While I understand some healthy food is more expensive than some not as healthy food, will people start consuming less because they can't afford as much food? Or will eating at home to save money help with our weight issues?
I keep reading that many people are parking the cars and walking or riding bikes more?
What do you think?
Dawn
"Success is not the result of spontaneous combustion. You have to set yourself on fire." anonymous
Posts: 4533 | Location: Indianapolis, IN | Registered: March 15, 2004
Originally posted by Sheltieguy: My understanding is that, due to food costs, many restaurants are downsizing their gigantic portions to something that is more reasonable, which could be helpful.
That is not that case here where I live in central CA. The restaurant prices just keep going up and up and up. Where the sizes are going down is in the grocery stores.....seems like everyone is in on the "less is more" theme and selling their products in smaller packages than before, and still raising their prices! One way that I have found to combat this (somewhat) is to commit even further to buying locally grown and produced products....those items are remaining the same for the most part.
Blessings,
Lori
Re-committing myself to a healthy lifestyle that will include regular (and increasing) exercise, and following the baby steps rule on food. 6/17/08
Posts: 3159 | Location: California | Registered: March 11, 2004
My understanding is that, due to food costs, many restaurants are downsizing their gigantic portions to something that is more reasonable, which could be helpful.
Dh and I have lost about 60 lbs, so we need to buy and eat about 4,200 calories less a week than at our top weight...
This is about 2 days worth of food for one adult. That is a significant amount of "extra" food to buy over a month or a year... or 5 or 10 or 20 years.
We spend about $130 a week on food, so two days worth is $12.38.
We save $637 a year in grocery bills by being a healthier weight.
OR another way to think about it. we are able to buy $637 worth of better quality foods... like fish or some organic produce because we don't have to buy more food to support our weight.
Denise
Posts: 9221 | Location: Silicon Valley, CA | Registered: March 17, 2004
Originally posted by susanrows: I wouldn’t presume to say that obesity is the only reason the economy is struggling and I haven’t seen any hard facts or data, just anecdotal stuff.
I take it back -- there is hard data. Thanks, Denise!
It isn't the only reason though. It is a contributing factor.
Dawn
"Success is not the result of spontaneous combustion. You have to set yourself on fire." anonymous
Posts: 4533 | Location: Indianapolis, IN | Registered: March 15, 2004
Originally posted by susanrows: I wouldn’t presume to say that obesity is the only reason the economy is struggling and I haven’t seen any hard facts or data, just anecdotal stuff.
I take it back -- there is hard data. Thanks, Denise!
(And a little bit of a shock to see an article from 2006 saying gas was $2.20 a gallon. Whew!)
I would like to think it is going to make a positive impact,and it may at some economic levels, but I'm not sure it will for everyone.
One thing that I learned in a sociology class on modernization in college is that developing nations actually have a obesity problem. People are able to afford food, but not necessarily the healthiest food, and often it is fattening food. I've actually been wondering for some time if our increased obesity problem was a symptom of an economy sliding and that we weren't really aware of it yet.
I think for middle and upper middle class families, it may have more of a positive impact. I think those are the families that have been eating out a lot and they may cut back on meals out and eating at home more. Although, I can see where instead of eating at home, some trade eating at places like Applebee's and Chili's for Burger King and Pizza Hut. Therefore, not really having a positive impact.
I'm guessing this is the income level that can choose to bike or walk more too rather than drive. (Lower SES already not driving and Upper SES still not as impacted by the current economy.)
I know we've been eating home a lot more since I have been out of work. That is twofold really in that we're trying to save money and that I am home and actually have plenty of time to cook now. Even once school starts, I'll be home by 3:30. The only days I won't have time to cook will be on days I have to work my second job, but we should be able to have left overs on those days.
The high school is only about 2 miles from my house, and I'd like to be able to bike, but I'm not sure I'm going to be able to. Since I'm not a teacher I won't have a classroom and since I'm not a student I won't have a locker so I'll be stuck lugging all my stuff to and from school every day. I'll have to see once I'm there how that pans out.
