Healthy soil and sustainable growing

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"Go for frozen and canned vegetables and soups, which often
have the same nutritional value at a lower cost"?

Healthier foods getting more costly, study says
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2004053526_food05m.html
By Lynda V. Mapes
Seattle Times staff reporter

Anyone who has tried to eat a more healthy diet lately knows it costs more
to eat all those fresh fruits and vegetables. But a new study by the
University of Washington has found that it's getting more expensive all the
time — and may even be out of reach for some.

The first-of-its-kind study by UW researchers found that between 2004 and
2006, the costs of some healthy foods went up nearly 20 percent at major
Seattle supermarkets. But over the same period, the cost of some junk foods
dropped.

"Healthy foods are gradually slipping out of reach for all but the affluent
consumers," said Adam Drewnowski, director of the University of Washington
Center for Public Health and Nutrition and an author of the study.

"Foods we thought of as being everyday, healthy, nutritious foods are
becoming luxury items."

The study tracked changes in prices over time and sorted by food quality.
It compared the cost of more than 370 types of food purchased at three
Seattle supermarket chains: QFC, Albertsons and Safeway.

The researchers compared the cost of food that is low in calories by weight
— generally fresh fruits and vegetables — with the costs of
higher-calorie foods, such as candy, pastries and snacks that are high in
refined grains, sugars and fat.

The 20 percent increase in cost of the healthy foods, such as fresh fruits
and vegetables, was way ahead of the overall cost increase of all the food
combined, which was 5 percent.

The study, by Drewnowski, and Pablo Monsivais, a research fellow at the
center, was published in the December issue of the Journal of the American
Dietetic Association.

The findings were discouraging to experts who have long been concerned that
poor people lack access to healthy food and face higher rates of obesity
and related health problems, such as diabetes and heart disease.

"It's a justice issue," said David Bobanick of the Access to Healthy Foods
Coalition, a Wenatchee-based nonprofit. "For people on limited incomes,
this is so much more than an annoyance. You weigh the decision, 'Do I fill
my child's empty stomach so they don't feel the pang of hunger with what I
can afford? Or do I try to feed them nutritious food?' "

The study has its limitations, the researchers are quick to note. For
example, the pricing didn't take into account such things as coupons, store
chains' loyalty cards that grant reduced prices or sale offers. And the
researchers stuck to the chain stores, so they didn't weigh options such as
farmers markets, where fresh food can cost less.

But they also came away with some advice for the shopper on a budget.


One big one: Go for frozen and canned vegetables and soups, which often
have the same nutritional value at a lower cost.

"Fresh is a middle-class obsession," Drewnowski said.

For researcher Monsivais, the findings were "kind of a shocker" because
they contradict a popular assumption that food is cheap in America.

But that notion "doesn't tell you anything for those of us trying to eat
healthy," he said.