The country is ridden with health care costs. Many pundits blame America’s obesity problem. I try to write as many posts to help people to exercise more and eat healthier.
Cost of Healthy
Immediate Satisfaction of Low Cost
But where’s the incentive to be healthy? I think the source of people being unhealthy is the fact that consumer good prices don’t make it easy for most people to see the direct reward and benefit of eating healthy. Of course being healthy has a lot of long term benefits. Like spending more on fresher and healthier foods today to save on ailments and medical costs in the future. But as humans have always been focused on the immediate satisfaction, the upfront costs make people move away from being healthier sooner rather than later.
Unhealthy foods are Cheaper
Take shopping for groceries as an example. When I go to the market I noticed these things:
1. A loaf of 100% whole wheat bread is $4.69 vs. $1.50 for a loaf of enriched white bread
2. A bottle of water costs around $2 a bottle, when a beer only costs $1.50 a bottle when buying a 6 pack.
3. An 8 lb bag of Brown rice costs around $10 ($.80 / lb), where a 50 lb bag of white rice costs $25 ($.60 / lb)
Fast food vs. Dining
Ok, some of my prices may not be exact and I’m sure you can find variances. But my point is that it just costs more to eat healthier. Like going out to eat for instance. You can get a In-n-Out double double cheesburger for under $4, but it will cost you $15 if you want to eat healthy baked salmon with a side of asparagus at Macaroni Grill.
Affordable and Sensible Health for All
So with the economy going tough and people having less money to spend, the masses are eating cheaper, faster and less healthy foods. If we want to solve America’s obesity problem for all citizens, we need to make healthy foods affordable and a choice that makes sense vs. buying the cheaper/unhealthy alternative. Healthy foods shouldn’t be just “premium quality” foods we pay more at those specialty super markets, it should be an affordable standard.
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