Cramer's 'Mad Money' Recap: Food-Stock Rally Could Mean Agita

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Food companies' stocks are going up, and that doesn't bode well for the economy, said Jim Cramer Tuesday on his "Mad Money" TV show.

The last time food stocks went up as a group, said Cramer, was the spring of 2000, when the Federal Reserve took interest rates too high and the economy started to fall apart. Cyclical stocks such as the chemicals, paper and steel suffer when the economy is poor. Food stocks, on the other hand, have consistent growth regardless of economic conditions, and they will do relatively well in a slowing economy, Cramer said.

Among the food stocks, Cramer's favorites are General Mills (GIS), Altria (MO) and Unilever (UN).

As for the cyclicals, Cramer said, "I am issuing a triple sell on most of the cyclicals, with the exception of Caterpillar (CAT), Ingersoll-Rand (IR) and my favorite, Boeing (BA) because aerospace is for real."

In response to a question about Starbucks (SBUX) in a slowing economic environment, Cramer said "the price of coffee is going up" and that Starbucks' coffee is "too expensive" to be recession-proof.

Commenting on alcoholic beverage companies, Cramer said beer sales have been slow for some time. Thus, he does not recommend Anheuser-Busch (BUD). He is also hearing lately that wine sales have slowed. So he is concerned about sales of wine and even high-end spirits, and would not recommend either Fortune Brands (FO) or Brown-Forman (BFB).