On September 24, 2011 the NY Times published an article looking at whether or not junk food was cheaper than whole foods prepared at home. While it might seem like high calorie, nutritionally void foods are cheaper, the truth is that home cooked meals tend not only to be healthier, but cost less money.
There is also the argument that if you can drive to the nearest fast-food restaurant, you can just as easily drive to a grocery store. There are actually five fast food restaurants for every grocery store in the US. Similarly many say that it just takes too much time, but you could also use the time to cook instead of driving to dinner or waiting for something to be delivered.
“Once I look at what I’m eating,” says Dr. Kessler, “and realize it’s not food, and I ask ‘what am I doing here?’ that’s the start. It’s not about whether I think it’s good for me, it’s about changing how I feel. And we change how people feel by changing the environment.”
What will we need to bring about change? It looks like it will need to be two fold: cultural and political.
The cultural lies in celebrating real food; raising our children in homes that don’t program them for fast-produced, eaten-on-the-run, high-calorie, low-nutrition junk; giving them the gift of appreciating the pleasures of nourishing one another and enjoying that nourishment together.
Political action would mean agitating to limit the marketing of junk; forcing its makers to pay the true costs of production; recognizing that advertising for fast food is not the exercise of free speech but behavior manipulation of addictive substances; and making certain that real food is affordable and available to everyone. The political challenge is the more difficult one, but it cannot be ignored.
Want to eat healthy on a budget? The USDA Recommends the Three P's:
- Plan
- Purchase
- Prepare
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