Beyond Healthy Diets

Is it culture rather than intemperance that condemns millions of limited income people to a lifetime of obesity?

Some nutrition experts think so. Popular diets, some contend, are simply beyond the means of many poor, overweight people. Following the popular Atkins diet, for example, costs about $15 per person per day, according to a recent analysis of the high-protein diet. Low-income families, by contrast, spend only about $25 per person per week on food, according to Adam Drewnowski, director of the Center for Public Health Nutrition at the University of Washington.

Further complicating matters is the costs of fruits and vegetables that have increased by nearly 120 percent between 1985 and 2000, while the prices of colas, fats, sugars and sweets increased by only about 50 percent.

Aside from that, mini-marts with high-calorie, high-sugar foods are more common in low-income areas than fully-stocked grocery stores, replete with produce sections.

Posted by Jim Langcuster at September 13, 2004 03:06 PM | TrackBack