Most Americans are convinced junk food is cheaper than healthy food. A new study by the United States Department of Agriculture Economic Research Service says that is not necessarily true. It all depends on how we measure the price. Here is the abstract for the study, titled Are Healthy Foods Really More Expensive? It depends on How You Measure the Price
Carlson, Andrea, and Elizabeth Frazão. Are Healthy Foods Really More Expensive? It depends on How You Measure the Price, EIB-96, U.S.
Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service, May 2012.
Most Americans consume diets that do not meet Federal dietary recommendations. A common explanation is that healthier foods are more expensive than less healthy foods. To investigate this assumption, the authors compare prices of healthy and less healthy foods using three different price metrics: the price of food energy ($/calorie), the price of edible weight ($/100 edible grams), and the price of an average portion ($/average portion). They also calculate the cost of meeting the recommendations for each food group. For all metrics except the price of food energy, the authors find that healthy foods cost less than less healthy foods (defined for this study as foods that are high in saturated fat, added sugar, and/or sodium, or that contribute little to meeting dietary recommendations).How did this government study define healthy foods? Food items are defined as healthy if they
- Contain an amount of a food in at least one of the major food groups (vegetables, fruits, grains, dairy, and protein foods) equal to at least half the portion size that the Dietary Guidelines for Americans 2010 uses for measuring the nutrients in that food.
- Contain only moderate amounts of saturated fats, added sugars, and sodium.
What were the major findings of the study? How we define price determines whether eating healthy is more or less expensive than eating junk food.
- Foods low in calories for a given weight appear to have a higher price when the price is measured per calorie. For example, vegetables and fruits, which are low in calories, tend to be a relatively expensive way to purchase food energy.
- Conversely, less healthy foods (called “moderation foods” in this report)—especially those high in saturated fat and added sugar—tend to be high in calories and to have a low price per calorie.
- When measured on the basis of edible weight or average portion size, grains, vegetables, fruit, and dairy foods are less expensive than most protein foods and foods high in saturated fat, added sugars, and/or sodium.
- In following the food group recommendations at ChooseMyPlate.gov, it is less costly to meet the grains, dairy, and fruit recommendations than those for vegetables or protein foods.
In other words, if you are like most Americans, you tend to eat too many calories. That's why you're obese. You eat too much junk food. If you ate fewer calories you could still eat they same weight of healthy food and end up losing weight instead of packing on an extra 3-4 pounds every year. It's time to start viewing the cheapest foods as those with the highest nutriment (not calories) at the lowest cost. By that measurement, most healthy foods, including fruits and vegetables would be cheaper than most junk foods.
Many Americans claim they can't afford fruits and vegetables because they cost too much. This study puts to rest the myth that eating healthy isn't affordable, especially if the cost of eating unhealthy included the additional cost of rapidly rising medical insurance premiums, copays and deductibles for physician visits and hospital admissions that are directly attributed to the rising rates of obesity in this country. We can cut our risk of diabetes, stroke, heart attack and cancer by 80% if we included a healthy diet as part of our healthy lifestyle.
Right now you have nothing to worry about. If ObamaCare isn't struck down by the US Supreme Court, you'll be able to eat all the junk food you want and your accelerating premiums, copays and deductibles will be paid for by others. However, you'll find a really hard time finding doctors to accept your Medicaid and that means longer hours waiting to get your diabetes medication filled in the ER. That is if you plan on filling your prescriptions. However, you'd better think twice about not filling your scripts because you won't want to be labeled as noncompliant when the government finds out you fall below the 80th% line for patient medication adherence. That might categorize you as a high risk citizen that will trigger a personalized junk food tax that will penalize your bad food shopping habits. Don't be a fool. Eat your fruits and vegetables.
Right now you have nothing to worry about. If ObamaCare isn't struck down by the US Supreme Court, you'll be able to eat all the junk food you want and your accelerating premiums, copays and deductibles will be paid for by others. However, you'll find a really hard time finding doctors to accept your Medicaid and that means longer hours waiting to get your diabetes medication filled in the ER. That is if you plan on filling your prescriptions. However, you'd better think twice about not filling your scripts because you won't want to be labeled as noncompliant when the government finds out you fall below the 80th% line for patient medication adherence. That might categorize you as a high risk citizen that will trigger a personalized junk food tax that will penalize your bad food shopping habits. Don't be a fool. Eat your fruits and vegetables.
