that Texans Sally and Robert Jones now economize by dining on such healthy foods as beans, stews and soups, and hooray. But in Fort Myers, Florida, Nancy Sierra now lunches more cheaply on peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, teeming with calories, sugar and fat.

Healthy food often left behind

According to nutrition researchers, when food prices soar, the healthiest kinds — fruits, veggies, lean meat, fish — are the first to be abandoned, and too often replaced by inexpensive but fatty and/or sugary cereals, noodles, packaged mac and cheese, and so forth. The Froot Loops for Dinner phenomenon is one of the drearier and unhealthier results of hard times.

But there are an array of examples of how to eat for less without sacrificing nutritional quality; things people are doing, or could do. Among them:

• Plant your own vegetables, such as easy-to-grow potatoes (nothing better or more filling than a nice baked one, light on dressings), corn, tomatoes, carrots, peppers and squash.
• Make your own salad dressings using less oil and more lemon juice.
• The fewer processed foods, the better, and usually cheaper. Think homemade stews, cassaroles, chili.
• If fresh fruits and vegs are too pricey, use the canned (but avoid heavy fruit syrups) or frozen varieties, which were, after all, picked when at their most nutritious and flavorful.
• Reduce the size of your food portions: gain a few bucks, lose a few pounds, what’s not to like?

Legend holds that the loudest and longest laugh in the Golden Age of live network radio occurred during a scene where an armed robber confronted the notoriously tight Jack Benny and demanded “Your money or your life!” Then followed a long pause, broken by the robber, impatiently, “I said your money or your life!” To which the frustrated Benny retorted, “I’m thinking it over!”

Happily, if you consume wisely, in both the economic and nutritional senses, that doesn’t have to be anything more than a joke.

(By Robert S. Wieder for CalorieLab Calorie Counter News)

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This entry was posted on Monday, July 14th, 2008 and is filed under Cooking at home, Food miscellaneous, Nutrition. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed. Permalink.