Wednesday, December 5, 2007

Grocery bills

I swear, I really do things other than read the New York Times (I read blogs and shop too!)...but I have another article to pass along. This one summarizes a recent study about how much a 2000 calorie diet costs in terms of junk food or presumably "healthy" calorie-sparse foods. The cost difference is about 10 times per calorie! They also report that the average American spends ~$7 per day on food while low-income Americans spend ~$4. Reading the article reminded me of the discussion over at Sister Skinny a while back about grocery bills. As I commented, I spend a lot of food, $400-500 per month for two, which is right in the range for average Americans! That makes me feel a bit better since I always have wallet guilt as I leave the grocery store...

I also wonder what would happen is we got rid of the farm subsidies - would we see a change in people's diets and health if highly-processed, calorie-dense foods became more expensive? (I'll plug the Omnivore's Dilemma again - read it!!!) I could go on and on about this issue, but I'll spare you.

On my diet front - eating has been good, exercising has been lacking, to put it nicely. Speaking of, I'd better head to the treadmill...

2 comments:

soapbox girl said...

"Based on his findings, a 2,000-calorie diet would cost just $3.52 a day if it consisted of junk food, compared with $36.32 a day for a diet of low-energy dense foods."

Thank you. I feel so much better!
I spend a ton on groceries, too.

Meg said...

it's so sad that junk food is cheaper than real food. tragic, actually...no wonder america is so fat.