Comments on: Affordability of Healthy Foods

By: Fuel for Human Bodies: Our Complex Relationship with Food | PhD in Parenting

Thu, 07 Jul 2011 21:34:32 +0000

[...] tow, parents are understandably less likely to make the effort. When nutritious food is available, the prices are often high, especially outside of the growing season in a country like [...]

By: Canadian women: We’re fat, our kids are fat, and we’re letting other people raise our children | PhD in Parenting

Fri, 04 Feb 2011 17:57:04 +0000

[...] Why isn’t anyone doing anything about the fact that junk food is cheaper than real food? [...]

By: Think About Food | PhD in Parenting

Think About Food | PhD in Parenting — Sat, 16 Oct 2010 23:33:50 +0000

[...] Affordability of Healthy Foods: People should eat better. But is it easy to do so? What happens when junk is so much more affordable than real food. [...]

By: Should you donate Kraft Dinner to the food bank? | PhD in Parenting

Should you donate Kraft Dinner to the food bank? | PhD in Parenting — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 19:51:55 +0000

[...] own families. Farmers who have to go to the food bank. While at the same time, Canada’s poor cannot afford nutritious food and is being forced to eat donated Kraft Dinner while Kraft rakes in double digit profit margins. [...]

By: MZ

MZ — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 03:20:52 +0000

Well, it’s not necessarily about the government making prices for foods stay low. In the US, the government pays farms to destroy some of their crops or not use their land to keep prices of produce high. That’s one issue. Another issue is that part of the high cost is from transportation. Instead of buying locally, most grocery chains in the US are using produce from all over the country, which costs a lot of money to keep fresh and ship.

Accessibility is a HUGE problem in the US too. One of the classes in my Masters of Public Health program did a survey of some of the various neighborhoods in our state capital. They found that there were no grocery stores anywhere near by…the closest thing were 7-11s (like a glorified gas station). It would take the better part of a day, using multiple busses, to find a grocery store, which really isn’t feasible.

There is also a misunderstanding of what constitutes good nutrition. You have sugar cereals touting that they’re “fortified with iron and other vitamins.” French fries are made from potatoes, so they must be vegetables, right? And ketchup counts too, since it comes from tomatoes.

My mother had a student once who she was trying to teach to read. She showed him a picture of an apple to teach him the letter A, but he couldn’t tell her what it was. “He’s never seen one of those before,” said his grandmother. “We can’t afford things like that.” It’s very sad and frustrating, because we know so many health problems could be avoided with proper nutrition and exercise (which is a whole other issue!).

I’d really like to see more farmers’ markets, particularly in urban areas. Then we’d be supporting local farmers, cutting down on pollution (no big semis driving cross-country with veggies), and providing access to reduced cost produce to the low-income.

By: smoaksmom

smoaksmom — Sat, 03 Oct 2009 03:08:41 +0000

You point out some great info in this blog. I have a friend who is getting her PhD in social epidemiology from Harvard and we were talking about the same thing last month. She was pointing out all the obstacles that low income families face when nutrition is involved. Even how cities are laid out are often not conducive to healthy living. A highway might block an entire community (because they have to walk) from reaching a healthy food market where they could find fresh fruits and veggies. And in turn that community is stuck with whatever bodega is nearby selling whatever crap they have. Hotdogs, chips, soda, etc.

Also, the USDA food pyramid is wrong (http://www.rense.com/general12/wrong.htm). So no wonder US people are mostly obese.

I am not familiar with the obesity rate in Canada, but here in the United States it is soaring! Perhaps our US Dept of Agriculture is partially to blame. In addition to all the troubles the poor come across when trying to lead healthier lives!

By: Five for Fridays | LittleStomaks

Five for Fridays | LittleStomaks — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 11:04:01 +0000

[...] Canada, apples may cost 5 times more, and lean ground beef 3 times more than some other parts. In this post about a recent poll, I was amazed to learn that 47% of Canadians go without fresh fruit, [...]

By: phdinparenting

phdinparenting — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 15:48:27 +0000

@Shannon – You might want to try Gatineau first…(a bit closer!)

By: Shannon

Shannon — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 15:47:01 +0000

I’ve seen these statistics and pricing across Canada and it’s mind boggling. As a family recently hit with an unexpected lay off, we are currently doing what we can to save money on our groceries. We are still able to do a lot of organic, but have cut back in some areas. Cutting back on meat and making all our food ourselves helps a lot. Packaged and convenience stuff costs a lot of money.

Time to drive to Montreal for my ground beef I guess

By: Alicja

Alicja — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 05:24:38 +0000

We live in Japan an prices here rose a lot during last year. I found to my big supprise we spend twice as much for food while eating less “expensive” products (like f.ex. cheese, that we simply can`t afford any more) than a year ago.
We buy local, it`s usually cheaper. I try not to buy imported food, although it`s difficult sometimes. We buy at local grocery shops if possible. We buy only this season veggies and fruit, those are the cheapest most of the times! We get meat/fish every other day and only for one meal a day – meat is terribly expensive, I usually make meal for 3 with 250-300gr of beef, and often it lasts for two meals. And I cook a lots of soups ant stews, those are the most efficient food during this cold season.
And I started my own little garden.
Maya never ate any jarred “baby food”, from the beginning she had what we had and I was cooking for everyone like for her LOL