January 22, 2010 – Tight budget is not synonymous with prepared meals, reveals a study by the Public Health Department of the Montreal Health and Social Services Agency1. The 50 or so focus group participants – from low-income families2 – in fact said that they cook regularly and use staple foods rather than commercial preparations. This result surprised the researchers, who expected less cooking skills in those families where meals are often reported to be poorly diversified.
To explore what happens in low-income families where parents don’t like to cook, the researchers created other focus groups. They recruited 15 participants. The portrait that emerges is quite different. In these families, 1 in 2 meals is made up of commercial preparations. The impact on the wallet is large: the daily cost of food expenditure per person is $ 6.49 in these families, while it is only $ 4.88 in low-income families where one is food. In addition, the frequent use of prepared meals may lead to nutritional deficiencies, the researchers point out.
Dietary deficiencies: fears
Researchers still fear dietary deficiencies in low-income families who cook regularly. According to the “Nutritious Food Basket” (PPN, see box below), the minimum cost to feed a person healthily in Montreal is $ 6.76 per day (amount revised in September 2009). However, low-income families who cook spend an average of $ 2 less than this amount ($ 4.88 per day per person), which raises concerns about nutritional deficiencies, the researchers point out. This result is consistent with a study by the Montreal Diet Dispensary published in 2007. We learned that 1 in 4 Montreal families (22.7%) did not have the means to eat healthily.3.
In families where there is little cooking, the amount is closer to the NPP ($ 6.49 compared to $ 6.76 for the PPN). But because their grocery cart contains many prepared foods, researchers believe the nutritional value of their food may be even less than that of poor families who cook.
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Nutritious Food Basket (PPN) Since 1950, the Montreal Diet Dispensary has calculated the minimum price for eating well in Montreal. Based on the price of nutritious elementary foods, it establishes the “Nutritious Food Basket”, or NPP. The last assessment, made in September 2009, established the NPP at $ 6.76 per person per day. |
Recommendations to help low-income families
For low-income families to be successful in feeding themselves better, policymakers will need to act on several fronts, insist the authors of the report. They suggest in particular:
- improve access to healthy, fresh and inexpensive food, in particular through local shops and agreements with local producers;
- to develop a food culture among young people, since their knowledge of food and their appreciation of dishes seem to encourage the purchase of healthy foods;
- help managers of low-income families improve their cooking and budgeting skills, for example by sending them booklets of recipes or tips for eating well, at low cost.
Marie-Hélène Croisetière – PasseportSanté.net
1. Summary report: Food-related practices and perceptions: what we learn from low-income families, Public health department of the Montreal Health and Social Services Agency. December 2009. For more details: www.santepub-mtl.qc.ca. To consult the press release: communiques.gouv.qc.ca//Janvier2010/21/c2809.html [Consultés le 22 janvier 2010].
2. Income not exceeding $ 30,000 per year.
3. For more on this, see our new Low-Cost Healthy Eating: A Mission Impossible.
