A new study from Customer Growth Partners shows that Americans feel pushed almost to the breaking point by soaring fuel and food prices.

"Energy is not quite as essential as food and water, but is a necessity in today's economy, and when gasoline costs more than bottled water — like now — then it takes a huge bite out of disposable spending," CEO Craig Johnson said in a research note, CNBC reports.

According to Johnson, five of the six U.S. recessions since 1970 have been linked to — and possibly triggered by — energy prices that crossed the 6 percent of personal consumption expenditures.

Gas prices keep climbing (Getty Photo)

Moreover, food prices have risen 6.5 since early January, making fuel cost increases even tougher to bear. During other recent recessions food costs made up only between 7.5 percent and 7.8 percent of consumer spending.

"The combined increase in the necessities of food and energy creates a harsh double whammy for already stressed consumers," says Johnson, adding that the last time this happened was in the recession that lasted from 1973 to 1975.

The New York Times reports that the latest New York Times/CBS News poll shows Americans are more pessimistic about the economic direction in which the country is moving than they have been at any time since President Barack Obama’s first two months in office, when the country was still officially ensnared in the Great Recession.