Fresh and Fattening: Speedy Eating Choices Have National Consequences

When consumers purchase a candy bar, they know it is “fresh.” It’s a treat — the candy bar may never have seen a freezer, but no one is under any illusion that it’s healthy.

Despite overreaching by food police like New York’s Mayor Bloomberg, America has a calorie problem and seems confused on how to solve it.  We also have time and convenience issues dovetailing directly into our nutritional habits.

According to a 2010 report from the Centers for Disease Control, 36 percent of adults are obese and another 33 percent overweight.  CDC also reports 25 percent of black children are obese vs. 15 percent of white children.   Tellingly, black Americans receive twice the calories from fast food than white Americans.

Obesity rates are higher in low-income populations, but increasing for all Americans.  From Harlem to the Hamptons, everyone has too much skin in the fat game.  So why are we overweight?  What can we do about it that doesn’t include the government banning everything?

We are overweight because we eat too much junk.  Suburban families with long commutes and multiple soccer or ballet shoes in the backseat don’t have much time.  Urban families, especially in low-income neighborhoods with limited access to fresh foods, don’t have many choices.  Some think fast food is the only solution – but it’s not.

Eighty-four percent of American children eat fast food every week  – a diet staple for too many.   Recognizing consumer concern about drive-thru nutrition, many fast food outlets are marketing “healthier choices” and “fresh” options.  “Fresh” in the vernacular of food marketing means never frozen — not necessarily healthy or low in calories and fat.

For example, Chipotle advertises burrito ingredients as sourced from local farms and never “processed or frozen.”  Let’s get real.  Our family loves Chipotle, but like the candy bar, we understand it’s fattening.  My favorite, the chicken burrito, has 1015 calories and 40g of fat.   Wendy’s fresh-never-frozen chicken sandwich has 560 calories and 23g of fat — not including a soda and “do you want fries with that?”

Since 2008, the number of food stamp recipients skyrocketed from 27 to 48 million.  The program costs taxpayers over $82 billion a year.  Fast food chains have successfully lobbied welfare officials in several states to allow food stamp use in restaurants including California, which sends out a list of food stamp-friendly fast food restaurants with EBT cards.  As more Americans depend on this program for meal support is this nutritionally sensible?  Is it morally acceptable considering its financing source?  Does it make economic sense in light of healthcare costs associated with bad nutrition?

A healthy, economical and easy option exists.  Somewhere along the earthy, organic food movement, somebody decided frozen foods were bad.  If you were promoting fresh and local, you would demonize frozen equivalents.  But that is wrong, dumb, and counter-productive.

Modern freezing techniques use fruits and vegetables picked fresh and frozen immediately, retaining more vitamins and minerals than unfrozen produce.  A 2010 study by the Institute for Food Research found that fresh produce can lose up to 45 percent of its nutrient content in the two weeks it can take to get from field to table.

Frozen foods are affordable, convenient, available everywhere – even urban mini-marts – and encourage sit-down meals.  The proven benefits of non-vehicular family dining include better vocabulary skills in toddlers, fewer teenage eating disorders and pregnancies, and less depression and drug abuse.  But no studies claim Mom must slave over a stove for hours for these benefits to accrue.  The average Lean Cuisine meal is under 300 calories and includes flash-frozen vegetables.  Grab a 400 calories Paul Newman chicken Skillet Meal, a salad kit and chairs and you have family mealtime.

Frozen foods are also portion-controlled – helpful for dieters.   They are economical as there is no trimming or discarded parts, and nothing spoils only to be thrown away.

Everybody loves restaurants, but they are not replacements for routine eating. Fresh produce is great, but not always available or convenient.  Not even what seems a good choice at your local bar & grill (like a 1,400 calorie Asian grilled chicken salad) wards off diabetes, heart disease and diet-associated cancers.  Food police often blame school lunches for overweight kids, but out of 1,100 annual meals, the most a child can eat is at school is 180.

Speed eating does not mean bad choices. We must educate ourselves on other options, including frozen foods, as part as a healthy and economical diet. Taxpayers are subsidizing fast food folly already, and we all will pay more for it later in medical costs and preventable disease.  The best way to alter the course of bad eating practices (and keep government off our plates) is to change them ourselves —  we are indeed what we eat.