Your Grocery Store Is Trying to Kill You

Outsiders Club – by Jason Simpkins 

There’s a reason most grocery stores have pharmacies in them, and it’s not convenience.

It’s vertical integration.

They want to sell you the poison, and then sell you the cure — both in the same exact place.  

Worse, they specifically target poorer communities.

Indeed, a recent study by the Center for Disease Control found that the majority of coupons grocery stores offer are for high-calorie foods like crackers, chips, desserts, pre-packaged meals, and sugary drinks.

We’re not talking about manufacturer coupons, here. We’re talking about the online bargains and loyalty cards distributed by the actual food chains.

The study took into account 1,056 store coupons that were offered over a four-week period in April (when there wouldn’t be any added holiday discounts offered).

What it found was that snack foods, candies, and desserts got the largest proportion of discount offers at 25%. Second was microwave dinners with a 14%. They were followed by beverages — more than half of which were for sugary sodas, juices, and sports drinks — with 12%. Fully 10% were condiments like salad dressing and mayonnaise.

What proportion went to nutritious foods?

Well, just three percent went to vegetables and less than one percent went to fruits.

And just like cigarettes — which are also sold in grocery stores — it’s all about money.

Junk food has higher margins and is more profitable, so that’s what they want you to buy. If it means sacrificing your health, so be it. That’s what the in-store pharmacy is for.

Weeding Out the Poor

With food prices soaring, this phenomenon affects anyone who’s feeding a large family or just trying to keep their grocery bill down. But poor people are especially vulnerable because they’re forced to bargain shop.

The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) — which you may know as food stamps — provides just $4.50 per person per day. Anyone looking to fill themselves for $4.50 each day is going to have to take advantage of the sales offered by grocery stores, and that essentially means succumbing to a diet that is likely to cause diabetes or cancer.

And that’s not all.

Many studies have also shown that poor neighborhoods have less access to supermarkets, which limits consumers’ options.

Furthermore, a report by the Food Trust showed that produce quality is simply lower in low-income communities of color compared to more affluent or racially mixed neighborhoods.

For instance, in Albany, New York, 80% of nonwhite residents can’t find low-fat milk or high-fiber bread in their neighborhoods. And in my hometown of Baltimore, 46% of lower-income neighborhoods have limited access to healthy food (based on a healthy food availability survey) compared to just 13% of higher-income neighborhoods.

It’s not just cities, either.

In rural Mississippi, people living in “food desert” counties are 23% less likely to consume the recommended fruits and vegetables.

Cancerous Foods

Of course, it’s hard to just blame grocery stores.

We live in a country with a powerful food lobby that has fought to keep quality — and costs — down at the expense of our health.

Just look at the success companies that use genetically modified organisms (GMOs) have had in keeping their products from being labeled.

The Grocery Manufacturer’s Association — the mega-corp. lobbying group that represents 300 companies, including grocery stores — has campaigned to misinform and intimidate legislators with threats of lawsuits should they even attempt to back GMO labeling laws.

This is the same organization that is petitioning to allow GMOs to be considered “natural” on food packaging.

So what can you do?

Plan On Not Dying

Obviously, the best thing you can do is to grow your own food.

You can try to avoid GMOs — which have been linked to cancer — but that’s a costly, and hardly convenient, approach. It means buying certified organic and locally grown foods.

It would be easier to simply avoid other unhealthy products like soft drinks and microwave popcorn.

Also check ingredients.

It can be hard because food companies can be very deceptive with their recommended serving size and other tricks. But new labels are on the way. Try to avoid buying anything with an ingredient you can’t pronounce.

And finally, there’s another way, which is to buy the cure ahead of time.

I don’t want to sound callous, but if you know that food companies, grocery stores and the government have colluded to institutionalize sickness, then you might consider investing in drug companies.

There are companies out there are looking to fight cancer — not spread it.

You might as well help them.

And guess what?

They’re making money.

You might as well do that too.

It’ll help take some of the sting out of your weekly grocery bill when you buy healthy.

Get paid,

Jason Simpkins

Jason Simpkins is a seven-year veteran of the financial publishing industry, where he’s served as a reporter, analyst, investment strategist and prognosticator. He’s written more than 1,000 articles pertaining to personal finance and macroeconomics. Simpkins also served as the chief investment analyst for a trading service that focused exclusively on high-flying energy stocks. For more on Jason, check out his editor’s page.

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