Healthy Hollywood: Fab Food Friday – Piper Perabo's Healthy Eats!

Healthy food cheaper than junk food, says USDA

Eating healthy is cheaper than eating junk food, says a new USDA study.

The report, entitled “Are Healthy Foods More Expensive? It Depends On How You Measure the Price,” found that when averaged, healthy foods were cheaper to consume than packaged junk foods.

“It’s a common perception that healthy foods are more expensive than less healthy foods—and this perception, real or hypothetical, may prevent many individuals from choosing healthy foods,” said David Katz of Yale University’s Prevention Research Center, according to Today. 

Most prior studies that measure dollar-per-calorie have found that junk food tends to be cheaper than healthier food.

Lead author, Andrea Carlson, said that such measurements did not take into consideration the true costs of food.

“Take a chocolate glazed doughnut, which is 240 calories,” she said, reported the Wall Street Journal.

“You can easily eat one, if not two or three without any trouble at all. However, a banana, which has a lot of nutrients in it and will make you feel quite full, has only 105 calories. You will fill fuller if you eat the banana versus the doughnut.”

The current study used the cost-per-calorie method as well as two others: price per edible weight and price per average amount consumed – the idea being that people will generally eat less carrots than chips, said the Los Angeles Times.

The results bolster the Obama administration push for healthier foods in schools, in this case to control costs.

The CDC reports that about 17 percent of the 12.5 million of Americans between the ages 2 and 19 are considered obese.

http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/health/120519/healthy-food-cheaper-junk-food-says-usda

Healthy food doesn't have to be expensive, USDA insists

Healthy food, we’ve often heard, is pricey food. Fruits and vegetables — they’re expensive! We can’t afford to eat that way! That’s why we don’t do it!

The U.S. Department of Agriculture wants us to understand that this isn’t the case, and held a news conference Wednesday to report the results of a study that examined the matter.

Study lead author Andrea Carlson from the USDA’s Economic Research Service presented the 50-page report, entitled “Are Healthy Foods More Expensive? It Depends On How You Measure the Price.”

Carlson explained that most studies measure the prices of groceries based on price-per-calorie. And when prices are computed that way, sure enough, items like broccoli do end up being more expensive than the likes of maple-glazed donuts. What about that?

(It may just be me, but isn’t it a little astounding that analyses are generally done this way? Calories are not what most Americans lack.)

Carlson and her colleague, Elizabeth Frazao, calculated food costs the price-per-calorie way and two additional ways.

One method — price per edible weight – calculated price based on the weight of food once it was all prepared (that is scaled, seeded, hulled, bones removed, cooked, etc.).

A third way was price per average amount — meaning how much people actually eat of a food. (You could see how broccoli would end up being a heck of a lot cheaper than maple-glazed donuts if prices were calculated this third way.)

They used a database of more than 4,000 food items and sorted them into several groups: the five USDA food groups — grains, dairy, fruit, vegetables or protein foods — as well as mixed dishes and “less healthy” items. Less-healthy foods had too much saturated fat, sodium or added sugars or were just generally lacking, five-food-group-wise. (Interestingly, a lot of canned soups as well as fruit-flavored yogurt fell into that group.)

“If we use price per calorie, fruits and vegetables tend to be more expensive than less healthy food,” Carlson wrote on the USDA blog. “If we use price per edible weight or per average amount eaten, then grains, vegetables, fruits and dairy foods are less expensive than most protein foods and less healthy foods.”

The research “challenges the widely held belief that ‘Gee, I just can’t eat healthily affordably,’ ” commented Kevin Concannon, USDA undersecretary for food, nutrition and consumer services.

It is still true that the USDA’s vegetable recommendation is the most expensive to meet because we’re meant to eat a whole bunch of vegetables, Carlson notes. (The recommendation depends on your age and level of physical activity: I just calculated mine and I should eat 1.5 cups of fruit and 2.5 cups of vegetables a day. Try computing your own.)  

