The movement to get people to eat healthier and live healthier lives has been portrayed numerous times in today’s culture. Many magazines have promoted ways to “Get Healthy Now” and Michelle Obama has even started a program called Let’s Move! in hopes of ending childhood obesity. The manner in which health is constantly in the headlines displays that our health is of great significance. Being healthy can be defined in various ways, but the focus is on obtaining good health through your food choices. Food is eaten to satisfy hunger, but food has a much greater effect on the body – it can either help you or hurt you. By having a healthy diet, you are strengthening your health, but by eating an unhealthy diet, you are placing your health and life at risk. People today are driven in opposite directions when it comes to deciding what to eat. However with the ongoing production of unhealthy foods and the availability of cheap, junk food wherever you go, healthy eating doesn’t usually come to mind for many. Some people prefer unhealthy and junk foods while others prefer the cheap prices of these foods. Preference, cost and access all contribute to a person’s decision in whether or not they will eat healthy. But many people fail to look pass the cost of unhealthy food and don’t focus on the effects of these foods, the real cost of unhealthy eating. Because your health ultimately affects your life, the choice of maintaining a healthy diet or maintaining an unhealthy diet seems like a simple one. However, because of these contributing factors, people don’t always choose what seems like the obvious answer – improve your diet, improve your health.
What does it mean to have a healthy diet? Many people have a misconception believing that eating a healthy diet means restricting themselves from certain kinds of foods, foods that are termed unhealthy for you. They are under the impression that healthy eating is an extreme diet including only organic foods and avoiding any type of sweets or junk food. However, to have a healthy diet does not mean that you have to deny yourself foods that you enjoy; it means having everything in moderation. Janet Renee defines a healthy diet as “one that provides adequate levels of vitamins, minerals, protein, carbohydrate and healthy fats from a variety of foods” (2014). Likewise, an unhealthy diet isn’t only eating unhealthy and fatty foods. An unhealthy diet is characterized by under or over eating beyond your required nutritional values, even if you are eating only healthy foods. Too much fats or too much sugars are still too much, despite where they are coming from. Renee goes on to define an unhealthy diet as “one that contains too much saturated and trans fats, cholesterol, sodium, added sugars and processed ingredients or contains too few nutrients” (2014). Renee doesn’t specify what foods make up a healthy diet or an unhealthy diet because they are not made up of only one kind of food. A healthy diet is not so much what you eat, but how much you eat, and everyone’s needs are different. Studies have proven that, “while an occasional bottle of pop every few weeks won’t do much damage, sipping more than two eight-ounce sodas or sweetened juice drinks per day raises your stroke risk by up to 22 percent” (Crain, 2014). Even though soda or ice cream or cookies aren’t the healthiest foods for you, it won’t hurt you to have some once in a while. It is possible to eat whatever you enjoy and still have a healthy diet as long as you are eating to meet your nutritional values. However, once you start eating in a surplus or in a deficit, you begin to develop an unhealthy diet, which will take a toll on your body.
Choosing to have an unhealthy diet, whether intentionally or not, comes with its list of consequences. An unhealthy diet not only causes the expected weight gain, but it is also causes a number of other health related problems. The average American today eats abundantly, meeting or surpassing his caloric goal, but because the foods he chooses are mainly unhealthy, he is undernourished (Boyers, n.d.). Nutrients such as vitamins, calcium, fiber, proteins and healthy fats all play vital roles in the body. However, by not consuming nutrient rich foods, you are stripping your body from the factors that contribute to your functioning. “Over time, failing to get enough calcium can cause bone loss, low levels of vitamin D can cause bone weakness and not getting the recommended levels of potassium can lead to fatigue and muscle weakness” (Renee, 2014). Without consuming the proper amount of nutrients, you will witness your body get weaker and decline in it’s proper functioning. Boyers mentions other effects of unhealthy eating habits; She links obesity, type two diabetes, high blood pressure, heart attack, stroke and coronary artery disease with eating “unhealthy foods on a regular basis” (n.d.). But, it isn’t just the added sugar and lack of nutrients in sweets and unhealthy foods that are the culprit; sodas, juices and other sugary drinks have the same harmful effect. A study conducted indicates that people who consume liquid sugar in abundance are at greater risk from death linked to cardiovascular diseases (Tedesco, 2014). Crain, who discusses the same study, gives readers the advice to “make soda or sweetened fruit drinks an occasional splurge or treat, not the beverages you wash your meals down with on a regular basis” (2014). Because such beverages and foods are associated with numerous risks, people are advised to moderate their intake and alter their diet.
