Cheap Food Makes us Fat?

[Go Skins]

http://www.cnn.com/2014/05/23/health/cheap-food-obesity/index.html

 

Forget everything you know about what's making us fat.

 

We hear a lot about Americans being fast food-addicted couch potatoes, and while that does play a role in the nation's expanding waist lines, a new study concludes it's not the driving force behind the obesity epidemic.

 

Instead all Americans -- no matter what income level they have and no matter what neighborhood they live in -- are getting bigger because food is cheaper than ever before, the study authors say. Simply put, we're spending less of our total budget on food so we're buying more.

 

The study, published in the June edition of the journal CA Cancer, found that people in 1930 spent about a fourth of their disposable income on food. Today food takes up about a tenth of our disposable income. Food is also easier to prepare and easier to purchase than it was in 1930.

That means Americans aren't just eating more high-calorie food, they are eating more of a variety of foods. Consequently, Americans have consumed, on average, about 20% more calories since the 1970s.

 

Lead study authors Roland Sturm and An Ruopeng hope it will lay to rest some myths about obesity.

 

"If you look at the data over time, you actually see a slight increase in exercise. And Americans have more access to fruits and vegetables," said Roland Sturm who is a senior economist at the RAND Corporation. "It's not Southern hospitality that is driving this trend, nor is it income or education. Really nothing protects us from this challenge of obesity."

 

On average, Americans have been getting fatter since at least the 1950s, maybe even longer. While the data isn't perfect, experts looking at health records for men between the ages of 40 and 49 see a steady increase in body mass index since 1900.

[|Lucid|]

Sure, if you are eating processed crap.

 

Those of us that buy whole foods and actually cook our meals from scratch know that food has been getting more expensive, not less.  The reason Americans food budget has been decreasing is because they are increasingly living off stuff that isn't really food.

 

Sure calorie counts are increasing.. Eating processed products stuffed with sugars and empty carbs will do that.

[Jamie_B]

Sure, if you are eating processed crap.

 

Those of us that buy whole foods and actually cook our meals from scratch know that food has been getting more expensive, not less.  The reason Americans food budget has been decreasing is because they are increasingly living off stuff that isn't really food.

 

Sure calorie counts are increasing.. Eating processed products stuffed with sugars and empty carbs will do that.

 

 

Yep

 

Its not so much the cheapness of the food, but the specifics of what you are eating. Eat real food, not processed crap.

[|Numbers|]

 

On average, Americans have been getting fatter since at least the 1950s, maybe even longer. While the data isn't perfect, experts looking at health records for men between the ages of 40 and 49 see a steady increase in body mass index since 1900.

 

I'm just guessing but I would say it goes back to the 1920's when for the first time in our history, city population exceeded rural living.  Depending upon " imported " foods and no longer having easy access to fresh homegrown foods probably helped contribute to the decline.  However, with the drawbacks of city living came increased availability of medical care.  People that lived on the farm may have been eating healthier but received less than adequate medical care compared with those in the city IMHO.

 

In other words, people living in the city can eat healthier if they so choose and can do it cheaply as well IMHO.  As evidenced by a few of the posters on here that have dedicated themselves to an eating healthy lifestyle.