If you’ve been down the produce isle at the grocery store lately, you’ll know that the prices for fresh fruits and vegetables have gone up. Tomatoes, for example, are up 3.9% over last year at this time as reported by the USDA.
Calculating Food Prices for Healthy Versus Junk Foods
Comparing prices between healthy foods can be difficult for average consumers. It’s like comparing apples and oranges. Well, not really. It’s more like trying to compare salad fixings and frozen pizza.
It doesn’t, however, take a math whiz to feel the pain at the check out when the grocery cart is packed with healthy foods. Most shoppers, especially those on tight budgets, intuitively understand that eating well comes at a high price. Put a container of fresh blueberries in the cart and feel the pain. Then add a fresh pineapple. Ouch.
Researchers at the University of Washington recently put together a study to consider food prices based on dollars per calories to help consumers understand the prices between healthy and not-so-healthy foods. Generally speaking, the foods highest in nutrients are low in calorie count while junk food tends to be calorie dense.
The bottom line in this study was that high calorie foods jingle in at a cost of $3.52 per person per day compared to $36.32 for low calorie selections. Most consumers do a bit of balancing and plunk down $7 per day for food for each person.
Even more troubling is that the gap is widening with healthier food selections going up 19.5% and high calorie items dropping by 1.8% over the two year time period of the study. That bag of potatoes has gone up 6.1% according to the USDA. Potato chips remain pretty stable in terms of pricing with frequent sales but not usually for the specialty chips like the baked chips (lower in fat and calories).
Impact of Higher Healthy Food Prices
If you’ve heard or made jokes about people on Food Stamps being fatter than other people, then consider that with limited resources and families to feed, calorie rich foods go further. A low income mother may pick up the frozen pizzas on sale instead of lean meats, beans, and carrots. Simply put, healthy foods may not be an option for someone with few resources. This includes individuals on public assistance, senior citizen on fixed budgets and even college students. Working class and middle class families may feel the need to tighten the belt figuratively but certainly not literally by cutting back on good food to balance out increasing tight budgets.
Harder Hitting Food Prices
There is no end in sight. The USDA predicts that food prices will rise again this year by 3.5 to 4%. Food cooked at home is expected to rise even more than restaurant foods at 4 – 5%. Eggs and dairy products are expected to be particularly high for 2008.
Cyndi Allison - Southern born and fed, Cyndi Allison is a college lecturer and newspaper advisor as well as being a freelance writer. She writes on ...
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