But there are always ways to eat cheaply and healthily just by choosing the right foods, Carlson said. Cabbage, onions and beans come to mind.

Some may protest that the cheap-eating methods involve skills beyond the current ability of many Americans because cooking is a lost art. Carlson says culinary cluelessness should be no barrier. Fresh fruit? Wash and eat. Beans? Defrost, or open a can. “I know cooking skills are lacking but I think we can still use a can opener,” she said.

Perhaps the bigger issue is what people actually like to eat. A burger and fries or a whole mess of cabbage and beans? “My study doesn’t really cover what consumers value, but we do know from other studies that taste is the first thing that people consider … taste and convenience,” Carlson said.

News conference participants noted that there are a variety of tools on the USDA website to help people eat well on a shoestring.

And check out these thrifty-eating tips compiled by freelance writer Karen Ravn for a previous L.A. Times article.  

Analysis: Healthy food no more costly than junk food, government finds

Healthy Food Is a Better Deal Than Junk, USDA Says

By Bill Tomson

Healthy food isn’t necessarily more expensive than junk food, according to a new government report.

The finding contradicts long-held conventional wisdom that it’s cheaper to snack on potato chips than carrots, and bolsters the Obama administration’s fight against rising obesity levels in the U.S.

“The United States is facing an obesity epidemic and the crisis of poor diets threatens the future of our children — and our nation,” says Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack.

Food economists traditionally measure the amount of calories you get for your money. By that measure, you still get more when you buy pizza, French fries or other foods high in sodium, salt and saturated fat.

But the USDA study looked at a food’s worth from new perspective and concluded there’s better value in fruits, vegetables, lean meat and low-fat milk. You may get fewer calories per dollar, researchers say, but you get more food when you’re measuring based on price per weight, or price per portion.

And often less-healthy food options are made up of empty calories, prompting people to eat even more, notes Andrea Carlson, lead researcher of the report.

“Take a chocolate glazed doughnut, which is 240 calories,” she says. “You can easily eat one, if not two or three without any trouble at all. However, a banana, which has a lot of nutrients in it and will make you feel quite full, has only 105 calories. You will fill fuller if you eat the banana versus the doughnut.”

By the food-portion metric, romaine lettuce is much cheaper than ice cream sandwiches and 1% milk is cheaper than soda.

About 17% of the 12.5 million children between the ages 2 and 19 are obese, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The Department of Agriculture recently revamped nutrition rules for school cafeterias to get kids to eat more fruit, vegetables and whole grains while cutting out fatty foods.

McGuinty to struggling cafeterias: Get more creative with healthy food, or else

Genesis Today Launches Healthy Superfruit Juice for Hispanic Market

AUSTIN, Texas–(BUSINESS WIRE)–

Genesis Today, superfruit pioneer and purveyor of one of the nation’s fastest growing healthy food, beverage and nutritional supplement companies, today announced the national launch of Renacer SuperFRUITAS,™ the first truly healthy, superfruit juice developed specifically for the Hispanic market available at Walmart and Sam’s Club in the refrigerated section. SuperFRUITAS contains no artificial ingredients or high-fructose corn syrup and is loaded with nutrients, containing 60% less sugar and calories than other leading juice brands.

According to the latest report from the American Medical Association, obesity is 40% higher among Hispanics than among non-Hispanic whites between ages 2 to 19.

“Renacer SuperFRUITAS™ is committed to the fight against obesity and diabetes by providing a healthy, affordable and delicious superfruit juice for Hispanic families to get the nutrients they are lacking without adding more calories and fats to their diets,” said Erick Recinos, CN, Executive VP and Head of Nutrition of Renacer. “SuperFRUITAS contains absolutely no high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS), which contributes to the development of diabetes, particularly in children. HFCS has the potential to trigger cell and tissue damage that causes the disease, which is at epidemic levels.”

