That Costs How Much? Guide To Groceries In Utah

Believe it or not, groceries in Utah are pretty darn cheap. Well, they can be, and that's in comparison to other local states.

But if you are looking for a way to save some money and bring your monthly expenditures in under budget, groceries can be a real key.

On average, Utahns spend about $260 per person per month on groceries.

So a family of four spends a little over $1,040 every month on food in Utah.

Meanwhile, in California or even in neighboring Nevada, that average goes up, up up. In Nevada the average per person grocery cost is $293 and in California, that number is $322. That's nearly $1,200 a month for a family of four in Nevada and nearly $1,300 in the Golden State.

Utah is currently 46th in the nation for cost of groceries (not surprisingly, Hawaii is the most expensive at $556 a month).

So shopping for food in Utah is definitely a positive compared to the rest of the west (we even beat out Idaho).

But one of the biggest factors when it comes to food and budgeting is eating out.

Americans love to go out to eat despite the somewhat shocking amount of of money it costs.

Even if we have just one meal (maybe lunch at work) out per weekday, and then go out once on the weekend with our family, the food bill more than triples from $1,040 to $2,940 --  and that's a modest estimate of just $10 for lunch and $75 for dinner four times a month.

So next time you look at your budget -- and especially if the bills are outgaining the income -- seriously consider brown-bagging it for lunch.

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When Did Crossing The Street In Utah Become So Deadly?

Making national news is not necessarily a good thing for Southern Utah.

Recent stories from our neck of the woods to make national headlines include the heartbreaking murder-suicide in Enoch (eight people dead!), the battle over water rights with other Western states, and just this week, two siblings being killed less than 48 hours apart at virtually the exact same location on North Bluff Street.

The odds that the two pedestrian victims were brother and sister are astronomical. But sadly, the odds of a pedestrian dying on the streets of Utah are not that long.

Just yesterday, in another auto-pedestrian accident, a jogger was killed in Logan, making it the 34th auto-pedestrian death in 2023.

"A pedestrian died Monday after she was hit by a truck in Logan. It happened on 14-hundred North early that evening, and the 58-year-old woman was taken to a hospital where she died of her injuries. According to officials, the woman had been jogging before she was hit, though investigators are still working to determine what led to the collision. The woman's death is the 34th auto-pedestrian fatality in Utah this year."

It's a disturbing trend for sure, but we are actually down this year from recent times.

In 2018, there were 37 pedestrian fatalities. In 2019 there were 42. In 2020, 36 pedestrians died in Utah and that number was 45 in 2021. Finally, the number jumped to 53 in 2022.

So we're actually a little better off this year with less than two months to go (although it's worth noting that eight of the 34 pedestrian deaths have happened in just the last three weeks).

Nevertheless, pedestrians being hit by cars is tragic.

One key fact that may be lost on some people is this: The leading known cause of pedestrian deaths is the pedestrian himself/herself being in the road when or where  they shouldn't be.

The No.2  cause? Crossing the street improperly or failure to use a crosswalk.

As much as we want to blame cars and drivers for these tragedies, the truth is that most (not all) of these deaths are the pedestrian's' fault.

Moral of the story: Use a crosswalk and stay out of the roadway (especially at night).

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Utah's Shame: 'A Man Who Hurts A Woman Is Not A Man At All'

A recent study showed Utah to be among one of the top states in per capita violence against women in a marital setting. The numbers are sobering. And disturbing.

Did you know in Utah 1 in 3 women experience some form of domestic abuse? That means more than 350,000 women in our beloved Beehive State have experienced or are currently experiencing violent domestic abuse.

Two years ago, on a horrific day during the summer of 2020, dispatchers across the state received 359 domestic violence calls in Utah. That was IN ONE DAY.

Call me old-fashioned, but I was raised to believe that it is never OK to hit a woman. Never.

My Dad never once even came close to raising a finger against my Mom. He used to tell me that it would be the dumbest thing a man could do. Why in the world would you even think about hurting the person you love most in this world?

"A man who hurts a woman," he said. "Is not a man at all."

On the AG Show today, I asked listeners why they believed this was happening in our state.

"A lot of people in the predominant religion believe men should rule the house, but leave out the part about ruling the house 'with your spouse, in righteousness.'"

One person texted into the show: "Andy ... full disclosure. I am a 69-year-old male, non-LDS, 4-year resident, married to an LDS woman. I would say the domestic violence vs. women is partially the result of the Church's teaching about male dominance in the household. Some take it as a dictatorship rather than a partnership. Seen overbearing husbands that belittle wives."

Honestly, if that happens, the husband has a fundamental misunderstanding of what his religion, his God, is asking of him. That is, in fact, exactly opposite of what is taught in the doctrine of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.

In the gospel that I believe in, women are to be honored, revered, counseled with, respected and loved.

Domestic abuse (and dictatorship) does none of this.

Another texter said: "My theory: there is a big difference between "self esteem" and a sense of self worth, that I don't have time to go into here. Many well-meaning parents have bought into the self-esteem nonsense which has resulted in a maturing generation of males who feel like everything has to go their way. Some females react by psychologically bullying each other while some males react by being physically aggressive."

Other callers speculated that the high rate of abuse has to do with the religious belief that divorce is a last resort, that marriage should be saved at all cost.

I'm here to tell all you wonderful women that if a man physically abuses you, that marriage is not worth "saving at all costs." There are always exceptions, but I believe if he'll do it once, he'll do it again.

Ladies, you don't have to take it.

And guys, don't do it. It's not OK. It's never OK.

Come on Utah, we have got to be better than this.

