Study Ties Kids Weight Gain, Produce Cost
Via Thea:
A new study suggests the price of fresh fruits and vegetables has a stronger connection to weight gain among children than whether they live near fast-food outlets.It adds more confusion to the muddy picture of what causes youngsters to gain weight. [source]
I think the key word is "muddy". Knowing all that I know about weight & fat, which isn't to say I know it all, study or no study I find it hard to believe that fresh fruits & veggies cause kids to gain weight. I'm more interested in who funded this. Was it a special interest group, did that skew the results?
Giving them the benefit of the doubt, if the choice is gain weight with fast food or gain weight eating plums, getting fat on fruits and veggies win hands down. At least I know my arteries won't be clogged. 
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5 Comments
10.12.05 | marta commented: What kind of fruits and veggies are people talking about? You can always get a pound of bananas or a pound of apples for $1, right? That's the same price as a cheeseburger or any other item from the $1 menu.
Now if you're talking about starfruit or some exotic-ass fruits, well then yeah, but come on, I find this study to be a bit weird. I think it was probably funded by some fast food chain.
10.12.05 | Nicole commented: I can see where a parent who is too busy might choose to buy their child a hamburger vs. buying them some fresh fruit or veggies, especially if that burger costs the same or less, since you actually have to take 1-20 minute preparing the fruit or veggies for consumption. We all do it from time to time, right? Convenience over health?
Too bad those parents are forgetting that taking those extra 20 minutes and extra few dollars to teach their children good eating habits and keep them healthy.
10.13.05 | Meegs commented: I can definitely see where this would be true. I work with low-income families and determine their eligibility for food stamps (among other programs). They have a very different approach to their food budget than I do; because they frequently don't have money for entertainment, their food purchases become entertainment in a way. They buy foods I wouldn't consume regularly because it's highly processed or high in fats because those foods provide the most physical sensations of pleasure--ice cream tastes better to most people than baby carrots. They're not purchasing fresh produce because those foods tend to spoil faster (which is an issue when you get your money for food once per month) and frequently seem more expensive than most packaged foods.
10.13.05 | renee commented: Meegs, now that you put it that way, the study makes sense. And if that's behind the connection, I think the article tried to word it in a way that makes people think the fresh produce caused the weight gain, not that the fresh produce was too expensive to eat so people opted for the cheaper more caloric foods.
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The study doesn't show that fresh fruits and vegetables cause kids to gain weight. It shows that there's a relationship, but it's an INVERSE relationship. That is as the cost of fruits and veggies go up, excess weight gain in kids goes down.
The results showed that young children who live in communities where fruits and vegetables are expensive are more likely to gain excessive amounts of weight than kids who live in areas where produce costs less. That connection was stronger than the proximity to fast-food restaurants.
P.S. I hope this posts... I keep getting errors when I try to post to the new site! :-(