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Good food is expensive and many Americans can’t afford it. Part of the reality is that fresh food is not easily available, expensive and requires a modicum of s

Good food is expensive and many Americans can’t afford it. Part of the reality is that fresh food is not easily available, expensive and requires a modicum of skill to prepare into a meal. More Americans are dependent on processed food than ever. Except that processed food has declined in quality and nutritional value over the past few decades, primarily to keep costs under control. There are confounding factors but this is a key driver. As the world’s reserve currency, the USD does not experience inflation in the same manner as most other countries. Rather than food prices skyrocketing, quality and optionally portions are reduced to compensate for declining purchasing power.

mjbeswick 6y ago
That's not really true. Most diets are bad because of the crap they include, not because of expensive for that a person cannot afford. Most people's diets can be improved by simply removing sugar and alcohol!
closetnerd 6y ago
What's the data around "many"? How much of this is about accessibility? How much of this is about education? How much is making affordable going to solve the problem enough? I ask sincerely - but in transparency it does come from a sense that its not as much to do w/ cost as it seems to be from my perspective.
- netizen-9748 6y ago
  I'm aware there is research on what are referred to as "food deserts" where people who may not have reliable transportation are stuck with corner stores and fast food in their neighborhood. Unfortunately I can't point you toward any studies in particular but the research is out there.
nattaylor 6y ago
Do you have a good source for good food is expensive? I've heard this before, but it seems like plenty of "good" food is inexpensive like rice, beans, lentils, eggs, root veges, yogurt, oats and spinach.
FpUser 6y ago
One can be skinny on crappy food and obese on healthy. It is simply calories consumed vs calories spent bar few exceptions. And for increasingly more and more people stuffing themselves have become the only way to "get away from it all".
- mjbeswick 6y ago
  The big exception to that is when a diet it high in sugar, then you don't need quote so many extra calories to get fat; rather like the typical American sorry
bedhead 6y ago
"Good food is expensive" is a baseless claim I hear all the time. People could eat relatively healthy if they wanted to, but they don't. There are a bunch of reasons, but if I was forced to pick one it's that these big companies engineer their processed food to be addictive. It's insidious.
- Jtsummers 6y ago
  I mostly agree with what you say, but: > People could eat relatively healthy if they wanted to, but they don't. [emphasis added] It's not an issue of want. I've lived in a near food desert. I was in a relatively well-off part of a very poor part of town (many people lived without cars, high unemployment, etc.). The local grocer had god awful meat and produce (produce would spoil in 1-2 days of purchase, meat wasn't much better). To get good food I'd drive sometimes 10+ miles away and get, for the same list price, much better quality meat and vegetables. I wasn't breaking the bank, but I had access to a vehicle and the time to take to go make the purchase (the local grocer was only good, for me, for staples like dried beans, rice, and flour). The others living nearby without a car, or without the time/money to dedicate to that extra trip for groceries had to subsist on what was available locally, which meant often some very poor quality foods (with regard to health outcomes at least). Otherwise, I agree that good food is not expensive. I saved money and got healthier by spending less on food (chicken breast and ground beef at $2-3/pound, catch on sale days and freeze; rice and beans cost maybe $10/month as a single adult; a few key vegetables and fruits cost $5-10/week).
  - bedhead 6y ago
    I sympathize, seriously. "Food deserts" are real, but they're not a conspiracy...it's just capitalism. They're not economically viable in areas where too many people reject "good food" in favor of Big Macs. Food deserts are a symptom of my point: people are choosing (or are addicted to) processed food.
    - Jtsummers 6y ago
      The causation you're indicating is not clear at all to me. You seem to be saying, "Poor people prefer Big Macs therefore that's what they get, and no grocery stores." But an equally valid observation is that the lack of grocery stores and the presence of fast food and gas stations/corner stores produce an apparent preference without indicating a real preference.
ssutch3 6y ago
There are other contributing factors as well, intrinsically linked to the evolving social/economics dynamics in our society. For example, it's now much more common for families to have two working parents, and thus less time to prepare nutritionally complete food from scratch. So people naturally gravitate toward engineered food which is easier to prepare, but less "good" as food. There are many other similar effects that lead to Americans eating more/poorer food like advertising, school lunches, etc, but the deck is definitely stacked against this world to reverse the obesity epidemic.
PlsDontBan 6y ago
I don't buy that explanation at all. The underlying assumption here seems to be something like this: "Everyone eats X calories per day. If those calories are "healthy food" they will get fat, and if those calories are "unhealthy food" they will not get fat." That simply isn't the way things work. One calorie of a McDonalds milkshake is interchangeable with one calorie of broccoli with respect to how much weight it causes you to gain. The reason that people in this country are too fat is because we have a culture that enjoys eating too much. This is incredibly obvious to me as a person who has had to lose 100+ pounds before. I atomically facepalm every time I have conversations with obese family members who have blatant misconceptions about physical fitness. There's certainly a lack of education and understanding of this issue in America. It's a damn shame that we have not solved this problem. Furthermore, the reason why poor people (and yes, that disproportionately includes minority groups) tend to have higher rates of obesity is not that they don't have access to healthy food. The whole notion that it is possible to be "fat because of poverty" is absolutely absurd because an obese person always has the option of simply eating less. The true reason why poor people tend to be fat at higher rates America is because low class people universally have a certain mindset. This mindset is characterized by not having the discipline to reject good things when they are presented. It's just like how a poor person who is given a large amount of money becomes "hood rich" while a person who was born into a rich family was taught from an early age how to control themselves when it comes to spending money.
snomad 6y ago
It is not simply that the USD is the reserve currency; the US has also changed how it measures CPI (to the benefit of the government and detriment of those on social security). This investopedia article is a pretty good summary https://www.investopedia.com/articles/07/consumerpriceindex.asp https://www.investopedia.com/articles/07/consumerpriceindex....

