Fake Food Costs

We tried a restaurant from the eatwellguide.org website. The restaurant listed was called Ricciutis. Their website says they serve locally grown and seasonally inspired dishes. The menu lists the farms that provide their organic produce, pastured meats, sustainable seafood, and they feature local beer and wine.   They operate in a house built in 1800 which is right up my alley – my house was built in about 1840. I had a feeling it wasn’t a place you take the kids if you want your bill to be under $100, but for a one-time experience (and, of course, for the sake of the blog, right?) it was worth it.

It turned out to be quite reasonable, especially considering the fresh, organic farm ingredients. They have many gluten free choices and some vegan dishes. There are wood fired pizzas and calzones. My daughter recently chose to go to a Japanese steak house for her 16^th birthday and it was much more expensive than this and lacked the quality. Everything was good especially one of my favorites — the soft shell crab.

I mention prices of food throughout my posts because I’m keeping track of whether there really is a cost difference between real food and fake food over time, based just on how much money is spent out of a family budget on the groceries line item. I’m specifying by groceries, because the cost of factory food in other line items, like medical expenditures would tip the scales in a huge way. (Tip the scales in a huge weigh too.)

A recent CDC report says, “heart disease, stroke, cancer, diabetes, obesity, and arthritis—are among the most common, costly, and preventable of all health problems. During 2009­–2010, more than one-third of adults, or about 78 million people and nearly one of five youths aged 2–19 years were obese. Diabetes is the leading cause of kidney failure, lower limb amputations other than those caused by injury, and new cases of blindness among adults.”^[1]

I’m going to continue with some points from the report to show some causes and the consequences: In 2011, more than one-third (36%) of adolescents and 38% of adults said they ate fruit less than once a day, and 38% of adolescents and 23% of adults said they ate vegetables less than once a day.

Why aren’t 100% of people having at least one fruit and vegetable per day? I wonder what the numbers would be if the people responding weren’t considering French fries a vegetable. Medical costs linked to obesity were estimated to be $147 billion in 2008. The total estimated cost of diagnosed diabetes in 2012 was $176 billion in direct medical costs and $69 billion in decreased productivity (absent from work, etc.) The total costs of heart disease and stroke in 2010 were estimated to be $315.4 billion. Adding in cancer care at $157 billion in 2010 dollars, we’re pushing a trillion dollars annually and these numbers are increasing in the United States, not decreasing.