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I'm not sure why you're being down voted here but you're pretty close to correct. There have been many recent studies showing fast food really isn't cheaper tha
by xzel 9y ago
I'm not sure why you're being down voted here but you're pretty close to correct. There have been many recent studies showing fast food really isn't cheaper than buying other types of healthier food. It is pretty close because there are an incredible amount of low cost high calorie foods like beans, nuts, rice, cheap cuts of meat, the list goes on. Here is one from the UK Economic Affairs: https://iea.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/Cheap-as-Chips-PDF.pdf https://iea.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/Cheap-as-Chips...
The conclusion to save you a click:
Food in the UK has never been more affordable and healthy food is
generally cheaper than unhealthy food. A day’s diet that meets the
requirements of the Eatwell Guide can be purchased for less than the
price of two cheap supermarket ready-meals and for much less than a
single meal at a fast food chain. Switching to healthier versions of many
staple products can be achieved at no extra cost, and a wide range of
fruit, vegetables and carbohydrates can be bought in supermarkets for
less than £1 per kilogram. Five portions of fruit and vegetables can be
purchased for as little as 30p.
Some studies that have come to the opposite conclusion have used a
cost-per-calorie measure of food pricing which makes high-energy food
appear expensive regardless of the cost of a meal. Others have compared
a small selection of food products which are classified as ‘healthy’ or
‘unhealthy’ on the basis of relatively minor differences. By looking at the
cost by edible weight and studying the price of typical food portions, this
report has been able to make better comparisons between the cost of
healthy and unhealthy diets in Britain today.
We conclude that the real question is not why unhealthy food is so cheap
but why people consume unhealthy food despite it being more expensive.
The answer, we suggest, is that taste and convenience often play a larger
role in people’s food choices than price or nutritional quality.
- StanislavPetrov 9y ago>We conclude that the real question is not why unhealthy food is so cheap but why people consume unhealthy food despite it being more expensive. The answer, we suggest, is that taste and convenience often play a larger role in people’s food choices than price or nutritional quality. I suggest you consider the fact that many people in the US, especially in poor, urban areas live in "food deserts" where there are no supermarkets close by that sell healthy food at reasonable costs. http://americannutritionassociation.org/newsletter/usda-defines-food-deserts http://americannutritionassociation.org/newsletter/usda-defi... If you are poor and have no vehicle you depend on mass transit. This costs both money and time. If you are poor and lucky enough to have a job, its likely to be a low-paying job with a lengthy commute (in terms of time, bus and train transfers, if not in distance). This leaves you very little free time to spend half of a day for a lengthy trip outside of your food desert to get some fresh food. There is also the issue of bringing your groceries home. Have you ever tried to ride the bus or the train while carrying a bunch of packages, especially when it is crowded? How about transferring buses and trains while trying to carrying several packages? Do you have a proper kitchen? Many poor people don't. Proper storage facilities and equipment? Most poor people have roaches. These are just some of the collective obstacles faced by many poor people in terms of their access to fresh food.
- gozur88 9y ago>Lee also notes in her study that, on closer inspection, food deserts don’t actually exist in the U.S., at least not as a national problem—on average, poor neighborhoods have more grocery stores than wealthier neighborhoods. http://www.slate.com/articles/life/food/2014/02/food_deserts_and_fresh_food_access_aren_t_the_problem_poverty_not_obesity.html http://www.slate.com/articles/life/food/2014/02/food_deserts...
- chii 9y agoIt's more likely that unhealthy food is the one source of pleasure that a poor person can afford, and with all the troubles of their lives, they may find solice in eating the delicious junk. Healthy food either takes a bunch of effort, or don't taste very good (unless you couple it with some expensive condiments/spices).
- orangecat 9y agoThis is basically Scott Adams's "Pleasure Unit Theory", which I find very plausible: http://pratie.blogspot.com/2006/04/scott-adams-pleasure-unit-theory.html http://pratie.blogspot.com/2006/04/scott-adams-pleasure-unit... . If it's true, then developing healthy food that's convenient and tasty will do a lot more good than hectoring people about their bad decisions.
- anon151516888 9y agoWe can't fix everyone's problems. Hectoring may be bad, but at the end of the day a lot of change has to come from the people making bad decisions. Sacrifice for ones children should be the norm, otherwise they shouldn't be bringing them into such a suffering existence.
- gozur88 9y agoTasteful, healthy food doesn't take that much effort, but you do have to know a little bit about cooking.