Aug 4, 2011 -- 8:39PM, DotNotInOz wrote:

Many Americans can't afford all the fresh fruits and veggies they'd have to buy to meet the Choose My Plate guidelines. www.longislandpress.com/2011/08/04/study... Looks like My Plate is gold-plated.

A bit of an exaggeration, I think. :

that an alarmingly large portions of Americans can not afford salmon, greens and rice that the government suggests.

One need not buy salmon. Rice in the bag is CHEAP. Fresh fruit and veggies in season are a bit pricier, so don't buy the chips and ho-ho's.

Seems this survey might have been conducted in inner city areas of D.C where access is limited as are inccomes. This need should be addressed separately, not by changing the My Plate picture.

Something else also needs addressing : overworked parents who are too tired to shop and cook.

I can't buy the premise.................

Aug 4, 2011 -- 10:43PM, jane2 wrote:

Aug 4, 2011 -- 8:39PM, DotNotInOz wrote:

Many Americans can't afford all the fresh fruits and veggies they'd have to buy to meet the Choose My Plate guidelines. www.longislandpress.com/2011/08/04/study... Looks like My Plate is gold-plated.

A bit of an exaggeration, I think. :

that an alarmingly large portions of Americans can not afford salmon, greens and rice that the government suggests.

One need not buy salmon. Rice in the bag is CHEAP. Fresh fruit and veggies in season are a bit pricier, so don't buy the chips and ho-ho's.

Seems this survey might have been conducted in inner city areas of D.C where access is limited as are inccomes. This need should be addressed separately, not by changing the My Plate picture.

Something else also needs addressing : overworked parents who are too tired to shop and cook.

I can't buy the premise.................

 

 

Like Jane, I'm not sure I agree. Rice is super cheap especially when you buy the big bag. If one shops at Aldi or a walmart then one can get fruits and veggies for cheap. I would think it has more to do with time and the lack of knowledge when it comes to how to cook certain things.

Aug 5, 2011 -- 9:45AM, DotNotInOz wrote:

Jane, I disagree that buying fresh veggies and fruits is as affordable as you say it is.   I spent $62 on groceries yesterday. About one-third of that was fresh meats, and the bulk of the remainder went for fresh fruit and veggies.  Let's say $35 of produce which will last us about 2-3 days since much of it will be combined with other items already on hand. And it will last the two of us that long because my husband eats about half as much fruit and veggies as I do.  Now, if we were a family of four trying to do My Plate, I'd bet that $35 of produce would last for maybe two, possibly three meals depending upon the ages of my hypothetical kids.  And I bought all seasonal, locally grown produce which is fairly inexpensive currently.  Granted, I could have gotten canned fruit and vegetables. However, the promos for My Plate illustrate fresh greens and fruits, and the least expensive canned veggies are loaded with sodium and questionably as healthy as fresh or frozen veggies anyway.  As for your remark that rice is cheap, it's a grain, not a vegetable. Grains comprise only about 1/4 of My Plate. And white rice may be filling, but if that's a family's staple, it would get boring very soon unless they're well-versed in Asian meal planning and cooking.  I think the My Plate concept is likely to educate and to be adopted largely by those not needing to budget carefully to buy sufficient food.   

Where did you shop? I don't spend that much on fruits and veggies for just me, but I shop at Kroger for that stuff. When I was poor, I bought that stuff at Aldi or other discount grocery stores.

Christianlib wrote:

> Yes, jane, "rice in the bag" is cheap.  But to just take that example, rice takes time to

> prepare, and time is a commodity the working poor are often very short on.

Furthermore, rice just isn't a fresh fruit or vegetable.

Most fresh fruits and veggies cost around $1.50/Lb here, though you can get slightly better prices through careful shopping (down around $1.25/Lb if you let the sales determine your diet).  Most meats cost more, but cheap meats like chicken or fatty ground beef run around the same cost as the fresh fruits and veggies ... and are a lot more calorie-efficient (you can get a lot more calories for the same cost).  Candy, cookies etc. are even cheaper for the same number of calories.

A lot of people forget that low-calorie is only perceived as a good thing in a food if you're not on the edge of starving and looking to scavenge every calorie you can.

Right now at Wal-Mart, I can but local corn on the cob for 25 cents an ear (of course, I have to drive 40 miles to get to Wal-Mart). Buying four ears of corn is cheaper than buying a bottle of pop (or soda or soda-pop, whatever one wants to call it). Out my way, if I were to go vegetarian or vegan, my grocery bills would be much cheaper than they currently are with my meat-based diet. Meat, eggs, and milk are terribly expensive, but I choose to consume them anyway.