Now I haven't done any research to back this up, this is just a personal opinion. But since I've been following LC eating(or trying to anyway) I've noticed some things, mainly at the grocery store. And I'm sure most of you have noticed the same. Whole, healthy foods are A LOT more expensive than processed junk. I've watched reports on TV that indicate lower income families are more likely to be overweight. Well duh! For those in poverty, or even straddling the line between poverty and lower middle class(such as myself), making the food last to the next check can mean buying all the lower priced, processed crap. Example, a 5lb chub of ground beef goes for around 8$ here. A box of Hamburger Helper(the nastiest stuff in the world ) goes for $1.49. Chips are cheap and often BOGO. So on, so forth. Steaks for a family of 5(such as mine) for 1 night will be between 20 and 30$. A bag of oranges is $5. I'm not saying everybody who is obese and poor can blame it on food prices, but there are a lot of people out there who would like to eat better, and feed their family better and can't. When people come on TV and say everyone needs to eat better, sometimes I get a little irritated. What are your thoughts on this? Oh yes, and I've heard people say, pay now or pay later. Its hard to look 10 years down the road when your trying to feed your kids today. Bash me if you must

No bashing from me. Even unprocessed carbs are cheap. And filling, and when you have kids that's important.

Except with the processed carbs you need more food. I used to round out the meals I served with things like boiled white rice. And later that night family members would be in the kitchen rummaging around for more to eat. Now that I am eating low carb, I am offering the rest of my family meals that are higher in protein and fat. And I notice they don't find the need to fill up on other stuff. It was difficult at first to spend more money up front for more meat than we had been eating previously, but in the long run it doesn't seem to be costing me any more!

The Omnivore's Dilemma makes it pretty obvious why this is the case. It is the ENORMOUS subsidies that are given to farmers for producing certain crops. They're guaranteed a price per bushel for certain things, so the farmers have an incentive to produce as much as possible. Then the big manufacturers have an endless supply of very, very cheap agricultural products and they can churn out processed stuff very cheaply. Like a box of cereal. Do you realize that it costs about .04 cents for the grain that goes into it?

Although it doesn't really cost that much because we taxpayers are paying for the REAL cost of it, even if we never open a box of cereal ourselves. Not to mention the cost to everyone's health. The ironic thing is we've replaced starvation of the poor with a bunch of other diseases. Not to mention the horrible effect on the environment.

It is entirely screwed up.

Exactly!! By the way, what part of SD? I was born at Sharps, have lived in Santee, Escondido, El Cajon, and some others I'm probly forgetting. Spent the last 14 years before I moved here in Ramona!

I live in Lemon Grove, which is 7 miles or so east of Downtown. *high five*

Right by where my grandmother used to live. Oh man, I'm homesick again and I've been here so long. don't think I'll EVER get over it!!

i was going to post something similar to this, and you'll notice this has been happening ever since the early 1980's when the FDA put out the food pyramid with grains at the bottom. i won't go so far as to say it's a political conspiracy, but just follow the money trail and you'll see who gets preference and therefore dictates which foods cost less.

there's another aspect of it too... our society has us so busy that in most families, both parents have to work to survive. it's far more appealing to both schedule and wallet to grab the pre-fab foods than it is to get all the ingredients for even a simple meal. realistically, i would LOVE to come home at 5:45, chill for half an hour, and have dinner ready by 6:30 but unless i'm making steaks, that's not going to happen. i absolutely LOVE to cook, and i always get that pang of guilt if i make something out of a box, even if my fiance thinks it's good... though if given the choice between hamburger helper's enchilada flavored stuff and my enchiladas, my fiance would pick mine every time.

I am a secretary living in Washington DC (apartment is $1700+/month!). We have a pretty tight budget here and we do a few things to save save save and keep a low carb lifestyle.

When canned or frozen veggies are on sale, we stock up big time. That way when they're not on sale we skip that aisle. We also treat ourselves to seafood, but do tilapia which is very reasonable and frequently on sale.

We'll also order a whole rotissarie chicken and cut it up and my husband has lunch for the week. His coworkers get sooo jealous!

I make my own trail mix by getting peanuts, pecans, hazelnuts, walnuts and put them in a huge bowl and mix them with 1/2 cup of mini M&Ms. I scoop out 1/3 cup of the mix and put into sandwich bags and put them aside. They'll feel us for such a long time for snacks. If you have a Wegmans or Giant that do bulk foods, you can do 1/2 lb of nuts here, 1/2 lb of nuts there and it's much cheaper than going to the nuts aisle. Also, baking nuts are cheaper than the stuff in the nuts/popcorn/chips aisle.

Hope this helps someone.

Another issue for the poor is access to decent food. In many inner city areas in particular, there are no grocery stores, only convenience stores that typically stock junk. And when there are grocery stores, they're less likely to carry organic or other higher priced goods.

We've had a problem in the poor parts of the city of St. Louis that the major grocery chains will not open stores there. Those that have tried have failed. There's not a lot of margin in the grocery business, and sadly they end up with a lot of theft, plus their customers don't have as much money to spend, so it's a bad business model.

The poor in rural areas face similar problems. It can be a long trip to the nearest real grocery store, and if you don't have a working automobile, what are you going to do? And grocery stores can't make a profit in a sparsley populated area.

I just recently moved to a bigger city from a tiny, isolated rural town. People were grateful the convenience store expanded to include a few grocery items, since the nearest "real" store was 20 miles away. Even there, there weren't a lot of choices, but the next town with any number of stores was a good hour away.

I live in a teeny tiny town in SE Iowa, and we have been blessed that some friend of ours opened a MEAT MARKET!!!

It's the best meat in the world, but you pay for it, that's for sure.

It's so true that highly processed, high carb foods are cheaper. You can still by a box of Lil' Debbie snack cakes for under a buck! The budget conscience parent is going to go for a deal like that every time because they are thinking "my kids are hungry, and I can afford this to feed them with." A box of mac n' cheese? 33cents!!!

Yep, I sure do see the connection between being poor(or even just middle class), and being obese.

mac and cheese and spaghetti, you could eat plenty and have plenty for leftovers for very little cost. i pay alot less for junk cereal than i do for flax cereal.

by the way, i grew up in lakeside, moved to el cajon, spent some time in alpine, and then finally the dehesa vally, which i loved, before we moved up here six years ago. i loved growing up in lakeside. things are so different now and i get so worried for my son.

luckily, places like the 99, you can get some good fresh fruit and veggie there for a dollar a pop. i've gotten huge eggplants, 24 oz bags of frozen cauliflower, broccoli slaw, cabbage, shredded cabbage, shredded carrots, baby carrots, fresh garlic, bags of washington apples, and the like, oh, even personal sized watermelons over the summer.

What a small world, have you been to Ramona or Julian?