It Takes Time To Chop Vegetables

The Gravel Kraken highlights some new research from USDA showing that healthy food is not necesarily more expensive than unhealthy food:

Now, I am not saying that the cheapest diet one could get away with will be a healthy one. I am also not saying that a healthy diet is particularly cheap. I am saying that I do not believe that any significant fraction of America’s obese population is in that condition because they want to be healthy but food is too expensive.

I agree! I’ve never really thought cost was the real barrier to helathy eating by the poor. I certainly think its a factor, but not the whole story. Something that I think sometimes gets overlooked in this dsicussion is time. The story typically goes something like “poor people are more likely to be overweight because they can’t afford to eat healthy” but I think “they don’t have time to eat healthy” is more accurate. Fresh fruits and veggies and fish like salmon are healthy, we all know this. But preparing a meal from fresh ingredients is time consuming and takes a considerable amount of effort.

Consider single parents, or people working multiple jobs, or the combination. These folks just aren’t likely to have the time and energy at the end of the day to stop by the farmers market on the way home then spend the evening preparing a fresh meal. Rather, they’ll stop at McDonald’s and then spend the evening doing all the things that have to get done by the end of the day. I’m not saying this is laziness, just necessity. A lot of folks simply don’t have the time and energy to eat healthy. Like cost, time and effort is certainly not the whole story but I think its an important part. 

Recently, we’ve seen “healthy” fast food places start cropping up in cities in the northeast. One of them is a fast food salad place, and its a lot better than McDonald’s and “traditional” fast food from a health standpoint. But you pay a premium for it. Companies like that can play a role in making healthy eating more accessible to the poor, but in this particular case, cost really is a barrier as these types of places are seen as “high end” fast food and typically cater to a much more affluent clientele.

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