Dawn
"Success is not the result of spontaneous combustion. You have to set yourself on fire." anonymous
Posts: 4533 | Location: Indianapolis, IN | Registered: March 15, 2004
I too can only speak of my personal situation and what I see around me which is probably not representative of the population at large....
I'm much more careful about when I take the car somewhere and I'm more inclined to walk, even though there are no sidewalks. I've seen a huge increase in bike and pedestrian traffic in our town. DH's job tripled the size of their bike rack and it's always filled.
As far as eating, we are going out less and I've noticed that people are having fewer parties, or doing them after dinner just for drinks.
I'm skeptical as to whether this will translate to weight loss though because in my experience, people do things that are in their comfort zone. It's in my comfort zone to walk or bike. Five years ago, I might have tried to find a different way to save money because I wasn't about to get my 215 pound body out on a bike.
Same is true for food. It was a no brainer for us to cut back further on our meat consumption (we were already heading in that direction anyway). For other people, there is no way they would have a meal without meat so they look at other things.
Out of our beliefs are born deeds; out of our deeds we form habits; out of our habits grows our character; and on our character we build our destiny.
Originally posted by susanrows: It’s an interesting question, but I think we should first address the opposite issue: How has the obesity epidemic contributed to our current economic troubles? I wouldn’t presume to say that obesity is the only reason the economy is struggling and I haven’t seen any hard facts or data, just anecdotal stuff. But think about it – health care costs are skyrocketing in part because of all the weight-related health problems we didn’t have 20 years ago. That has a huge impact on every business in America. The airlines are using more fuel because passengers are heavier, and since that eats into their profits, they raise their prices. The same applies to cars carrying overweight people; we’re using more gas that’s more expensive. The list of examples could go on, but you see where I’m going with this.
These are things I've never even thought of w/regard to the economy. AAAHHH, now I have MORE thoughts swirling around in my head!!
Jill
I have no specific goal(s) right now. I am trying to find the spiritual side of myself that I lost somewhere along the way.
It’s an interesting question, but I think we should first address the opposite issue: How has the obesity epidemic contributed to our current economic troubles? I wouldn’t presume to say that obesity is the only reason the economy is struggling and I haven’t seen any hard facts or data, just anecdotal stuff. But think about it – health care costs are skyrocketing in part because of all the weight-related health problems we didn’t have 20 years ago. That has a huge impact on every business in America. The airlines are using more fuel because passengers are heavier, and since that eats into their profits, they raise their prices. The same applies to cars carrying overweight people; we’re using more gas that’s more expensive. The list of examples could go on, but you see where I’m going with this.
Again, obesity is only one contributing factor, but it’s one that should have been preventable and is reversible. Maybe, just maybe, hitting people this hard in the pocketbook will be the wake-up call we need. When gas becomes (even more) prohibitively expensive, we’ll start walking. When the price of food becomes painful enough, we’ll start planning our meals more carefully and reducing quantity and portion sizes. And maybe people will stop spending so much money on weight-loss gimmicks that don’t work.
But can these changes happen fast enough and soon enough to make a difference?
Given that the poorest states also tend to have the highest obesity rates...I'm going to go with "hurt."
When you live paycheck-to-paycheck, it's very, very hard to plan ahead. Consider: You have $8 from today and $2 left from yesterday. One child has outgrown his shoes. Frozen pizzas (one will feed you, your husband, and your two kids dinner) are 3 for $3.00 and will take you 20 minutes to make. A whole chicken is $.79/lb, so a 4-lb roaster is $3.16; that will take a couple of hours to roast whole, or will involve 20 minutes of cutting it up to cook in smaller pieces. Fresh green beans are $1.19/lb; they will need to be washed and snapped. Chicken and green beans just became more expensive and more time-consuming for TONIGHT than three nights' worth of dinners on pizza.
