High-Calorie Foods a Bargain for the Poor
Miami Herald: "Energy-dense foods composed of refined grains, added sugars or fats may represent the lowest-cost option," said Adam Drewnowski, director of the Center for Public Health Nutrition at the University of Washington. For people in poverty, choosing these kinds of products "may represent a deliberate attempt to save money," he said.
Written By J. Foster
Whew - this article really twists the facts. Yes our junk diet (high-fat, high-sugar, hi-carb) is cheaper than a healthier diet. Yes its expensive to shop at organic super-markets. But its not like poor people are wasting away and choose hi-carb diets as a way to eek out more calories for the hard-earned dollars. NO! It is the poor who are disproportionally obese because they are eating this cheap junk food.
High-calorie foods are not a bargain for the Poor. The cheapest food is the worst food and the poor suffer from a horrible cheap diet.
ReplyIt is true that the poor are suffering from obesity due to the cheaper foods generally being high in fat, sugar, calories, etc. But it is possible to be healthy on a low budget. As a college student, I don't have a lot of money to spend on food, but I still manage to eat healthy. Canned vegetables and fruits are much cheaper than the fresh counterparts and last longer with their preservatives. Also, the vegetarian diet helps to cut out the cost of meat...a very expensive luxury.
ReplyI AM VERY ILL AND UNDER WEIGHT..I ALSO HAVE BEEN DIAGNOSED WITH HEPATITAS C FROM A TATOO I HAD DONE IN THE EARLY 70S..MY DOCTOR RECENTLY PUT ME ON A HIGH PROTEIN DIET WITH MINIMUM OF 4000 CALORIES PER DAY.. UNFORTUNATLY I AM UNABLE TO WORK AT THIS TIME DO TO ILLNESS AND AM ON SOCIAL ASSISTANCE AND THE HAVE DECIDED I CAN MANAGE THIS DIET ON AN ADDITIONAL 30 DOLLARS PER MONTH. A REGULAR SPECIAL DIET ALLOWANCE IS AN ADITIONAL 75 DOLLARS PER MONTH, THEY HAVE NEVER SEEN HIGH CALORIE, PROTEIN DIET BEFORE...I FIND THIS A TRAVESTY THAT MAY PUT ME IN A HOSPITAL AND I MAY NEVER BE ABLE TO GO BACK TO WORK AGAIN,,ANY SUGGESTIONS......LORRAINE, SUDBURY,ONT, CANADA
ReplyI suggest not typing in caps. It's so annoying and makes people not care what you say.
I don't understand your situation really, but the caps are partly to blame i think.
ReplyIt's not entirely true that you can't eat healthfully on little money. My husband and I don't spend a lot on food and we shop at a discount grocery store and get produce for very little money. We also get garden produce in the summer and use frozen or canned veggies when we can. It's not impossible to eat healthy on a budget, there are just a lot of people out there who don't take the time to find the best nutritional bargain.
ReplyHi, Im a 33yr old divorced mother of two. My situation is probably a little rare, all I want to do is gain weight. I am never hungry and ive had every test taken and a full physical, of course ive never been a big eater even as a child.It is annoying because my sister and I try extremely hard to gain weight.She has gained a couple of pounds but If anyone have any suggestions for me please note them because at least once in my life I would like to weigh over 109lbs. thanks the MOB.
ReplyHi. I am involved with feeding kids in third world countries.
Does anyone know what is the HIGHEST CALORIE POSSIBLE food per dollar? My guess is donuts but I am not quite so sure of it.
Thanks.
ReplyTom--eggs are very cheap and very nutritionally dense. Much better choice than donuts. Also, beans are considered one of the top cheap yet nutritious foods (especially soybeans). As far as pure calories go, any white carbohydrate will be a good cheap source of calories (flour, rice, potatoes, corn), but you really should look for things that are more substantial than donuts.
ReplyTom-Peanut Butter has a LOT of calories and protein and is not expensive. Much more nutritional value than donuts. Anything with chocolate in it, especially candy, is loaded with calories. Pasta is cheap and has some calories, much more if you add a lot of butter or cheese to it, or a cream sauce. Full fat dairy products such as milk, cheese, ice cream, cream cheese and butter all have a ton of calories. Nuts are very calorie dense, provided the people you are working with are not allergic to them. Lorraine and Love if you are attempting to gain weight I would recommend eating peanut butter by the spoonful or on bread or bagels, also ice cream is a good source of calories and calcium. Chocolate is also loaded with calories, if you can eat some cookies or a few pieces of candy. Nuts also have a lot of calories--almost 200 in a handful. Eat at least several handfuls a day to add some extra calories. Good luck everyone.
ReplyI am a single 51 year old retired veteran with 23 years of military service. For some reason I can not gain any weight. I eat like a hungry horse all day and I never gain any weight. I also walk a lot. I eat solid foods high in protein, I drink protein drinks made of raw eggs, olive oil,high quality protein powder,bananas, chicken broth, carrots,garlic, hershey chocolate syrup, and bell pepper and I never gain a ounce. I masturbate regularly to prevent catching a desease. Tell me what I need to do to gain some weight.
Replyeat 7 meals a day. you are not seeing changes in your weight probably due to low metabolism.
