We are not getting our veggies

The CDC announced that most Americans are not getting enough fruit and vegetables in their diet. Which I do not find surprising based on what I see in people’s shopping carts, if you look in our stores the coupons are for the processed food and general lack of dietary education.

The state of Vermont had the highest fruit and vegetable intake while the state of Mississippi had the least. Obviously affluence and poverty play a big role in which foods you choice to buy. Sometimes you just have to look at how many calories you can get for a dollar and go with that.

But then I thought about it a bit more. I stick to a palio diet and eat mostly lean meats and fruit and veggies. Last night was sirloin steak and and a can of chopped turnip greens for dinner with watermelon for dessert. At first that sounds expensive but I wait for Kroger to have steak on sale for $2.99 per pound (cheaper than hamburger). I buy a 3 pound package for $9.00 instead of $21.00 as the price is usually $6.99 per pound.

Out of the 3 pounds I get 9 steaks that I freeze and will eat over a month. The can of chopped greens was $0.88 and counted as 3.5 servings of vegetables. With the greens I poured on some homemade pepper sauce (for you Yankees that is peppers in vinegar and it is yum).

Dinner Cost:
Steak: $1.00
Greens: $0.88
Pepper Sauce: $0.10
Watermelon: $0.40 ($1.79 per quarter melon)
Total: $2.38

I ate for the rest of the day bananas, tofu, carrots, cucumber, radishes, hard boiled egg, water and coffee. Which maybe added up to $4.00.

I could still eat like this if I was on food stamps. But then again I have transport to the store and so many people don’t and have to shop in convenience stores.

It is a conundrum but if we don’t eat healthy then we really are going to have even higher healthcare costs.

Reports:
State Indicator Report and National Action Guide

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