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High-Calorie Foods are a Bargain for the Poor

Posted on: Sunday, 1 February 2004, 06:00 CST

By IRA DREYFUSS

WASHINGTON (AP) -- For the poor, lettuce may be a luxury. Analysts have concluded that people who have to worry about missing meals choose calorie-packed foods such as pasta because they provide more energy for the buck than fruits and vegetables.

"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.

Drewnowski led a study that compared foods based on the cost of calories in each ounce. Findings were published in the January issue of the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.

Water content was a major factor. Nutrient-dense foods like pasta have little if any water; lettuce and other produce are juicy. Lettuce works as a diet food because it lets people feel full on fewer calories. Drewnowski said the poor cannot afford to water down their calories.

Meanwhile, food processors have made many of their products cheaper in comparison to produce. A survey of Seattle-area supermarkets in 2003 found that 20 cents spent on cookies would provide the same amount of food energy as 95 cents spent on carrots.

While federal surveys have found that even better-off people generally do not have what the government considers a healthy diet - at least five servings of fruits and vegetables each day - the poor fare worse, Drewnowski said.

The Agriculture Department has found similar results. Only 10 percent of Americans have optimally nutritious diets, the agency said in a 2002 report. Those from low-income households and having less education were most likely to have worse eating patterns.

Drewnowski's survey found that women were less likely to get sufficient servings of fruits and vegetables if they lived in a household in which people did not always know where their next meal was coming from. On average, these woman weighed about 10 pounds more than women from households with no concerns about how to pay for food.

"People know what food costs," said Jim Weill, president of the Food Research and Action Center, a Washington-based anti-hunger group. "Parents know they are buying enough to make their kids and themselves not hungry, but they know they are not getting a totally balanced diet."

The government food stamp program does not make the balanced-diet goal easier to achieve, Weill said. He said the program is based on a department plan weighted toward servings of cheap calories such as flour-based products, which are the most nutrient-dense. More than 23 million people are on food stamps.

The government does have some programs to provide more produce to the poor, such as free fruit for schoolchildren, but they are in the pilot stages.

The challenge is finding the money to expand them, said Michael Jacobson, executive director of the Center for Science in the Public Interest.

"How do you fund it? A 3-cent-a-can tax on soda would raise enough money to give every child in America one free fruit or vegetable a day," he said.

But poor nutrition is not just a matter of affordability, according to the Grocery Manufacturers of America, a food industry trade organization.

Groceries in inner city and rural areas may not stock as much produce as those in the suburbs, said Stephanie Childs, a spokeswoman for the industry.

Habit and tradition also are factors in people's eating patterns. "If you grew up in a certain way, you know how to put those meals together," Childs said. "I find myself constantly challenged to break out of the 10 favorite meals my mom taught me."

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