mjbeswick 6y ago

That's not really true. Most diets are bad because of the crap they include, not because of expensive for that a person cannot afford. Most people's diets can be improved by simply removing sugar and alcohol!

closetnerd 6y ago

What's the data around "many"? How much of this is about accessibility? How much of this is about education? How much is making affordable going to solve the problem enough? I ask sincerely - but in transparency it does come from a sense that its not as much to do w/ cost as it seems to be from my perspective.

netizen-9748 6y ago
I'm aware there is research on what are referred to as "food deserts" where people who may not have reliable transportation are stuck with corner stores and fast food in their neighborhood. Unfortunately I can't point you toward any studies in particular but the research is out there.

nattaylor 6y ago

Do you have a good source for good food is expensive? I've heard this before, but it seems like plenty of "good" food is inexpensive like rice, beans, lentils, eggs, root veges, yogurt, oats and spinach.

FpUser 6y ago

One can be skinny on crappy food and obese on healthy. It is simply calories consumed vs calories spent bar few exceptions. And for increasingly more and more people stuffing themselves have become the only way to "get away from it all".

mjbeswick 6y ago
The big exception to that is when a diet it high in sugar, then you don't need quote so many extra calories to get fat; rather like the typical American sorry

bedhead 6y ago

"Good food is expensive" is a baseless claim I hear all the time. People could eat relatively healthy if they wanted to, but they don't. There are a bunch of reasons, but if I was forced to pick one it's that these big companies engineer their processed food to be addictive. It's insidious.

Jtsummers 6y ago
I mostly agree with what you say, but: > People could eat relatively healthy if they wanted to, but they don't. [emphasis added] It's not an issue of want. I've lived in a near food desert. I was in a relatively well-off part of a very poor part of town (many people lived without cars, high unemployment, etc.). The local grocer had god awful meat and produce (produce would spoil in 1-2 days of purchase, meat wasn't much better). To get good food I'd drive sometimes 10+ miles away and get, for the same list price, much better quality meat and vegetables. I wasn't breaking the bank, but I had access to a vehicle and the time to take to go make the purchase (the local grocer was only good, for me, for staples like dried beans, rice, and flour). The others living nearby without a car, or without the time/money to dedicate to that extra trip for groceries had to subsist on what was available locally, which meant often some very poor quality foods (with regard to health outcomes at least). Otherwise, I agree that good food is not expensive. I saved money and got healthier by spending less on food (chicken breast and ground beef at $2-3/pound, catch on sale days and freeze; rice and beans cost maybe $10/month as a single adult; a few key vegetables and fruits cost $5-10/week).
- bedhead 6y ago
  I sympathize, seriously. "Food deserts" are real, but they're not a conspiracy...it's just capitalism. They're not economically viable in areas where too many people reject "good food" in favor of Big Macs. Food deserts are a symptom of my point: people are choosing (or are addicted to) processed food.
  - Jtsummers 6y ago
    The causation you're indicating is not clear at all to me. You seem to be saying, "Poor people prefer Big Macs therefore that's what they get, and no grocery stores." But an equally valid observation is that the lack of grocery stores and the presence of fast food and gas stations/corner stores produce an apparent preference without indicating a real preference.

ssutch3 6y ago

There are other contributing factors as well, intrinsically linked to the evolving social/economics dynamics in our society. For example, it's now much more common for families to have two working parents, and thus less time to prepare nutritionally complete food from scratch. So people naturally gravitate toward engineered food which is easier to prepare, but less "good" as food. There are many other similar effects that lead to Americans eating more/poorer food like advertising, school lunches, etc, but the deck is definitely stacked against this world to reverse the obesity epidemic.

PlsDontBan 6y ago

I don't buy that explanation at all. The underlying assumption here seems to be something like this: "Everyone eats X calories per day. If those calories are "healthy food" they will get fat, and if those calories are "unhealthy food" they will not get fat." That simply isn't the way things work. One calorie of a McDonalds milkshake is interchangeable with one calorie of broccoli with respect to how much weight it causes you to gain. The reason that people in this country are too fat is because we have a culture that enjoys eating too much. This is incredibly obvious to me as a person who has had to lose 100+ pounds before. I atomically facepalm every time I have conversations with obese family members who have blatant misconceptions about physical fitness. There's certainly a lack of education and understanding of this issue in America. It's a damn shame that we have not solved this problem. Furthermore, the reason why poor people (and yes, that disproportionately includes minority groups) tend to have higher rates of obesity is not that they don't have access to healthy food. The whole notion that it is possible to be "fat because of poverty" is absolutely absurd because an obese person always has the option of simply eating less. The true reason why poor people tend to be fat at higher rates America is because low class people universally have a certain mindset. This mindset is characterized by not having the discipline to reject good things when they are presented. It's just like how a poor person who is given a large amount of money becomes "hood rich" while a person who was born into a rich family was taught from an early age how to control themselves when it comes to spending money.

snomad 6y ago

It is not simply that the USD is the reserve currency; the US has also changed how it measures CPI (to the benefit of the government and detriment of those on social security). This investopedia article is a pretty good summary https://www.investopedia.com/articles/07/consumerpriceindex.asp https://www.investopedia.com/articles/07/consumerpriceindex....