As part of Renacer’s efforts to better Hispanics’ health, SuperFRUITAS has partnered with Nohelia Siddons, celebrity fitness coach from Univision and Telemundo, to launch “Vida Sana, Mente Sana” health campaign. The campaign is a national movement dedicated to promoting a well-balanced diet and active lifestyle. It will empower and encourage families to select “better for you” products, eat healthier, exercise and live in vitality. The tools for the campaign are available at www.renacernatural.com.

“‘Vida Sana, Mente Sana’ operates on the belief that providing people with the skills and knowledge to make healthier food and lifestyle choices is critical to bettering the overall health of the Hispanic community. It is honorable to have a beverage company like Renacer SuperFRUITAS taking responsibility for Hispanic’s health,” said Siddons.

Renacer is dedicated to formulating healthy products, free of artificial colors, flavors, and sweeteners, and fortified with essential vitamins, minerals and nutrients. Renacer is located in Austin, Texas and was launched by leading naturopathic doctor and celebrity nutritionist Dr. Lindsey Duncan (www.drlindsey.com) and certified nutritionist Erick Recinos (www.supernutricion.net).

Some academies ignoring healthy food guidelines, report says

When Michael Gove wrote to Jamie Oliver last August in response to the chef’s concerns about the coalition’s school food policies, he could not have been more soothing. He noted – but discounted – Oliver’s fear about academies not having to follow the nutritional standards that have applied in maintained schools since 2008-09. “I would like to reassure you that we have no reason to believe that academies will not provide healthy, balanced meals that meet the current nutritional standards. As part of the broader freedoms available to academies, I trust the professionals to act in the best interests of their pupils,” the education secretary said. So he was clear – there was no problem.

Nine months later, though, Gove’s reassurance has been contradicted by the first hard evidence about whether the growing number of academies are applying the school food rules that Labour introduced after the row over Oliver’s 2005 TV series “Jamie’s School Dinners”, which exposed the poor quality of school food experienced by many pupils. They obliged maintained schools to offer only healthy, nutritious fare and banned snacks such as sweets, crisps and fizzy drinks from school tuckshops and vending machines.

New research by the School Food Trust (SFT) among 100 academies shows that while many of them follow the guidelines, many do not. They do not have to – Gove exempted academies from Labour’s insistence that all schools apply them – but the secretary of state has insisted until now that they all were doing so anyway. Despite having the freedom not to comply, almost none was using it, he suggested.

As recently as 24 April Gove, in evidence to the Education Select Committee at Westminster, pooh-poohed the idea that any academies might not be implementing a policy that has wide support, been proven to boost learning and helps to improve pupils’ health. “It has been claimed, but I have not seen, and I would be interested in, any evidence that any academy has introduced, as a result of those freedoms, lower-quality food. All the evidence seems to me to point in the other direction: that schools that have academy freedoms have improved the quality of food they offer children. There are bound to be cases that people have heard about where they fear that might not be the case, but I have not seen any cross my desk,” he told the MPs.

When Labour MP Alex Cunningham told Gove that “some of our children … are being let down”, by being at academies that do not apply the standards, Gove replied: “You assert that they are being let down; I fear that they may be. But I do not have any evidence that they have been. I am not denying that it is a possibility, but … until I know, I cannot see.”

Happily for evidence-hungry Gove, evidence now exists. Unfortunately it bears out the concerns of Oliver, doctors, teachers’ leaders, school caterers and children’s health campaigners that some academies are exploiting the freedom Gove gave them and not doing their best by their pupils’ health by ensuring that their school serves only healthy fare.

“The evidence shows that academies are, on average, doing less well in providing healthy food than other secondary schools in which standards are compulsory”, says Dr Michael Nelson, the School Food Trust’s director of research and nutrition. He is the expert who supervised the survey and also a reader in public health nutrition at King’s College London.

