Fruits, vegetables not so pricey after all

Even though there are no healthy foods, only eating healthily, for years Fitness Watch readers have known that healthy eating is cheaper than unhealthy eating.

"The common perception that fresh fruits and vegetables are more expensive than packaged snack foods may not be correct after all, a new study finds.

A number of studies have suggested that chips, cookies and other high-calorie snack foods are generally cheaper than fresh produce, and the alleged price gap has taken some blame for Americans' less-than-ideal diets and bulging waistlines.

But the new study, reported in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, suggests that the inverse relationship researchers have found between calories and price -- higher-calorie foods being cheaper -- is mainly a matter of algebra.

'When you consider the prices that people actually see at the store -- total price and unit price -- fruits and vegetables are actually cheaper,' said researcher Leah M. Lipsky, a Ph.D. candidate in nutritional sciences at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York.

The problem, she explained in an interview, is a matter of math."

Innumeracy is a general problem when it comes to many aspects of overweight/obesity.