Why Are the Bad Foods the Cheapest?

By Jon Herring

For most of history, the size of a man’s belly gave people a good idea of the size of his wallet, with the rich having plenty to eat and the poor going hungry. The belly/wallet correlation still exists, but in reverse. Net worth continues to be a reliable predictor of obesity, but now it’s the poor who are most likely to be overweight.

With this in mind, obesity researcher Adam Drewnowski went to the supermarket with a hypothetical dollar and a goal to purchase as many calories as possible with it. He found that his dollar could buy 1,200 calories of cookies or 875 calories of soda, but only 250 calories of carrots.
Why are whole, simple foods so much more expensive than food that is processed and packaged? As Michael Pollan, author of The Omnivore’s Dilemma, puts it in a comparison of Twinkies and carrots, "How can the supermarket sell synthetic cream-filled pseudocakes for less than a bunch of roots?"

The answer, unfortunately, is that our food prices are skewed because the U.S. government heavily subsidizes the corn, soybean, rice, and wheat crops that most processed foods are based on, while doing almost nothing to support the farmers who grow fresh produce.

The result is that the least-healthy calories in the grocery store are the cheapest by a mile. And while one branch of our government is helping to inflate the national waistline, another branch, the Department of Health, is gearing up to battle the "epidemic" of obesity.
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It’s Good to Know: Norway’s Automated Customs System

Thanks to recently installed automated tellers, passengers entering Norway through the country’s busiest airports can now declare their taxable goods and pay the duty automatically with a bank card instead of waiting in line for a customs officer. Norwegian officials say this new system will allow them to focus personnel on serious smuggling.

(Source: Reuters)
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Word to the Wise: Expedient

An "expedient" (ik-SPEE-dee-unt) - from the Latin for "to make ready" - is something contrived or used to meet an urgent need.

Example (as used by Theodore Roosevelt in a 1918 article for The Atlantic): "If, when assailed by the ostrich, the man stands erect, he is in great danger. But by the simple expedient of lying down, he escapes all danger. In such case, the bird may step on him, or sit on him; his clothes will be rumpled and his feelings injured; but he will suffer no bodily harm. I know various men… who have had this experience."

Michael Masterson
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These articles appear courtesy of Early to Rise [Issue #2067, 06-13-07], the Internet's most popular health, wealth, and success e-zine. For a complimentary subscription, visit http://www.earlytorise.com/.