Out of 99 academies that told researchers what foods they served or sold, 89 were selling at least one type of unhealthy food that is banned in maintained schools. Confectionery and chocolate were being sold in 16, crisps and savoury snacks in 26, and cereal bars – which contain 20%-40% sugar – in 54. In addition, 82 sold fruit juice drinks and squash, including drinks such as Robinson’s Fruit Shoot, Drench and Capri-Sun. “They have as little as 7% or 10% of fruit juice in them, whereas the school food standards say that such drinks sold in maintained schools have to be at least 50% fruit juice”, says Nelson.

More reassuringly, though, just six sold fizzy drinks such as Coke and Sprite and only two let pupils buy energy drinks such as Lucozade and Red Bull, despite their popularity.

Academies’ attitudes to the standards proved revealing. Ten per cent said they were either unwilling or unable to follow them, or certainly not across the entire school day. One in three either said that the standards were too restrictive or needed to contain an element of flexibility. A third also saw the regulations as “a burden” while, worryingly, 18 agreed that school catering is “mainly a commercial service to provide food and drink at school”.

Those concerned at Gove’s failure to maintain Labour’s consistent policy are worried. “For the first time, we have solid evidence from the academies themselves that nutritional standards are in real danger,” says Jamie Oliver.

“These standards are there for a reason – to help prevent England from sliding further behind when it comes to essential action to fight child obesity and diet-related disease. Mr Gove is putting our children’s future health at risk.”

Alasdair Smith, national secretary of the Anti-Academy Alliance (AAA), sees the findings as proof that many academies are putting profit before pupils’ health. “This report illustrates an unintended consequence of deregulating and privatising our schools. The secretary of state boasts that academies are about giving freedom and autonomy to schools. It is hard to imagine any parents supporting the ‘freedom’ to feed their child junk food.”

Professor Terence Stephenson, who as president of the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health is the voice of the UK’s children’s doctors, says he is “concerned that academy schools are allowed to ignore nutrition-based government standards. Mr Gove said he didn’t know of any evidence suggesting that schools were rowing back on the nutritional standards. Now that he has it, let’s hope he acts on it and tells headteachers their academies shouldn’t be profiting from feeding their children unhealthy food.”

Like Oliver and the SFT, he wants Gove to force academies to apply the standards. “If we don’t act now, there will be thousands of children across the country eating unhealthy food at school, nutritional standards will plummet and we’ll be fuelling what is already an obesity crisis amongst our young,” he warns.

Why are some academies ignoring the standards? They cite money, pressure from pupils, parents or staff and a belief that the service would be “better” for not following the maintained schools model. The SFT found that about half the academies thought their catering services would break even, but about 25% expected a loss. Tellingly, 22 of the 76 converter academies they studied and three of the 24 sponsor-led ones – 25 schools in all – thought they would make a profit or surplus. Of these, 75% of the converters but only one of the three sponsor-led academies said the surplus would be reinvested in their catering service.

Gove also insists that some academies serve such good food that they exceed the standards. “Any good teacher or indeed parent would tell you that a child who is badly fed cannot concentrate and cannot learn”, says Dr Dan Moynihan, chief executive of the Harris Federation, which runs 13 academies. Those 13 “not only comply with the minimum standards, but also subsidise meals so that they go beyond this”.

Similarly, the 11 academies in London, Birmingham and Portsmouth run by ARK Schools generally follow the guidelines. “That’s our intention, though the odd flapjack has crept in and the odd packet of crisps has been found by our auditors,” says spokeswoman Lesley Smith. “I’m slightly at a loss to know why you wouldn’t use these guidelines, because if you want children to do well in school, you want to ensure they are properly nourished.”

E-ACT, however, could not confirm if its 19 academies apply the standards because its headteachers have discretion on that.

guardian.co.uk © Guardian News and Media 2012

United Natural Foods Establishes Charitable Foundation to Support Healthy, Sustainable and Organic Food Systems

PROVIDENCE, R.I., May 14, 2012 /PRNewswire/ – United Natural Foods, Inc. (UNFI) (the “Company” or “UNFI”), the leading national distributor of natural, organic and specialty foods and related products, today announced the establishment of a charitable foundation committed to supporting healthy, sustainable and organic food systems.  UNFI Foundation (the “Foundation”) is scheduled to launch on August 1, 2012.

