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Richmonders Love Junk Food

Seriously, does this news come as any surprise? Richmond is the city, after all, with the 18th highest obesity rate among major American cities, a city that Dunkin' Donuts has targeted as a lucrative growth market. (See " A Fat Market for Donuts .")

Now Tammie Smith with the Times-Dispatch reports that Richmond-area residents spend about 11.45 percent of their annual grocery bills on junk foods such as frozen pizza, cookies, sausage and ice cream. Richmond ranks number two in the country for share of grocery purchases on unhealthy food, according to data compiled by Florida-based Catalina Marketing , which analyzed buying habits at 17,000 grocery stores nationally.

While abundant anecdotal information supports the notion that Richmond has way too many lard butts, the Catalina data should be taken with a grain of salt -- or, perhaps, a bag of salt-laden pretzels. The data come from major chains like Food Lion and Kroger , but excludes Ukrop's Super Markets , which has the largest market share of any chain in the Richmond market. Insofar as Ukrop's caters to more affluent shoppers who watch their diets, Richmond may be getting a bum (pun intended) rap.

The national average for junk food expenditures is 8.5 percent. Cities in the Northeast spent the least. Shoppers in Providence, R.I., for example, average only 2 percent. (A Google search does reveal, however, that there are four Dunkin' Donuts stores in Providence's urban core!)

Smith queried local health experts as to why Richmonders may have such a predilection for unhealthy good. "I think the biggest reason why it's so difficult for people to shop is there is so much information they are bombarded with," said Yedda Stancil , president of the Center of Integrative Medicine in Richmond. "They are trying to think, how many calories, how many grams of fat, how about sodium. It can be such a daunting task."

What? Are you kidding me? It doesn't take a friggin' degree in nutrition to know that Hostess Ho Hos, Fritos and Cheez Whiz will load you up with junk calories! The people who are checking out cartloads of Twinkies, Cheetos and onion dip are not trying to read the nutritional labels! The problem is, people don't care!