My family is healthy all the time... We always make sure to eat right because we have a history of diabetes in our family, so we work hard to prevent that from continuing.

I don't know.  They didn't have as much cheap, crappy food during the Depression (for example).  While it would be nice to think that people are going to stay home and make nutritious home-cooked meals, I'm guessing that most will just buy whatever's cheap... whether they take it home to prepare it or not.

I never eat fast food, and I rarely eat out.  Most of what I eat is home-cooked and pretty healthy.  So I don't think the economy will affect my health that much.

I think its a mixture, really. Some people will take the route of eating basic things. Health cereal, oatmeal, apples, bananas (the cheapest fruits that I know of!), a meat serving or two, potatoes, etc. The people that can cook cheaply AND eat healthy are probably healthier.

Then theres the people that just buy hot dogs,buns, and mac & cheese. They will likely get fatter.

THEN theres the people that lose weight (not necessarily get healthier) because they are eating less. This is me. I have been eating A LOT less because of money issues, but what I am eating is healthy (moderately so). I have also been taking a vitamin, because I cant afford all of my health food anymore, I take vitamins to supplement that.

Last year my boyfriend and I didn't have any money, so we lived off ramen and cereal. He actually lost 50 pounds, but sadly he lost all of his muscle and became pretty weak.

I dont think anyone can say for sure whether or not economic troubles will make us healthier, or even unhealthier. I would put all of my bets on the unhealthy aspect though.

@peacelove__CALLIE@xanga - You could get cheap source of protein in just about anything.  Once in awhile you'll find clearance items at grocery store's meat section... (where the meat suppose to "expire" on that date... Honestly I've worked at restaurants before, and the date on those things can be ignore if you handle meat properly. Chicken as low as 99cent a pound sometimes if not cheaper.  You could always freeze the meat and use when needs to.

Ramen is cheap, but it's also really high in sodium... but that's a dollar a day spending, so nothing really beats that if you want to be cheap.

One tip for breakfast is to use oatmeal instead of cereals.  You could buy oatmeal in bulk, raisins in bulk, then just a scoop of each in the bowl, add milk... and breakfast is served!   It's cheaper than buying boxed cereals and much more healthier.

Oh, and I would spend that extra dollar for brown rice, just because it's more filling than white rice, and healthier.

It depends on the area, options available to the people, and the people's stubborn-ness...preferences...and opinions on food.
 Without these variables, generalizing that the nation will be healthier or less healthy becomes somewhat foolish.

Where it's rural, I'll hazard to guess that yes...people'll be healthier as a rule -- especially if they're not homeless.
 But the farther away you get from fresh food, the most expensive it tends to become, and processed foods and foods with little nutritional value compete for the cheapest food spots in the grocery stores.
 I'll hazard to guess that in many cities, people will actually be less healthy because they can only afford bad foods.

We're rural and we're actually more healthy now than any other time in our lives. We rarely went out for fast food before, and since we're growing most of our food...there's no real incentive to start now.

@thickveggiegirl@xanga - That's a generalization that I've found isn't true as often as we think. I'm aware I made a few generalizations above myself...but I acknowledge that variables change everything too -- the more rural you are, the more fresh and healthy food is available and for cheap. Especially if you buy directly from your neighbors (the farmers) or go to farmer's markets, CSA's, and flea markets that support local growers. It depends how far away good food is, that determines the price. Since the process that most non-healthy food goes through has seem extreme ups and downs throughout 2008 and the current times (mostly due to oil and now other factors are playng big roles)...they've been forced to hike up their prices and the incentives for organics and such has increased which allows them to hike DOWN their prices and make a killing for the first time in a long time. It all depends. Because of the economy, I've chosen to make my business organic farming on a small scale...and I'll be selling at flea markets, bartering with the locals, and going to farmer's markets this summer...these trends are very important to me, so I read alot about them.

We were actually poor for several years, and we've always been frugal...and this is basically what we've done for years, only now the prospects of it are brighter than ever for us out in the middle of nowhere.

People are lazy, and will do what they can to get what they want.  If this is fast food, then that's what they'll eat.  

Makes sense. Take our already-fat-country.... give us problems (ie. economic slide) and thus we stress.... (if you're like me) when we stress, we tend not to eat excessively soas to fixate our time upon creating resolutions or compromises to our problems.

funny.  i recently read an article that said poor people are getting fatter during the current economy.  the reason might be that since people are "poor" (which in this case im just going to think of people without a job) that all they do everyday is sit in front of the tv and eat thus their gaining weight.  eating healthier or not still requires money to buy the food and cook.  the economy doesnt really get to me in terms of what i eat and sometimes i eat at my aunts and cousins house so it saves me money.  since the economy is bad and a lot of people are losing their jobs, their going to eat more junk food cause their sad and depressed but not everybody is going to eat and eat what based on how they feel.  i thought fast food was cheaper...