With the declining state of the economy, those who are forced to nickle and dime at the grocery store may tend to purchase, cheap, processed foods that are high in fat, sodium and calories but low in price.

According to a recent article, http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20090109/us_nm/us_financial_obesity, experts are fearing a new, larger wave of poor health and obesity due to lower cost trends in lower quality food. Fruits, vegetable, fish, lean proteins and whole grains are both high in nutrition and cost. Processed foods that are high in empty calories, saturated fat and sodium, tend to be less in more affordable. In these days of a full-blown recession, cost is everything and health is just too darn expensive.

The article only highlights an American myth that those who fall in the lower socioeconomic classes are fat and therefore, lazy. It cost me over twenty dollars to prepare one meal ( for two) filled with vegetables and chicken. We could have gone to McDonald's for more than half that price.

I always am baffled by the irony that our fitness and well-being can cost so much. Our forefathers spent their days in the fields, performing hard labor, only to come home for dinner, go to bed and start all over again. I think they're turning over in their graves at the amount that we spend on gym memberships, " healthy" foods, yoga, accupuncture etc.

Health it seems, has become something that only those with means can achieve.

The good news is that there are some cheaper yet healthy options at the supermarket these days, low-sodium soups, ground beef, brown rice and canned vegetables. Be scrupulous at the supermarket so that you can ingest those empty calories in another recession-trend form, booze.

Cheers.