ReplyI think this argument about low cost calories is COMPLETE RUBBISH. It is not like they (poor) do any analysis (read the nutrition sheets available) , and they certainly spend extra to Supersize when in fact it would save money not doing it. A recent Psychology today article showed that married women who were happy gained much less weight than unhappy married women, independent of economic class. It is much more beleiveable that it is evidence of depression than some economic money saving calculation. Another recent study showed it had much more to do with your peers. If you friends get fat you will too.
Replylook nim a teen and im very thin. Being a thin teen guy isnt easy. I live in South Africa and ijm soooooo tired of being the little guy, kleintjie, the small one. nothing works if been going mad. Does anyone know how to gain waight very fast? I feel like im gona eat of my pulses if I dont get help FAST! HELP MY PLZ>!
Alexander O'Herra
Reply16 -years old
I AM UNDER WEIGHT..KIDS TEASE ME IN SCHOOL FOR BEING TOO SKINNY..I EAT AS MUCH AS I CAN ND I DONT GAIN ANY WEIGHT WHY? PLEASE HELP ME
ReplyDO NOT miss any breakfast. Drink a gallon of water everyday. Lifting weights and adding 1-2 servings of whey protein mix blended with banana, peanut butter and ice cream will help a lot. Do this for a while, i guarantee that you will gain weight. And by the way, eat at least 5 meals a day.
ReplyHello
I have an under weight 9 year old son that weighs 55 pounds is 57 inches tall and is on ADHD med-(supposed to suppress his appetite).
My problem is that I have two kids one on this end and another on the other end of the scale (not this severe but sitting in the border of being overweight). We have tried protein shakes-its more of a fight for him to drink them. We do Pedia Sure but thats getting too expensive. I want to try Peanut Butter crackers as a bedtime snack, any other ideas?
He is so thin that the doctor wants him in a booster seat, but they don't make any for how tall he is. christy124646@comcast.net
ReplyFirst, take the caps lock off.
ReplyAnd if you are old enough to lift weights then lift Heavy weights and eat protien shakes with strawberrys and peanut butter and ice cream in them
ReplyI can see right away that there are some very helpful souls here. There are people here asking very serious questions about very serious problems and all some of you can offer is "turn off the caps lock"? Geez people, get your head out of your butt. I should be so lucky that the only problem I have in life is that the person that needs help types in capital letters. I'm a cancer patient. I've had two surgeries on my throat so far this year and I'm mid-way through my radiation therapy. So far, I have lost practically all sense of taste, and my saliva glands have all but shut down as well. I have been constantly losing weight over the past few months and have dropped from a healthy 178 pounds to a very unhealthy 142 pounds and my weight is still dropping. The doctors are threatening to put a feeding tube in me unless I can find a way to get my weight up on my own. Unfortunately, the way a food "tastes" doesn't help. Most flavors that you can taste are a combination of several taste buds "firing" at the same time to create the flavor that your brain recognizes as a particular food. Well, if chicken for example is the combination of six taste buds firing, and only two of them are working, chicken winds up tasting like ink, or maybe cleaning fluid, or some other nasty taste. And it affects EVERY taste, not just some. Scrambled eggs tastes like paint chips, peanut butter tastes like shoe wax. And it goes on from there. Chocolate has become a very very nasty taste. So here I am, like others, seeking help. I need calories. I need lots of calories in small dense packages. I would love to find some snack with 1000 calories in a cracker sized bite. But so far, I still struggle every day to come up with enough calories to keep my body from withering even further. It would be nice to actually get some helpful suggestions rather than some jerk complaining about my typing skills. Jesus Christ people. If all you can do is be condescending, why are you even here?
ReplyFor Samuel Banks,
Hi Sam. I hope I can offer a little help. From what I understand, there are some factors to consider that vary from the normal, like illness, stress, etc., but for the most part, weight gain or loss is a fairly simple equation. Calories in verses calories out. If you consume more calories than your body burns, you gain weight. If you burn more than you consume, you lose weight. It sounds like you have a fairly active lifestyle which in itself requires lots of calories to maintain. It would also seem that you only have a couple of options to help with your weight. Increase your caloric intake, or reduce your activity level. I would opt for increasing calories. It's not something you can "binge" on for a couple of days and get results from though, but rather an actual increase in calories on a regular, daily basis. Adding just one 12 ounce can of cola to your diet on a daily basis will add ten pounds a year to your weight. but you have to add one every day to get the effect. If you take a canned cola out of your diet on a daily basis, you'll lose ten pounds a year. So you kind of get an idea as to just how fragile weight gain or loss is. But the key is consistency. Add a snack consistently. Add a protein shake every day. A banana. A peanut butter sandwich. Something. But do it consistently, and wait for small gradual results. Best of luck to you. Hope this helps. James
ReplyI think a lot of you missed the point of this article. You can go to the dollar store and get two weeks' worth of meals for $20. Unfortunately those "meals" consist of frozen pizza (a bargain at $1.50 each), entire bags of cookies ($2.00 or less), cans of off-brand ravioli ($1.00), and "just add water" microwave meals (around $2.00).
You can save a lot of money eating this way, but you'll also gain weight and suffer the consequences of eating a "junk food only" diet.
No wonder most poor people are overweight.
Reply