A LOT of the work I did at the shelter was teaching women how to plan ahead, which is very, very hard if you haven't done it before and if you aren't even sure you'll be living in the same place tomorrow. Feeding the kids tonight is more important than feeding them tomorrow.
I also submit that "weight" is not synonymous with "health." Someone can be a healthy weight, but if the diet is consistently crap, can have high blood pressure, stress-induced ulcers, high cholesterol, and all sorts of other physical problems.
I'm not sure what impact it will have. Produce certainly is quite expensive at our local Giant where I shop. I haven't shopped at the farmers market in a few weeks so I'm not sure about prices there. Part of my problem is that I've not paid close attention to prices until recently. If I wanted something, I bought it. I've started watching prices and being more selective. I still will buy fresh produce, but will most likely choose less expensive things. I will not pay $1 for one orange. I could see though, if someone is really in a financial bind, and need to choose between eating and paying their mortgage, choosing cheap foods over fresh, more expensive products. They might be eating less, but what they are eating would be a factor.
I love the idea of biking and walking more. Too bad it took a spike in gas prices to get people to walk and bike more but that should have a positive effect.
I have all these thoughts in my head about this topic. I need to organize them before I write more or I will be babbling on paragraph after paragraph.
Jill
I have no specific goal(s) right now. I am trying to find the spiritual side of myself that I lost somewhere along the way.
In my personal family... Harder finances has always helped our weight.
My dh started taking his lunch for ecconomic reasons... and lost like 4 pounds doing so. Of course, my one family does not make for a study or a trend. But I did hear on the news that the number of people brown bagging it has gone up.
I heard on the news that cooler and lunch bag sales at www.eBags.com sales went up 39% in June. (My poor dh uses a Safeway plastic grocery bag.)
I've ONLY gained weight when I had enough $$$$ to eat out (or when I had enough $$$ to binge on Ben and Jerry's). When I don't have $$$ to eat out, I just go home and make healthy food. I also didn't have a weight problem when I couldn't afford a car... because I HAD to walk everywhere.
Money to eat out and buy a car packed on "the Newlywed 15" in 1991. Money to buy foods to stress eat packed on 55 lbs in 1998. And less walking meant that I wasn't reducing stress in a healthy way.
But that is me. (And obviously, ecconomics isn't the WHOLE picture, but it IS a factor, in my family).
Denise
Posts: 9221 | Location: Silicon Valley, CA | Registered: March 17, 2004
Well, I honestly am not sure. I know that here in our city in CA I've been seeing MANY MANY MANY more people on bikes (normally see maybe 1 or 2 people per week, I'm now seeing 6-10 per DAY!!!!). And many restaurants have closed due to the economy. BUT I keep hearing that the sales at McDonald's are staying steady.
Our local farmer's market has started accepting government aid (I'm not sure if it's food stamps or what, it is mostly senior citizens that I see with the special little vouchers) and there are a LOT more people there on Saturday mornings than there normally are. And I have seen a lot more people walking to Farmer's Market as well. Our CSA keeps getting new customers.
Grocery store prices just keep going up, and the sales aren't as good as they normally are. Two of our grocery chains have closed in the past year....I'm sure that there is one more store that is very close to closing....never see anyone in there anymore. All of this is why I think that the farmer's market and CSA business is booming....it's cheaper now than the grocery stores, even with sales.
But then again, I'm also hearing more and more people that are only eating 1 or 2 meals per day so that they can pay their mortgage AND put gas in their cars AND pay for electricity, etc. Our local cable company is seeing more people cancelling cable. The cellular companies locally are seeing a drop in customers and changes to less expensive plans.
I honestly don't know what all of this means....but I do know that the state of the economy is changing things DRASTICALLY here where I live. And I do think that more people are eating at home (or not eating at all?).
Blessings,
Lori
Re-committing myself to a healthy lifestyle that will include regular (and increasing) exercise, and following the baby steps rule on food. 6/17/08
Posts: 3159 | Location: California | Registered: March 11, 2004
