The Cost of Junk Food vs. Healthy Food

I've been watching my sodium intake lately and just generally re-adjusting my eating habits. I'm not getting any younger and I just don't need the kind of junk I have unfortunately spent too much time putting into my body over the years.

I lost a lot of weight three years ago, thanks to a boot camp program, and then I supplemented that with lots of bike riding. But I have put some of that weight back on and that doesn't make me very happy.

Do you know what else doesn't make me very happy? The ridiculous chasm between the price of healthy food and the price of junk food, or at the very least the kind of food that has FAR fewer health benefits.

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And you'd think, by now, after all the bleak obesity statistics we've seen year in and year out, somebody would have figured out how to fix this. I mean, check out the Centers for Disease Control graphic below. You'll notice that Kentucky and Indiana are in the red zone.

CDC.gov

But when people are barely scraping by, they can't afford to shop in the "special" aisles at their favorite supermarkets because the prices are comparatively outrageous.

There's a meme circulating--maybe you've seen it; I can't post it here--that features a picture of an order of French fries next to a container of cut melon. Under the fries, it says "$1.00" and under the fruit, it says "$5.99." Above the images, it reads "The Problem with Our Food System."

And it's a big problem when SIX orders of French fries equals one container of healthy fruit. That's ridiculous.

On its website, The Plutus Foundation reiterates the proper dietary suggestions set forth by Health.gov in its comprehensive online guidebook.

And while chicken and some fish don't EXACTLY cost an arm and a leg, it's quite a challenge to find reasonably affordable selections in the other categories.

YES, Kentucky and Indiana, and the nation, as a whole, need to eat better. But somebody HAS to figure out how these prices can come down.

The sooner the better.