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WiseGeek has an interesting article on What Does 200 Calories Look Like?, where it photographs the portions of several foods that equal 200 calories and sorts them by weight. Here’s broccoli next to peanut butter on the same plate:

I thought it would be neat to extend this idea and see what 200 calories costs. So I extended my usual grocery trip by finding out the price per weight for each of the food items they selected. The results are below, grouped by price per 200 calories. Image credits go to WiseGeek.com. Please go there for the full versions, these are just thumbnails for reference.

Cost of 200 Calories: Less than 50 cents

Canola Oil

$0.07

Wheat flour

$0.07

Brown Sugar

$0.10

Peanut Butter

$0.17

Cornmeal

$0.20

Uncooked Pasta

$0.21

Glazed Donut

$0.23

Butter

$0.24

Salted Pretzels

$0.24

Wheat Dinner Rolls

$0.23

French Sandwich Roll

$0.24

Smarties Candy

$0.24



Saltines

$0.31

Whole Milk

$0.31

Potato Chips

$0.33

Werthers Original Candy

$0.37

Cheetos

$0.37

Hershey Kisses

$0.38

Doritos

$0.39

Sesame Seed Bagel

$0.39

M&Ms

$0.39

Medium Cheddar Cheese

$0.40

Gummy Bears

$0.40

Tootsie Pops

$0.40

Snickers

$0.40

Canned Black Beans

$0.42

Canned Pork and Beans

$0.46

Canned Tuna in Oil

$0.47

Flax Bread

$0.40

Hot Dogs

$0.42

Coca Cola

$0.46

Jack-in-the-Box Chicken Sandwich

$0.47 . Cost of 200 Calories: $0.50 to $0.99

Eggs

$0.50

Fruit Loops

$0.54

Cooked Pasta

$0.54

Jack in the Box Cheesburger

$0.57

Lowfat Strawberry Yogurt

$0.58

Peanut Butter Crackers

$0.58

Blackberry Pie

$0.65

Ketchup

$0.66

Cranberry Crunch Cereal

$0.66

Corn Bran Cereal

$0.68

Jack in the Box Fries

$0.73

Jelly Belly Jelly Beans

$0.75

Canned Chili Con Carne

$0.79

Salted Mixed Nuts

$0.81

Marshmallow Treat

$0.83

Canned Sweet Corn

$0.89

Avocado

$0.99 . Cost of 200 Calories: Over $1.00

Sliced Toasted Almonds

$1.11

Bailey’s Irish Cream

$1.20

Canned Green Peas

$1.33

Red Onions

$1.35

Apples

$1.43

Peanut Butter PowerBar

$1.52

Fried Bacon

$1.65

Kiwi Fruit

$1.93

Broccoli

$1.93

Splenda Artificial Sweetener

$2.01

Honeydew Melon

$2.18

Dried Apricots

$2.19

Baby Carrots

$2.50

Grapes

$2.55

Celery

$3.11

Balsamic Vinegar

$3.14

Sliced Smoked Turkey

$3.19

Peppers

$3.23

I know there are seasonal and regional differences in prices, so these are from the Pacific Northwest during winter. I chose the full retail price, regardless if there was a sale or coupons available. Since brand names were mentioned, I went for the brand name versions of each product in what I felt was the most popular container size for a grocery store. For example, for potato chips I chose Lay’s in the 13.75 ounce size.

Food Is Cheap

My first observation is that calories are cheap, starting at a retail price of about 1/10th of a cent per calorie. If the average human needs to consume about 2,000 calories, that’s just $2 a day. If you bought in bulk or on sale it would even lower. Obviously there is more to nutrition than just calories, but still. Some would argue that this all starts with cheap government-subsidized corn, which leads to cheap fats (corn oils), sweeteners (corn syrup), and animal feed.

We Are Getting Fat

You can really see the differences in prices as you go down the tables. The cheapest calories are from very basic items like flour, sugar, and oil. The next items are primarily processed snack foods – potato chips, candy, cheetos, and crackers. The most expensive calories include all the fresh fruits and vegetables.

How does this affect us? An estimated 30% of adults over the age of 20 are obese, and that number is rising. On top of that, the poor tend to be more overweight than the rich. Is this because we like to buy the cheaper (and more calorie-dense) food, with the poor even more so than the rich? I certainly ate my share of $2.99 Value Meals in high school because I could afford it. If you’re hungry and broke, you just want something that’s cheap and filling. Donuts and chips sound much better than white bread.

Maybe the less affluent are not as well educated about nutrition. On one hand, I can’t see how people can confuse a Burger King Stacker for health food. On the other, I think if there was a huge calorie label painted in food coloring on every single thing we ate, including eating out, it would definitely change my behavior.

This Wall Street Journal article titled Cheap Food, Societal Norms, And the Economics of Obesity tried to answer some of these questions using both economics and social behavior. One new suggestion was that being obese has less stigma in certain demographics, so they are less likely to watch what they eat.

Convenience More Than Price?

But wait, a plate full of broccoli should fill me up a lot better than a spoonful of peanut butter, even if it is 11 times more expensive. In my case, I think it’s more about laziness in combination with the price. I could buy a whole bunch of fresh vegetables, clean them, peel them, chop them, cook them, and then clean a sinkful of dishes…. or I could buy a cheeseburger for 99 cents and throw it all away. With everyone so busy these days, which do you choose?

Then there’s the supply-and-demand argument. Are we eating junk food because it’s cheap? Or is it cheap because we demand it so much that there is more competition and economies of scale? Give me my 17 types of tortilla chips! On the hopeful side, organic food is getting cheaper too.

Finally, the biggest problem with all this talk about food is that now I’m hungry again! You wanna go grab some food?