Every day I always try to enlighten myself by skimming the news headlines on CNN, LA Times, and Yahoo. Although Yahoo provides a lot more lifestyle stories, I like to read these articles to keep me up to date on other news, just not headline, breaking news. Stumbling this morning, I came across an article titled What Does It Mean to Be Poor In America? What really stood out to me was this fact:
"According to a U.S. Department of Agriculture report released this month, 14.5 percent of American households--more than 17.2 million households, in all--were defined as "food insecure" last year. That means that poor households lacked sufficient money or other resources to obtain access to adequate food supplies. Among those with incomes near or below the poverty line, rates of food insecurity were said to be "substantially higher."
To think that, that this many American are considered "food insecure" but rather when you look around, you notice the lower-income families are generally considered fat. To me, this made no sense at all. If you were poor, how on earth would you be able to afford food. Researching further into this topic, I learned, if you were poor, you were not able to afford healthy food.
Upon reading about an experiment done by Dr. Adam Drewnowski, with a hypothetical dollar at the grocery store, he found you can buy well over 1,000 calories of cookies or potato chips. But a dollar would only buy 250 calories of carrots. A dollar could buy almost 900 calories of soda… but only 170 calories of orange juice. It is so much cheaper to buy very processed, packaged foods instead of organic, healthy, natural foods.
HOW DOES THIS EVEN MAKE SENSE?
Michael Pollan, a professor at the University of California Berkley went on to ask that same question and discover the answer. (I highly recommend reading Feed Me*, this fantastic article on Pollan's works) He, like Dr. Drewnowski, discovered it was the fattest foods that is the cheapest. So if you only had $5, would you want to buy a head of lettuce and some carrots or a value meal at McDonalds?
This really opened my eyes to food prices and there is a tremendous difference between healthy and process foods. It is unfortunate that we have to pay so much more money for foods that are better for us but if you think about it, it takes a lot of work to harvest fruits and vegetables and farmers really do not get paid that much.
I guess the real question is, how much are you willing to pay for healthier foods? Is it worth it? What should these poor people do?
Hey
ReplyDeleteI really liked your post here. It was thought provoking and didn't sound preachy...It reminded me of how expensive whole foods is..aha It sucks but I love their stuff!
Really though, why is healthier food so much more expensive? Honestly, I think the food industry is so cluttered with marketers capitalizing on this healthy food/whole grain/zero trans fats/etc craze that they are all hiking up prices knowing that consumers are willing to pay more for "premium" products. It's sad if you think about it, that you can get a "meal" at McDonald's for under $5 when you can barely buy a bag of organic apples for the same price. Also, this fast food culture seems like such an American concept - countries around the world in Asia and Europe don't seem to binge on unhealthy foods quite like us in the US. There needs to be a culture change, and I'm not sure where this begins because it seems that with the poor/rich divide, there is an obvious divide in food consumption culture as well.
ReplyDeleteGreat read, Elizabeth!
What a blog Ms. Ng! I agree that people with lower budgets are in a predicament- a Catch-22 if you will. For many poor individuals (and college students) it seems that it would be more important to be full then to care if you're getting the full vitamin content important to a healthy lifestyle. In addition, fast food is in general "fast" and therefore saves time instead of having to cook full course healthy meals. When time is valuable, fast food is that much more appealing. I know for myself personally, the appeal of a Freebirds Burrito and a 5 min wait much outweighs trying to cook a more healthy meal. Especially when there are many other things I want to do. One possible solution is places like SaladFarm which are relatively healthy, fairly priced, and rather quick. Thanks for bringing this to our attention!
ReplyDeleteGood post, it really highlights the problem that many of the lower income families face. As a student at USC, I have witnessed much of this first hand. I'd go as far as to say that areas such as those around USC are food deserts, where people don't have easy access to healthy foods. Not only that, but many of the lower income families aren't willing or aren't able to afford to pay the higher prices that healthy foods sometimes demand. I think part of the responsibility lies with the City, in that they should encourage healthier stores / restaurants to come to these food deserts when possible, through either tax breaks or some other alternative incentive.
ReplyDeleteGreat post.
ReplyDeleteAs America is getting more and more clogged arteries, we keep on raising the food prices for healthier food. This is ridiculous.
Actually, I over heard homeless couple talking a while ago and they were ver excited that pop there was a fast food chain selling one of their menus for only $1.99 over a specific period of time... Though, that food that they will be eating will only make them more fatigue, less happy, and more prone to obesity.
Carrots should absolutely not be more than a meal at a fast food chain and a carrot is better for all of us.
I feel the same, as a student at University, I have a tight wallet and always try to get some of the cheap options, which are usually the unhealthy ones... I don't know what we should do, more healthy government regulations? Better farmers markets? more availability of California grown products in the stores so the prices aren't so jacked up?
It definitely needs to change.