The Foundation will work to fund innovative non-profit programs emphasizing a number of areas including sustainable agriculture and organic farming as well as initiatives designed to increase organic food production and consumption. The Foundation will also seek to fund educational programs to enhance awareness of the benefits of healthy food choices.  

Melody Meyer, Vice-President of Global Initiatives for UNFI’s subsidiary Albert’s Organics, has been named Executive Director of the Foundation and will serve on its Board of Directors along with Steven Spinner, UNFI’s President and Chief Executive Officer, Michael Funk, UNFI’s Chairman of the Board, Thomas Dziki, UNFI’s Senior Vice President, Chief Human Resource and Sustainability Officer, and Lisa Madsen, UNFI’s Director, Sustainability & Philanthropy, Internal Communications.

UNFI has a long history of philanthropic endeavors including supporting the communities it serves and proactive support of sustainable agriculture and organic farming initiatives, labeling campaigns and nutritional education, including the Organic Trade Association, the Non-GMO Project, Organic Farming Research Foundation, Eco-Farm Conference, Mid-West Organic Sustainable Education Services and Vitamin Angels.  “As we launch UNFI Foundation, we look to continue the advancement of socially responsible initiatives that protect the environment and foster stewardship of the land,” commented Steven Spinner. 

Beginning August 1, 2012, the Foundation will accept mission-specific grant applications from eligible 501(c)(3) organizations based in the United States.  The Foundation’s Board of Directors will consider each qualified application and expects to begin approving grants later this year.  Preliminary information is available at www.unfifoundation.org and application guidelines will be updated later this year.  

“The establishment of the Foundation speaks to UNFI’s core values,” added Melody Meyer. “This initiative provides another wonderful opportunity for UNFI to make a meaningful difference, right at the beginning, where it counts.  Everything we do starts at the farm.”

For additional information on the Foundation please visit www.unfifoundation.org or contact us at info@unfifoundation.org. 

About United Natural Foods

United Natural Foods, Inc. (http://www.unfi.com) carries and distributes more than 60,000 products to more than 23,000 customer locations throughout the United States and Canada. The Company serves a wide variety of retail formats including conventional supermarket chains, natural product superstores, independent retail operators and the food service channel. United Natural Foods, Inc. was ranked by Fortune in 2006 – 2010 and 2012 as one of its “Most Admired Companies,” winner of the Supermarket News 2008 Sustainability Excellence Award, and recognized by the Nutrition Business Journal for its 2009 Environment and Sustainability Award.

For more information on United Natural Foods, Inc., visit the Company’s website at www.unfi.com.

Grass Roots: Nonprofit Freshmobile to bring healthy food to Madison ‘food deserts’

Jeff Maurer knows that the people who live in the Allied Drive neighborhood are hungry for fresh produce.

When I called to ask him about the Freshmobile, the owner of the Fresh Madison Market near the UW-Madison campus told me how when he would bring fresh fruit to kids at the Boys and Girls Club in Allied Drive, they would just snap it up.

“They were craving fresh fruit,” Maurer said. “They were not getting it in their diet. I wanted to change that.”

So Maurer came up with a plan: the Freshmobile. It’s a market on wheels that will bring fresh produce to Allied Drive and three other low-income Madison neighborhoods, all identified as “food deserts,” twice weekly starting in late June.

The neighborhoods now have limited places to get fresh produce, so Maurer’s initiative is designed to bring residents a low-cost source of healthy food.

To launch the project, Maurer formed a nonprofit corporation, the Freshmobile Initiative Inc., and started soliciting donations toward a $125,000 budget to get the initiative off the ground.

