What are you eating during a recession?

Whoa man! The recession is like totally upon us! What am I going to eat for dinner? I think I will head to the local store and stock up on some shrimp, fettuccine, Now & Laters, Miller High Life and some pasta sauce. These wonderful staples represent the foods that the Nielsen research company identified in a recent study as the most recession proof foods. In order to find out exactly which goods rank the highest on Maslow's hierarchy of needs during a recession, the researchers looked at the performance of certain food goods during past recessions.

During this study they also found out which items are the most susceptible to a tanking economy. These include items such as pop, eggs and cigarettes, as well as food storage items and plates. I can definitely understand the drop off in cigarettes and pop but the egg avoidance in particular stands out as a shocker. Since eggs seem like an excellent source of low cost protein I can only guess that the downturn could be attributed to more people foregoing breakfast or switching to store brand dry cereal, though cereal doesn't show up as a recession proof good.

While I do find the selection of goods which weather a recession well surprising in some areas, I can get behind the fact that when times get tough, people can rationalize an item such as beer as an escape or even picking up a king size candy bar as a cheap meal replacement. We haven't altered our food intake significantly in any of these areas. Since it is summer time we have been "feasting" on cheap chicken and sales on beef products for grilling at our local stores. We have also been eating more salad, which can be had pretty cheap, and lunching on any leftovers.

Has the economic downturn affected your diet yet? What foods will you run to and what will your holdouts be?