Eating healthy is expensive

I’m not talking about shopping at Whole Foods or Gelson’s.

I’m talking about an interesting statistic: people who have the lowest ratio of sodium to potassium (as in roughly equal amounts) are at the lowest risk of dying from a heart attack or stroke. That is according to a recent study published in Archives of Internal Medicine. In other words, continue limiting your salt intake and keep eating potassium-rich foods like bananas, potatoes, grapes, carrots, vegetables and citrus fruits. Sodium increases blood pressure by signaling the body to retain fluids; potassium has the opposite effect.

There is just one problem with all this: sodium-rich foods are cheap and potassium-rich foods cost more.

Boosting potassium intake alone can add 10% to the average food bill, according to Univ of Washington researchers. A study in Health Affairs reported that this means adding $380 to the average person’s yearly food costs. So poor Americans are opting to go with foods high in salt, saturated fat and sugar because it fills you up and is cheaper.

The result, of course, is the obesity epidemic and increased risk of stroke and heart attack. How do you compete with that? If you penalize fast food companies with a surtax, or subsidize the costs of healthy food, people will be screaming left and right. Also complicating things: when supermarkets have gone into poor areas, vegetables and fruits have not sold very well, partly because they remained expensive.

The only solution seems to be to make the case to those on a tight budget that although junk foods may be cheaper and involve less preparation, healthier foods can be more satisfying – you don’t feel as hungry as you do after eating fast food. Cooking beans, lentils, brown rice and other inexpensive solid foods (that the kids like to turn up their noses at) can offset a diet otherwise larded up with junk food. Eggs and fresh fruit and vegetables in season can help too. It’s true that people want variety, not beans and lentils all the time and it's also true that many people spend foolishly. Why buy an organic packaged salad mix or out-of-season fruits? But there are no easy answers here.

Photo: Wikipedia/Steve Hopson, www.stevehopson.com