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Heart Of The Matter: What Makes Utahns Tick

Utahns have a lot of motivators, but in trying to decode what makes us tick -- what gets our motors running -- this is what we came up with on the Andy Griffin Show.

Here are the main motivators that we came up with:

1. Money -- This one is deceptive because money seeps into almost everything we do. Want to make the boss happy? To what end -- to get a promotion or raise. Want to make your spouse happy? "Hey dear, I got this for half price." Want to make your kids happy. Hand them 20 bucks. Money might be the root of all evil, as someone once famously said, but is also the root of (almost) all motivation.

2. Inner drive -- Money can affect this one, but it's so much more than that. Inner drive is the idea, as Jack said, that "I can always be better, learn more." Inner drive can actually have many motivating factors behind it, but there is something special about someone who just wants to get better and learn more.

3. Praise -- This is the early motivator for children. Every kid wants to hear, "I'm proud of you," or "Way to go." The thing is, some of us never really outgrow this motivator. Actually most of us don't. My Mom passed away a couple of years ago, and I'd give anything to hear her say she was proud of me one more time. Praise from a boss, spouse or even our kids and grandkids can go a long toward getting us to try harder or do better.

4. Pride -- Closely tied into the "Praise" motivation, Pride has to do with wanting to do something great for the sake of doing something great. Of course money and inner drive also factor in here, but Pride in a job well done can be a huge factor in and of itself. Most real artists don't create something to receive praise or sell the piece of art for a lot of money. Rather, they do it because there is something great inside of them that they want to create on the outside. To them, it doesn't much matter what the rest of the world thinks.

5. To be the best -- This motivation often comes after several of the others, sometimes before. But make no mistake, it is a strong motivator. I started off in radio wanting to be the best. I knew I would never be the best football player, or the best post player in basketball, or the best racquetballer. I tried, got pretty good at those, but came to the realization that I was never going to reach the top or even come close. But broadcasting and writing came naturally to me. I knew if I developed those talents, I had the opportunity to be the best. If not in the world, at least in my world. Of course, I now know that "the best" is mostly a fictitious, or more accurately, an objective achievement. But that didn't stop me from being motivated to try to be the best.

Ultimately, the real litmus test in motivation is this (according to Jack Lancaster):

"I always do this experiment in my head. If I had $30 million in the bank, what would I do with my time? When you really sit down and meditate on that ... it's a great test of what you really want. What would you do?"

Jack's answer was fairly simple. "I'd probably do a lot more fishing."

Mine was not as simple. I don't think I would change much. I'm not really a golfer. I don't fish. I love my job. I love spending time with my beloved wife. I love broadcasting games on the radio.

Nope, probably wouldn't change much.

But what a great question. What does motivate you?

If money were no object, what would you spend most of your time on?

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Diabetes and Pre-Diabetes In Utah: What You Need To Know

Type 1 diabetes used to be rare ... and it still is.

But Type 2 diabetes, the same blood-sugar disease but with a different cause, is not rare,

In fact, there's a good chance you know someone with Type 2 diabetes and an even better chance that you or someone you love has pre-diabetes and doesn't even know it.

November is Diabetes Awareness Month and also the birthday of the man who discovered a world-changing treatment for the disease (insulin) -- Sir. Frederik Banting.

You've probably heard the stories about how Banting, a research scientist, discovered insulin and the potential use it had for treating diabetes, how he could have been a millionaire, but flatly refused to patent the cure. His desire was for insulin to be cheap or free for all who suffered from diabetes.

He was later awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts.

The late Banting's birthday is Nov.14, now known as International Diabetes Day.

He passed away more than 80 years ago and doubtfully never could have seen this modern epidemic of Type 2 diabetes brought on by obesity and sugar consumption. Here are some staggering numbers (from diabetesresearch.org):

• 37.3 million people, or 11.3% of the U.S. population, have diabetes. An estimated 28.7 million people had diagnosed diabetes. Approximately 8.6 million people have diabetes but have not yet been diagnosed.
• 26.4 million people aged 65 years or older (48.8%) have prediabetes.
• Diabetes is the leading cause of new cases of blindness among adults aged 18–64 years.
• As many as 80 percent of people who have prediabetes don't know they have it.

Perhaps the best news about prediabetes is it's easily detectable (the Southwest Utah Public Health Department has a $25 test available now and will be offering the test for free Nov. 13-22).

The other good news is that you can actually prevent the onset of Type 2 diabetes before it arrives by simply getting in better shape.

"Truthfully, if you are prediabetic and lose just 5- to 7-percent of your body weight, you can stop Type 2 diabetes before it ever arrives," said SWUPHD director Dr. David Blodgett.

That means a person weighing 200 pounds needs to lose just 10 pounds or so to prevent this crippling infirmity.

So that's it, we can find out if we're getting diabetes with an easy (and free) test and we can stop it in its tracks with a little bit of diet and exercise.

The link to the prediabetes screening test on the SWUhealth.org website is here.

Some other scary diabetes facts:

• Diabetes was the seventh leading cause of death in the United States in 2017 based on the 83,564 death certificates in which diabetes was listed as the underlying cause of death.
• Diabetes was listed as the underlying or contributing cause of death on 270,702 death certificates in 2017.
• In 2017, the total estimated cost of diagnosed diabetes in the U.S. was $327 billion.
• Without insulin, the body’s cells would be starved, causing dehydration and destruction of body tissue.
• Many people with type 2 diabetes can control their blood glucose by following a healthy meal plan and a program of regular physical activity, losing excess weight, and taking medications.

Nartional Diabetes Foundation website