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by xzel
3100 days ago
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I'm not sure why you're being down voted here but you're pretty close to correct. There have been many recent studies showing fast food really isn't cheaper than buying other types of healthier food. It is pretty close because there are an incredible amount of low cost high calorie foods like beans, nuts, rice, cheap cuts of meat, the list goes on. Here is one from the UK Economic Affairs: https://iea.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/Cheap-as-Chips... The conclusion to save you a click:
Food in the UK has never been more affordable and healthy food is
generally cheaper than unhealthy food. A day’s diet that meets the
requirements of the Eatwell Guide can be purchased for less than the
price of two cheap supermarket ready-meals and for much less than a
single meal at a fast food chain. Switching to healthier versions of many
staple products can be achieved at no extra cost, and a wide range of
fruit, vegetables and carbohydrates can be bought in supermarkets for
less than £1 per kilogram. Five portions of fruit and vegetables can be
purchased for as little as 30p. Some studies that have come to the opposite conclusion have used a
cost-per-calorie measure of food pricing which makes high-energy food
appear expensive regardless of the cost of a meal. Others have compared
a small selection of food products which are classified as ‘healthy’ or
‘unhealthy’ on the basis of relatively minor differences. By looking at the
cost by edible weight and studying the price of typical food portions, this
report has been able to make better comparisons between the cost of
healthy and unhealthy diets in Britain today. We conclude that the real question is not why unhealthy food is so cheap
but why people consume unhealthy food despite it being more expensive.
The answer, we suggest, is that taste and convenience often play a larger
role in people’s food choices than price or nutritional quality. |
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I suggest you consider the fact that many people in the US, especially in poor, urban areas live in "food deserts" where there are no supermarkets close by that sell healthy food at reasonable costs.
http://americannutritionassociation.org/newsletter/usda-defi...
If you are poor and have no vehicle you depend on mass transit. This costs both money and time. If you are poor and lucky enough to have a job, its likely to be a low-paying job with a lengthy commute (in terms of time, bus and train transfers, if not in distance). This leaves you very little free time to spend half of a day for a lengthy trip outside of your food desert to get some fresh food. There is also the issue of bringing your groceries home. Have you ever tried to ride the bus or the train while carrying a bunch of packages, especially when it is crowded? How about transferring buses and trains while trying to carrying several packages? Do you have a proper kitchen? Many poor people don't. Proper storage facilities and equipment? Most poor people have roaches.
These are just some of the collective obstacles faced by many poor people in terms of their access to fresh food.