According to recent reports, there are definite signs of an economic recovery starting as soon as this summer. This is hopeful news for both your wallet and your waistline. Looking at this economic downturn from the perspective of diet and nutrition and the effect on general public health, we see that it is much different from the downturn of the Great Depression. Back then most people could not afford high fat meats and dairy products and turned to less expensive homegrown vegetables and beans. The rates of heart disease dropped dramatically. Then, during the growing prosperity of the 1950’s, the rates of heart disease climbed back to their pre-depression levels.

How many people today are turning to homegrown vegetables to cope with the current downturn? Hardly anyone I know. Why, because coinciding with the post-war economic boom was the rise of the fast food industry and the introduction of convenience foods (remember Swanson’s TV dinners) that did not exist in the 1930’s, providing inexpensive, high fat, high salt and sugar, low nutrition foods. In fact, the fast food industry is doing quite well right now with McDonald’s Corp. announced a first-quarter profit of $980 million, up 4% from last year and Burger King 1st quarter profits up 1.6% over last year. So this time instead of a decrease in heart disease and related problems there may be an increase. People’s waistlines are expanding as their wallets have been shrinking.

Our relatives of not so long ago had it right. They switched by necessity to healthier foods. Fresh produce, beans and legumes and poultry are relatively inexpensive today. Spending about one hour a week making a bean and vegetable soup can provide leftovers to last the rest of the week for a lot less money than eating out. Our parents, grandparents and great-grandparents also walked a lot more by necessity in those days than we do now. Unless we learn these important lessons from them, we may emerge from this recession much less healthy than they did when economic times were even worse.

Tucson, Arizona

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