Interesting Article

From a July 13th article on msnbc.com:

Nutrition experts are worried about the effect the economy may have on American's waistlines (no, really?). We all know that unhealthy food costs less, and that when people have less money, cheaper food is more attractive.

We're hardwired to seek the most nutritional bang for our buck. While it may seem that fast food is the only affordable option for some people, researchers at the University of Washington are putting together a helpful list of healthy foods that give the most nutrition for the price per portion:

— Lower-fat milk; low-fat yogurt; cheddar, American or mozzarella cheese

— Lean ground beef; chicken (not deep-fried); canned fish

— Whole eggs

— Beans, dry or canned

— Peanut butter; sunflower seeds; almonds

— Bread, enriched or made with whole wheat; tortillas, corn or wheat; rice

— Bananas; apples; frozen orange juice concentrate; 100 percent fruit juice or fruit-vegetable blends

— Potatoes, with or without skins; iceberg lettuce; canned, not creamed, corn; canned tomatoes

Recession Flexitarians

I came across a really interesting article from Gourmet magazine while procrastinating on a work project earlier. I don't know about you, but I feel like I've been hearing a lot about how more people seem to be citing money as a reason to go vegetarian in recent months.

So behold, Recession-Bred Flexitarians—"semi-vegetarians who dabble in carnivorous cuisine from time to time."

Meat being as expensive as it is, it makes sense that choosing legumes, soy products, nuts or other vegetarian options over, say steak, can save you money, even if you only do it a few times a week.

If you don't want to take the jump to full vegetarianism (especially if you, like me, don't believe in restrictive diets), this can be really easy to stick with. Besides that, a lot of research supports the notion that the American diet is too heavy on meat in general, so why not take advantage of the recession and use it as an excuse to do something good for your health?

Personally, when it comes to saving money, I think a lovely bowl of homemade lentil soup or spinach pie beats a Big Mac any day.

MIrror, Mirror

An article from Sunday's New York Times discusses recession-driven changes in consumer spending at major retailers such as Wal-Mart. Said John E. Fleming, the chief merchandising officer for Wal-Mart, "Our sales—it's like holding up a mirror to our society."

With consumers prioritizing how to spend what money they do have, they are sticking close to their lists of the essentials and favoring generic-brand goods over brand-name items. We're also seeing a "recession protein hierarchy...with ground beef trumping steak, and chicken trumping beef." Many consumers are just plain skipping protein, choosing pasta instead. 

Not surprisingly, microwave sales are also up. Heating up leftovers or a frozen entrée is more popular these days than going out or ordering in.

One good thing about living in New York is that we have access to a lot of great, cheap food, and there are even places where you can get cheap groceries. 

I used to think nothing of shelling out for a bunch of fancy Greek or Icelandic yogurt, for example, or white asparagus I didn’t really know how to cook. Now, I save that kind of stuff for once in a while (2 for $1 White Rose yogurt, anyone?), and buy cheaper produce. 

Luckily, a block away from us is this market that has amazingly low prices on fruits and vegetables. They may or may not be cheap because they fell of the back of a truck somewhere, but whatever—just wash them before you eat them, like you would anything else.

For packaged stuff like oatmeal, rice, and bread, there’s the sketchy meat market a few doors down, which is also cheap, and something of a vortex, but I’d rather risk having an adventure than pay twice as much at the Food Emporium.

Learning to cook balanced meals that actually taste good using a few cheap ingredients has been a lot of fun too—definitely better than eating a five-dollar frozen entree every night. 

So there's a bright side to everything, I suppose.