Five Myths About Healthy Eating
With first lady Michelle Obama urging everyone to get moving, obesity remains a political hot potato. Below, Katherine Mangu-Ward, the managing editor of Reason Magazine, exposes some popular, but false beliefs:
Myth One: People in poor neighborhoods lack access to fresh fruits and vegetables. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), 93 percent of “food desert” dwellers have access to a car. Moreover, a study published this year in the Archives of Internal Medicine found proximity to a grocery store or supermarket doesn’t increase consumption of healthy food.
Myth Two: Advertising forces people to make unhealthy choices. The Institute of Medicine, an arm of the National Academy of Sciences, has concluded that “current evidence is not sufficient to arrive at any finding about a causal relationship from television advertising to adiposity [excess weight] among children and youth.” Similar findings hold true for adults.
Myth Three: Eating healthy is too expensive. Wrong. A survey by the USDA found that, by weight, bottled water is cheaper than soda, low-fat milk is cheaper than high-fat, and whole fruit is cheaper than processed sweet snacks. Making junk food comparatively pricier by tacking on taxes — a popular policy option — mostly means that people will pay more taxes, not eat more kale.
Myth Four: People need more information about what they eat. A recent study from Ghent University in Belgium found that labels made no difference in the consumption patterns of students there, backing up a 2009 New York University study that found no improvement in poor New Yorkers’ eating habits after the introduction of mandatory menu labeling.
Myth Five: There are too many fast-food restaurants in low-income neighborhoods. The same study that found no effect on diet from increased access to fruits and vegetables also found that proximity to fast-food restaurants had only a small effect, and it was limited to young, low-income men.
Putting additional taxes on things like salty french fries and other fattening and unhealthy foods is not only poor policy but offensive to people who take enough care of themselves that they can enjoy those unhealthy foods fairly often and not suffer for it.
The health-nazis in government need to face the facts: People are different from one another. Some have the right genes, a high metabolism, and the immune system of Methuselah – their bodies can handle it.
Interesting.
Myth number 6: Absent the presence of pathogens, some foods are “healthy” and some are not.
Hey John,
I actually work with the team that did the 2009 label study. We are looking forward to doing similar work like this in the future. I will be sure to keep you informed!
Good piece. The soda tax, for instance, is a natural outcome of the collectivist mentality:
http://ohpcenter.org/editorials.php?nav=20090715a
Myth Six: We have strong evidence that eating more fruits and vegetables and less processed food will make us healthier.
I’d bet it’s often cheaper to eat healthy than it is to go out to eat. Perhaps not cheaper than fast food, but that is not the singular problem in poor eating habits. A lot of restuarants serve huge portions of unhealthy food, when it is actually cheaper to purchase fresh ingredients and prepare your own meals.