The Madison Community Foundation this week announced a $30,000 gift to the project, as part of its spring grant awards.

“The Freshmobile Initiative exemplifies the kind of leading-edge thinking about community development that we” support, foundation President Kathleen Woit says in a prepared statement.

Five national produce growers have donated funds. And local health and civic leaders have supported the initiative, too.

Maurer says he received funding from Physicians Plus Insurance and Meriter Health Services, as well as support and guidance from the city of Madison, Dane County Executive Joe Parisi and Madison Dane County Public Health.

Madison Mayor Paul Soglin, in fact, pointed to such efforts as the Freshmobile as an important part of efforts he wants to help put in place to combat poverty and its effects. The trick, Soglin noted, is finding a way to make the economics work.

Because the Freshmobile will be operating as a nonprofit with low overhead, Maurer figures that even at very affordable prices, sales of produce and others foods offered will pay for its operation. His expertise in maneuvering the food supply system will help keep costs low, he predicts.

Maurer will use donations for start-up costs like buying a 34-foot racing car trailer, converting it to the “store” and purchasing a pickup truck to haul it. He’s already raised half his start-up budget, and is confident the rest will be obtained, in part through a donation option soon to be added to the Freshmobile webpage.

To get into the mobile store, people will walk up one step and into the trailer, Maurer says. He anticipates the trailer will offer 400 food items, primarily produce, but also such things as milk and bread. The Freshmobile already has been approved for food stamp purchases, and approval by the Women, Infants and Children supplemental food program is pending.

The trailer will visit the Allied Drive, Leopold, Bridge-Lakepoint, and Darbo-Worthington neighborhoods, areas selected with the assistance of mayor’s office, Maurer told me. The neighborhoods have been identified by the U.S. Department of Agriculture as “food deserts,” which refers to a low-income community where a substantial number of residents have low access to a supermarket or large grocery store. You can see a map of local food deserts here. (Enter “Madison, WI” under “Find Address.”)

Maurer has been working with neighborhood associations on the best days and times to bring the Freshmobile to each of the Madison neighborhoods, as well as learning the predominant ethnic background of residents and the types of produce they prefer. “We want to make sure to cater to those ethnic groups as much as we can,” Maurer says.

Allied Drive area residents asked Maurer to consider a grocery store in their neighborhood — a Cubs Foods there closed in 2009 — but his marketing study found it was not feasible, he tells me.

Maurer nevertheless has been involved in helping bring healthy food to the Allied Drive neighborhood for the past couple of years, says Michael Johnson, CEO of the Boys and Girls Club of Dane County. He told me about putting the touch on Maurer to buy ovens to replace the deep fryers at the club, so that baked and roasted food could be prepared for the many meals the club feeds the children and youth who go there.

A convenient source of fresh food is sorely needed, Johnson says. “The kids go shopping at the gas station, because there is no grocery store in the neighborhood.”

Johnson says people in the neighborhood are hungry for healthy food and ready to change poor eating habits. He hears parents talking about it, and sees how many people use nearby community gardens or dig their own where they live. “The education on this has to start yesterday,” he says. “We’ve got to give it a try.”

Maurer says he’s exploring the possibility of having the chef from Fresh Madison Market, which sells a variety of prepared food, come along sometime on the Freshmobile to provide cooking demonstrations. He’s talking, too, with the public health department and Meriter about having a dietician visit the neighborhoods.

“We have to try to change mindsets, that’ll be the biggest challenge,” Maurer says.

We all know how tempting junk food can be, but Johnson also has an anecdote about the appeal of fresh, healthy food. Maurer once brought two trays of food to a meeting with Allied Drive Neighborhood Association members — a colorful spread of fresh fruit and vegetables, and an assortment of desserts, Johnson recalls.

When the meeting was over, Maurer told him to take a look at which tray the group had gobbled up. “All the fruit and vegetables were gone,” Johnson recalls. The desserts? Not so much.

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