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I was reading an interesting piece today about how there is a positive correlation between waist circumference (an indicator of obesity) and “price sensitivity.” That is, when money is tight and we try to cut back on our food budget, we run the risk of weight gain. A long period of price sensitivity, therefore, can be detrimental to our health. How much of the price difference is actual and how much is perceived is a subject for great debate. I was formulating some thoughts on that for this blog post when this article about a possible upcoming tax on soda caught my eye. The diabetic man in New York City featured in Food, Inc. who lost so much weight from doing nothing but skipping soda leaped to mind, as did the family shopping for food on a very limited budget.

When hubby and I were first married, we were a two-income family. Money was no problem, there was plenty for private school, three square meals cooked at home and weekend mini-vacations. After we had been married nine years, I started staying home with the children and we had to manage on one income. There have been three periods of extreme financial crisis in our marriage: one when hubby and I were both unable to work due to illness and injury and two caused by extended periods of unemployment. The number of years we spent with “enough” money to pay the bills and eat well are far outnumbered by the years we spent with enough to cover the bills with little left over for food or other needs.

One of the ways I stretched our food budget was clipping coupons and shopping at multiple stores weekly (as many as five in one week) to get the most for my dollar. I got pretty good at it: I rarely had a shopping trip that I saved less than $20 after coupons were deducted and my average was closer to $50. But if you’ve browsed coupon slicks and store circulars, you know the savings did not come from meats, vegetables, fruits and dairy. Even the few specials on these items were not for the foods we eat these days, but for the cheapest of the feedlot meats, the most processed of the dairy, and the furthest trucked-in produce. Still, my priority was filling the empty tummies.

I’m not proud of this, but share it with you now because I want you to know there is another way: There were weeks on end that the only appliances turned on in my kitchen were the microwave and coffee pot. Months went by where the only beverage to cross my lips, other than the occasional sip of water, was Coke, and that in great quantity. Shopping days came and went when we had to eat a half gallon of ice cream right away to make room for all the frozen entrees.

What I didn’t understand then was the difference between calorie-dense and nutrient-dense foods. Calorie-dense foods can be nutrient-dense as well, but the worst of the calorie-dense foods are just calories with no nutrition. Soda falls into this category. It is also addictive. The sweetness, the energy boost, these are things our bodies tell us they need frequently. It’s outdated information, programmed in when food was much more scarce. I was choosing the most calorie-dense foods in the market, thinking that those calories were about the same as any other calorie, something to stuff in hungry mouths to stave them off a few more hours.

Would a soda tax cut back on consumption, especially among price-sensitive individuals? Probably, unless Coke and Pepsi really bite the bullet and print lots and lots of high-value coupons. But, will those price-sensitive individuals just shift to other non-nutritive drinks? Probably, and that could be even worse for our health care crisis than calorie dense soda. More efficient than penalizing the consumer might be the removal of artificial government supports that prop up a failed food supply system. Take the subsidized corn out of the foods it doesn’t belong in before you ask the consumer at large to do without, please.

The best of the nutrient-dense foods are not expensive. I know you are rolling your eyes and shaking your head and probably muttering, “Prove it” under your breath. Fellow blogger The Nourishing Gourmet does just that (and beautifully) in her $5 Dishes and $10 Main categories. Kelly the Kitchen Kop also has a great category for ideas on how to eat very well on a budget. Organic and Thrifty is an entire blog devoted to the best food at the least cost.

Some of us eat more organ and less muscle meat, some make homemade kefir “soda pop” instead of buying the industrial version, some garden and keep chickens. The point is that you can eat well on a budget. You do not need to resort to eating the worst the store has to offer because times are tight. I have lived it for a while now, and seen my per person/per day food costs drop considerably by taking advantage of CSA programs, farmer’s markets and home cooking. That’s right: I’m paying less for food now than I did when I bought processed foods at the grocery store. And I know we are healthier because our medical bills also have gone down.

Resources like those I’ve listed above are available online. Tips abound. Start small, find something that works for you and share that tip with others, especially those who insist that eating healthily is too expensive.  If you can’t find anywhere to share, tell me! We know what ails us, let’s start working on solutions.

This post is part of Fight Back Fridays, hosted by Food Renegade.