An overwhelming amount of processed food takes over almost every aisle of most grocery stores. Sugary cereals, salt-ridden snacks and frozen meals each take up their own corner of the store where they stand in neat lines waiting for someone to pick them up. Their low prices make them attractive to people on tight budgets.
Meanwhile, fruits and vegetables take up only a couple of aisles — sometimes just one — and are often not as cheap as their processed counterparts.
Processed foods are significantly cheaper than produce and other healthier alternatives. Add to that the low price of fast food, and the reasons why the United States has an obesity epidemic become clearer. The healthiest diet can cost people more than $550 a year than if they buy the unhealthiest food, according to The Huffington Post.
The prices for processed and healthy foods differ because of the logistics behind the operations. Fruits and vegetables need a quick turnaround from farm to store to plate. Meanwhile, processed food can stay on the shelves for months before they expire.
The difference is in the process, but it’s also in the profits. Farmers need to charge more for their produce to gain a profit, but manufacturers of processed food can make these products at such low costs that their low prices remain competitive and more profitable.
That, in part, can help them create variations of successful products and continue overflowing the store aisles with these products.
These prices especially affect low-income families. Parents have to provide for their families, but might not be able to get the most out of their limited funds if they get healthy foods like fruits and vegetables. Instead, processed foods — like snacks or even entire meals — give them a cheaper, although unhealthier, alternative.
Studies show that eating habits start in your early development. Kids aren’t naturally born liking vegetables but parents who consistently encourage their kids to eat the vegetables on their plate can condition their palate to liking these foods. But if your parents can’t afford healthy food when you are young, it can have an impact on the rest of your life.
If your parents feed you salt-ridden, processed foods as a young child, consumption of these as you grow older is likely going to increase. That means even if you grow up and can afford healthier options, you may not be as inclined to purchase them. At that point, you can’t always undo the damage that has already been done.
To be healthy in today’s society, you need money. Money to spend on fruits and vegetables, more expensive nutritious food and on products that don’t have added chemicals or hormones. But more importantly, you also need time. There’s time needed to go shopping more often because of the shorter shelf life of fruit and vegetables, time to exercise and keep an active lifestyle, and time to cook meals from scratch without processed foods.
Many Lehigh students aren’t from low-income families and so they could afford groceries that are healthier. Most people, however, don’t have the time to spend hours making dinner and instead buy processed foods because of the convenience. They’re fast, cheap and usually easy to prepare, which can be something necessary for college students even if their families are wealthy.
According to Michael Moss’s “Salt Sugar Fat: How the Food Giants Hooked Us,” as the workforce has grown in the U.S., more and more people have less time to spend preparing dinner the freezer aisle of easy-to-prepare foods has become the cornerstone to find convenience. Instead of slaving away in the kitchen for hours, these can be ready sooner by microwaving or putting them in the oven. Fast food chains also give the option of fast, convenient meals.
But why should people of a certain income be the only ones able to afford to have a healthy lifestyle?
It’s problematic that healthier alternatives are more expensive. Especially when you take into consideration the families who can’t afford these healthy alternatives can develop health problems because of their eating habits and have to spend even more money on doctor’s appointments and medical expenses.
So it’s difficult, expensive, time-consuming and inconvenient to have a healthy lifestyle, even though you may want to.
Has it become a sign of socio-economic status to be healthy?
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