This is the U.S. county that buys the least healthful groceries

[Pedestrian]

By Caitlin Dewey February 6 at 7:00 AM Email the author

An emerging body of research suggests that some groups of consumers may simply be less interested in buying healthful groceries than others. (iStock)
The 4,500 people of Musselshell County, Mont., collectively buy the least healthful groceries of any county in the United States. Their baskets are loaded with fat and sugar, Nielsen data show. They aren’t big on fiber or protein.

There’s a debate among economists and public health advocates over why communities like Musselshell tend to eat so poorly. For years, advocates have argued that it’s largely a problem of access: Consumers eat junk because they can’t afford healthful foods or find them in their communities. Now, an emerging body of research suggests that some groups of consumers may simply be less interested than others in buying healthful groceries.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/...=.5f3a38682130

[ThePhun1]

Where now?

[James Bond Agent 007]

Now, an emerging body of research suggests that some groups of consumers may simply be less interested than others in buying healthful groceries.

That's so obvious. I don't know why so many people for so long kept going with the "access" thing, you can see people buying mostly unhealthy things in supermarkets filled with natural food sections, fresh produce sections and every other healthy alternative you can think of.

[jtown,man]

Originally Posted by James Bond Agent 007

That's so obvious. I don't know why so many people for so long kept going with the "access" thing, you can see people buying mostly unhealthy things in supermarkets filled with natural food sections, fresh produce sections and every other healthy alternative you can think of.

They do it because it creates a victim-class. And with a victim, you have an excuse. The fact is a lot of poorer Americans like bad food. After a long day of taking the bus to and from work, working manual labor, what sounds better? A bag of fatty chips and pork or a salad? Lets be real.

A grocery store in my area purposely located in a bad area of town. He lowered the price of healthy foods, from low fat snacks to fruit and veggies while also RAISING the price on sodas and bad snacks. His results? Nothing changed other than people stopped coming there because they weren't there for healthy food.

In rural Arkansas, when you go to Walmart, people RARELY have healthy food in their carts, its part of the culture.

[Sun Belt]

Low fat and fat free foods are not healthy alternatives but marketing has fooled consumers that they have made a healthy choice by selecting these products.

Also don't drink juice.

[glowrock]

Originally Posted by Sun Belt

Low fat and fat free foods are not healthy alternatives but marketing has fooled consumers that they have made a healthy choice by selecting these products.

Also don't drink juice.

That's both true and false, Sun Belt. Nothing wrong with NATURALLY low fat and fat-free foods, and nothing with with drinking fruit or vegetable juice, either. It's the products that have been grossly modified to become either fat-free or low-fat that are naturally NOT this way (usually by adding tons and tons of sugar and salt and preservatives/flavorings/colorings) that are the problem. And for juice, obviously they have plenty of natural sugars, so anyone who thinks they're automatically low-cal or super-healthy because they're "natural" is out of their minds. But at least they do have lots of vitamins, minerals and antioxidants in them, depending on what fruits/vegetables are in them of course.

Aaron (Glowrock)

[SpawnOfVulcan]

Originally Posted by Pedestrian

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/...=.5f3a38682130

The stupid map's "AL" label for Alabama literally covers up the two most populous counties in the Birmingham metro... they account for about 900,000 people. WaPo needs a better cartographer...

[BG918]

The biggest surprise is that the counties aren't all clustered in the South but include a sizable chunk of the upper Midwest and upstate New York.

When I think of the most healthy states I think of Washington, Oregon, California and Hawaii which seems to be true based on this map. You can also tell where cities are located vs. rural areas.

[Cirrus]

This is just a proxy for poor. Poor people don't buy unhealthy foods because they lack access to grocery stores (the food deserts thing is wrong); they buy unhealthy foods because unhealthy foods are cheaper, because salt and corn syrup are the cheapest ingredients.

[James Bond Agent 007]

I don't even think unhealthy foods are cheaper, per se. You can buy a lot of healthy stuff on a budget if you really wanted to. I think it's just an immediate gratification kind of thing - junk food is more satisfying and filling to a segment of the population that tends to have relatively little satisfying things in life. Plus it tends to be easier to prepare.

[Khantilever]

Originally Posted by Cirrus

This is just a proxy for poor. Poor people don't buy unhealthy foods because they lack access to grocery stores (the food deserts thing is wrong); they buy unhealthy foods because unhealthy foods are cheaper, because salt and corn syrup are the cheapest ingredients.

You should read the paper discussed in this article. It’s not about price, either. That’s what their counterfactual simulation looks into; even give lower prices, would low-income households buy much more healthy food? The answer seems to be no.

It’s not about convenience, either. I don’t remember if it’s discussed in the paper, but one of the authors explained how their data shows that healthy prepared food is similarly priced to unhealthy prepared food.

[Obadno]

Originally Posted by Pedestrian

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/...=.5f3a38682130

What a weird niche study. "people in different places have different diets, preferences and local cuisines of varying healthy-ness" wow thank you!

