America is one of the most obese countries on the planet. I think a lot of people want to be healthier, but it is not that easy.
A lot of people think that if they want to be healthy they have to exercise rigorously and that alone will get them the results they desire.
However, these desired results require you to eat healthy too. The problem with that is the fact that, not only is it hard to stick to eating healthy but it’s not cheap to eat healthy.
It is so widely advertised that people need to be try and be healthier, and in general people want to be healthy and look “good.” Because of this, one would hope that getting food that is good for you would be easy and relatively inexpensive, but that is not the case.
Healthy food is not only pricey, but it tends to expire sooner. Fruit like apples and bananas bruise within a week or so. Yogurt curdles and turns sour after about the same amount of time. Logically; why spend the money on something when if you don’t rush to eat it, it will go bad?
In comparison, food that is not as healthy lasts much longer. You could have a box of cookies in your pantry for a month and they will still taste great when you open them up. Boxed food like mac and cheese lasts forever, and canned foods almost never expire. It is hard to justify, when grocery shopping, purchasing a bushel of apples as opposed to purchasing a box of Oreos or Pop Tarts.
Naturally, Americans fall into the habit of eating unhealthy foods because of the convenience. You could have box of Peanut Butter Cap’n Crunch for two months and when you eat the last bowl it still will taste good. Once they finally decide they want to change their eating habits they see the prices and it just makes it more difficult for people to start being healthy.
To add to that, it is not like there are a lot of crazy sales on healthy foods. Rarely, if ever, could you walk into a Wegmans and see heads of lettuce buy one get one half off, or bags of green beans two for ten.
That is almost laughable to think about, because it does not happen.
Unhealthy foods however, are often on sale. Two cans of Pringles for three dollars sounds so much better to me than a bag of carrots for five dollars.
It would make it a lot easier for people to eat healthy if these foods cost less. Society urges Americans to eat better but then stores charge entirely too much money for the foods that we need to eat to be healthy.
Elyse Kuhn is a Staff Writer for the Bona Venture. Her email is kuhnee16@bonaventure.edu
