Unhealthy food is much more affordable and available than healthy food
Did you know that over 35 percent of adults and 20 percent of the children between 2 and 19 years old in the United States are either obese or overweight? The main reason for this alarming rate of obesity in contemporary society is the increased presence of junk foods. From a definitional perspective, junk foods refer to food products without substantial nutritional value to the users. Junk foods are packaged or pre-prepared. For example, the pre-prepared junk foods incorporate the cooked products before the consumers make substantial order; thus, burgers, pizzas, French fries, and tacos among others. Alternatively, packaged junk foods emanate from the companies in diverse tins, wrappers, or bottles such as the carbonated drinks, chocolate, candy, and pastries. In the fast-paced society, junk foods (unhealthy foods) have become popular because they are highly convenient, as well as cheaper in comparison to the healthy foods at the disposal of the consumers (Cecchini, Sassi, Lauer, Lee, Guajardo-Barron, & Chisholm, 2010). Notably, healthy food choices should be more affordable and available for all to help tackle the growing cases of obesity in modern society.
Because of fast food, as well as corporate farming implications, the food market is a mess. It is ideal for society to go back to the local food, as well as organics to promote healthy eating practices and activities in modern society. According to reality, junk food is a cheaper and convenient option for most Americans. Junk foods are highly available. With the presence of the fast-food chains at every corner in a town, more and more people in the fast-paced society focus on optimizing the convenient and cheaper junk foods because of their busy schedules and increased commitment to their jobs or work expectations. Other than just being widely available, junk foods or unhealthy foods taste good (Kern, Auchincloss, Stehr, Diez Roux, Moore, Kanter, & Robinson, 2017). Consumers do not spend time in preparing for the food as they can acquire them from the chains. Amid all these, there is a growing perception among the consumers that healthy foods are more expensive compared to junk foods. Researchers believe that eating healthy foods is highly expensive. It is about three times as expensive as consuming junk foods at fast food chains (Tam, Yassa, Parker, O'Connor, & Allman-Farinelli, 2017). In making it worse, the price gap between healthy and unhealthy foods is widening. The increased price difference between healthy and unhealthy foods is the main contributor to the growing cases of food insecurity, as well as increasing aspects of health inequalities, thus, the growing deterioration in the health outcomes of the population. One of the reasons for increasing food poverty is the high cost of healthy options. The cost of healthy food is a reflection of the sociological problem rather than just an individual’s choice.
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Why is this a problem? Unhealthy foods are the main contributors to obesity in the context of the fast-paced society. Other than causing obesity, junk foods are elements of poor nutrition associated with high blood pressure. Junk foods also lead to high cholesterol, as well as heart disease and stroke among consumers. Food is an important component of the physical and mental health of the consumer; thus, the need to avoid consuming unhealthy foods or junk foods. Unhealthy foods also contribute to tooth decay, different types of cancer, and diabetes. These aspects contribute to the negative implications of the health outcomes within society. More and more people continue to spend more on healthcare costs rather than securing healthy foods, as well as ideal eating habits for their health. The society has more obese and overweight people because of the increased consumption of the convenient, widely available, tastier, and cheaper unhealthy foods compared to the consumption of the healthy foods, which consumers deem to the expensive.
How is it possible to address the issue? The answer is quite simple. The government should adopt and implement appropriate measures to make healthy food choices more affordable and available for all. In this aspect, consumers will have the chance to optimize education on nutrition while understanding the perception and need for healthy eating habits to consume the available healthy foods rather than go for the unhealthy foods or junk foods.
One of the ways of addressing this is to increase awareness through improved communication channels from the authoritative support agencies to increase the knowledge among the consumers on the consumption of healthy foods. In this aspect, education as an intervention approach is ideal in the improvement of the negative perceptions among the consumers on the affordability of healthy foods (Harrison, Lee, Findlay, Nicholls, Leonard, & Martin, 2010). There is also the improvement of access to the farm products as a win-win strategy for the consumers and producers.
The authorities should also achieve this by moving the markets to the consumer through eradication of the geographical barriers (Niebylski, Redburn, Duhaney, & Campbell, 2015). The approach will create room for the establishment of the distribution channels such as food hubs, which are accessible to more and more consumers. Over 20 million Americans tend to live in low-income towns, as well as rural neighborhoods, which are far away from the supermarkets. In such aspects, it is appropriate to consider taking the market to the people/consumers. Conclusively, in curbing the growing cases of obesity and other health issues emanating from increased consumption of tastier, convenient, cheaper, and widely available unhealthy foods, healthy food choices should be more affordable and available for all.
References
Cecchini, M., Sassi, F., Lauer, J. A., Lee, Y. Y., Guajardo-Barron, V., & Chisholm, D. (2010). Tackling of unhealthy diets, physical inactivity, and obesity: health effects and cost-effectiveness. The Lancet , 376 (9754), 1775-1784.
Harrison, M., Lee, A., Findlay, M., Nicholls, R., Leonard, D., & Martin, C. (2010). The increasing cost of healthy food. Australian and New Zealand Journal of Public Health , 34 (2), 179-186.
Kern, D., Auchincloss, A., Stehr, M., Diez Roux, A., Moore, L., Kanter, G., & Robinson, L. (2017). Neighborhood prices of healthier and unhealthier foods and associations with diet quality: Evidence from the multi-ethnic study of atherosclerosis. International journal of environmental research and public health , 14 (11), 1394.
Niebylski, M. L., Redburn, K. A., Duhaney, T., & Campbell, N. R. (2015). Healthy food subsidies and unhealthy food taxation: A systematic review of the evidence. Nutrition , 31 (6), 787-795.
Tam, R., Yassa, B., Parker, H., O'Connor, H., & Allman-Farinelli, M. (2017). University students' on-campus food purchasing behaviors, preferences, and opinions on food availability. Nutrition , 37 , 7-13.
