Giving the Poor Easy Access to Healthy Food Doesn’t Mean They’ll Buy It

[GreatGazoo]

91. Maybe the answer is to look at what the target group is eating now and work from there.

For example, if they prefer frozen pizza then the easy path may be to offer a healthier version or a kit -- dough, sauce and fresh toppings. Healthier chicken nuggets. Potato chips that are baked or that use a better fat. This kind of thinking seems to get eclipsed by the tunnel vision that is applied by non-profits and government agencies and that focus seems to be almost exclusively how many fruits and vegetables did people eat? Much easier to improve what people already eat than to ask for a total change in lifestyle, skill set, schedule and education.

At a local co-op, half of the sales come from prepared foods -- salad bar, sandwiches, baked goods -- and ready-to-eat items. So it seems that even the very health conscious prefer not to cook.

I don't like the design of the study(ies) -- they seem to have relied on self-reporting:

2172 street-intercept surveys and 363 dietary recalls

People typically leave out purchases that are embarrassing or unfavorable so the "before" data is likely skewed leaving little room for improvement. It may be that more educated people lie better than less educated because they know the expected answers.

There was another way to collect data but they didn't do it -- have people drop their grocery receipt into a box, anonymously. Or ask the stores to share their data. Yet another way: go through the trash and see what people REALLY eat and REALLY feed their children.

IMHO, If NPs and government nannies really want to improve health and choices in these neighborhoods then they need to stop trying to force their vision onto low income people and start listening to, and letting the target families tell them what would work.