I don't think its any surprise that the deep fried south and meat and potatoes Midwest has less healthy diets than the West Coast and "wealthy" urban areas. This seems fairly self evident to me

[Capsicum]

Originally Posted by Obadno

What a weird niche study. "people in different places have different diets, preferences and local cuisines of varying healthy-ness" wow thank you!

I don't think its any surprise that the deep fried south and meat and potatoes Midwest has less healthy diets than the West Coast and "wealthy" urban areas. This seems fairly self evident to me

And yet the south and midwest have tons of excellent agricultural land for growing a wide variety of things and should in theory be good for local, fresh vegetables and fruit (well, okay, maybe not to the extent that California does, but a lot of the country's produce does come from those regions). After all in the south, Georgia is known as the peach state, there's citrus in places like Florida, and the south is also known for nice, warm-climate fruits like persimmons.

[James Bond Agent 007]

These days, since you can buy just about anything, anywhere at any time, I hardly think local crops have much to do with what people eat.

[Obadno]

Originally Posted by Capsicum

And yet the south and midwest have tons of excellent agricultural land for growing a wide variety of things and should in theory be good for local, fresh vegetables and fruit (well, okay, maybe not to the extent that California does, but a lot of the country's produce does come from those regions). After all in the south, Georgia is known as the peach state, there's citrus in places like Florida, and the south is also known for nice, warm-climate fruits like persimmons.

As James Bond said it has nothing to do with what they can grow its about what the cultural diet is. The south grows plenty of healthy produce as does the Midwest but that's not the way they eat. They deep fry and eat heavy oily food. In the Midwest they have very central/eastern Europe type of foods, lots of heavy gravy and potatoes and breads and things like that.

The west coast just eats healthier maybe because its warmer, more Mexican influence and Mediterranean type diets. a lot more vegetables and light meals instead of heavy Midwestern food or oily southern food. City people eat healthier probably because its popular and the local influence isn't as heavy.

Its a cultural thing not an access thing.

[Khantilever]

Originally Posted by Obadno

What a weird niche study. "people in different places have different diets, preferences and local cuisines of varying healthy-ness" wow thank you!

I don't think its any surprise that the deep fried south and meat and potatoes Midwest has less healthy diets than the West Coast and "wealthy" urban areas. This seems fairly self evident to me

The article’s title is super click-baity. It is indeed an obvious and well-established empirical fact that food choices vary by location. The question is whether it’s due to lack of options or preferences. The study is not even remotely about showing where food is unhealthy; the article just uses that because people love lists and rankings. (In fact, the article itself acknowledges they used a click-baity title by clarifying that the point of the study is not to show which places eat better or worse than others)

This study is about as policy-relevant as economic research gets. A lot of money and political capital has been spent trying to encourage large grocery stores to open in poor areas. This study is probably the best repudiation of the “food desert” hypothesis - that low-income households eat poorly because they lack access to healthy food. Most other studies had less granular data or involved very small scale experiments, like setting up farmers markets)

And it’s not just a cultural thing; wealthy households in the Midwest eat healthier than poor households in the Midwest.

[Emprise du Lion]

Originally Posted by Obadno

As James Bond said it has nothing to do with what they can grow its about what the cultural diet is. The south grows plenty of healthy produce as does the Midwest but that's not the way they eat. They deep fry and eat heavy oily food. In the Midwest they have very central/eastern Europe type of foods, lots of heavy gravy and potatoes and breads and things like that.

The west coast just eats healthier maybe because its warmer, more Mexican influence and Mediterranean type diets. a lot more vegetables and light meals instead of heavy Midwestern food or oily southern food. City people eat healthier probably because its popular and the local influence isn't as heavy.

Its a cultural thing not an access thing.

Plenty of corn and potatoes in typical dishes, but if anything, the Midwest is meat heavy. Red meat in particular.

The largest concentration of Eastern Europeans is also in Chicagoland with all its Poles. The rest of the Midwest, on average, has substantially less Eastern European influence going on.

[Capsicum]

Originally Posted by Emprise du Lion

Plenty of corn and potatoes in typical dishes, but if anything, the Midwest is meat heavy. Red meat in particular.

The largest concentration of Eastern Europeans is also in Chicagoland with all its Poles. The rest of the Midwest, on average, has substantially less Eastern European influence going on.

But there's a lot of German influence though (also Germans who lived in eastern Europe prior to immigrating).

[Capsicum]

Originally Posted by Obadno

The west coast just eats healthier maybe because its warmer, more Mexican influence and Mediterranean type diets. a lot more vegetables and light meals instead of heavy Midwestern food or oily southern food.

I would also add east Asian influence too, alongside the Spanish/Mediterranean/Mexican influence in vegetable and fresh produce choices on the west coast.

[Emprise du Lion]

Originally Posted by Capsicum

But there's a lot of German influence though (also Germans who lived in eastern Europe prior to immigrating).

I'd wager that most people with German ancestry in the Midwest did not come from what is now Eastern Europe though. I'd also say the German contribution more so went to the whole meat heavy thing that we have going on.

While popular, the Midwest is not a region that lives or dies on the potato. Just look at the city/regional specific dishes that the Midwest is known for.