Essay --

As a mother of a large family on a very limited budget I have questioned the choices I make in purchasing groceries many times. I want my family to have a healthy diet, yet prices tend to be an issue every time I go grocery shopping. I wonder: What is the relationship between incomes and healthy diets? There are many other questions that need to be explored before we can truly answer the question at hand. Some of those questions include: How do we define a healthy diet? Besides budget, what other factors influence purchasing choices? In what ways are certain foods healthier than others? Also, are healthier foods always more expensive and, if so, why are they more expensive? I recently visited the Mount Vernon WIC office. WIC stands for Women, Infants and children, and is a government program that provides supplemental foods, health care referrals, and nutrition education for low-income pregnant, breastfeeding, and non-breastfeeding postpartum women, and to infants and children up to age five who are found to be at nutritional risk. I interviewed their nutrition specialist, Carolyn, who provided me with some tasty, affordable food choices that kids like, and that are high in vitamins and nutrients. Some of the ideas she gave me were; instead of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, give children celery and peanut butter, but cut up the celery and put the peanut butter in a separate container so the child can â€Å"dip† their food. This is a low cost, high protein snack or light lunch that kids will have fun eating; and instead of a cooked vegetable with dinner, cut up some fresh broccoli, carrots and cauliflower (or other fresh vegetables) and serv e them with a low-fat dressing as a dip for an appetizer before dinner. This helps in get... ...s and having fresh vegetables as an appetizer. Low-income families are in fact at a disadvantage when it comes to eating healthy foods, but this is mostly from lack of education and not necessarily because of costs. Can low-income consumers realistically afford to buy all organic foods and get by month to month? The answer to this is probably not, but what they can do is make health conscious choices when shopping. I believe that the relationship between income and healthy diets is whatever we make it. We all have to remember that what might not seem healthy to one person, might be the healthier choice for another. What it all comes down to is that eating healthy starts by just eating healthier, and changing a bad habit takes time and patience. In a perfect world all foods would be equally available to everyone but the world’s not perfect and neither are people.