Recession May Be Causing Weight Gain

With the U.S. in a recession we’re all cutting our spending and that includes looking for cheaper food, but experts worry with obesity on the rise, where we cut costs, we may gain weight.

Dietician Carole Mabry with Spartanburg Regional says, “Sometimes people would have a tendency to buy more processed foods during that time so there may be a tendency to put on a few extra pounds.“

Customers are looking for ways to get more for less and according to Mabry, less expensive is not always more when it comes to our diet. 

She says, “Typically a generic brand is going to have higher fat higher sodium than one of your brand name types of products.  A lot of times it is a less expensive way to make a good tasting product.“

But Mabry says you can still buy inexpensive food and be healthy, just be diligent about reading the label.

We compared two TV dinners. They are both the same price but one has 11 fat grams and 1250 mg of sodium while the other has 6 fat grams and 600 mg of sodium.  That’s much better for you.

Mabry says when you are shopping for things like fruit juice; the cheaper brands often have more sugar so make sure it says one hundred percent fruit juice. 

Mabry says, “You want to look at the fat.  You want to look at the sodium and you want to look at sugar and choose the lower of those.“

So while the recession may be taking our money, don’t let the tough times affect your health too.

According to the experts one of the biggest culprits for putting on those recession pounds is fast food.

In these tough times, they are making the deals that much sweeter with value meals and dollar menus that are lite on the pocket book but heavy in fat.