Your health can be significantly altered by changing your diet. By living your life abiding by a healthy diet, you not only greatly reduce your risks of the illnesses associated with an unhealthy diet, but you also benefit other aspects of your health. Eating within your nutritional values helps you to maintain or lose weight, gives you energy, and reduces your risks of developing illnesses. Some nutrient rich foods, such as fruits, vegetables, fish, and lean meats, are characterized by many as being healthy foods. Besides providing you with proper nutrients, these healthy foods also have other added benefits associated with them. Eating fruits and vegetables protect you from heart disease and cancer, keep your skin healthy, boost your immune system, boost your energy levels, lower bad cholesterol, and raise good cholesterol (Young, 2012). By eating a healthy diet and meeting all your nutritional needs, you will reduce the need to take over the counter vitamins. If you are meeting your daily values of calcium or vitamin C through whole foods, there is no need to buy pills to make up for a deficit. The effects and benefits of eating healthy outweigh the effects linked with unhealthy eating. It would seem logical that people opted for the healthy diet, but that isn’t always the option.
The typical American diet of today’s culture is swayed towards the unhealthy side. In 2010, statistics showed that more than two-thirds of the adult U.S. population were either overweight or obese (Avena, 2013). A lot of people today are still obese and although there are many culprits of obesity, diet, a controllable aspect, is a prime factor. You would hope that because people have the power to control and change their diet they would, but sadly many are letting their diets control them. They are eating uncontrollably and without moderation. With such unhealthy habits, people can eat all of their daily nutritional needs in just one meal. A slice of cheesecake from the Cheesecake Factory can reach as much as one thousand calories, and that’s only for a dessert. Adding breakfast, lunch, dinner, and drinks, you will have surely exceeded your day’s worth of nutrition. However, one day of eating beyond your needs will not result in the effects of unhealthy eating habits. It is acceptable and understandable to have high nutritional values one day every so often because a healthy diet is about moderation. It is once it becomes a common habit, in which it becomes unhealthy.
The American diet has not only changed in quantity, but also in its quality. People are advised from a young age to eat plentiful fruits, vegetables and foods filled with nutrients and to eat sweets in moderation. However, despite what they are taught, many seem to be doing the opposite. People are eating an abundance in fast food and junk food and only eating healthy foods every once in a while. Most Americans tend to eat large portions, eat out at restaurants often, eat fast food on a daily basis, eat processed and boxed foods, and indulge in sweets. These patterns are due largely to the transition of our culture. Avena accredits the decline in the quality of today’s diets and eating habits to the fact that “we went from a nation that relied on procuring food from local farms to one that mass-produces and prepackages most of what we eat” (2013). Today, we live in a society where more meals are being eaten out or on the go opposed to at home. This is due to the fact that food is now readily available wherever you go, whether it’s to a football game, the movies or the shopping mall (Avena, 2013). Because unhealthy food options are quick and are available everywhere, they are what most people choose to eat. According to Avena, “the top five sources of daily calories among American adults are: grain based desserts, yeast breads, chicken and chicken mixed dishes, soda/energy/sports drinks, and alcoholic beverages,” all of which are made up of refined sugars (2013). Even when looking at the top twenty-five sources of daily caloric intake, no fruit or vegetable is on the list (Avena, 2013). “The foods we know, in theory, are not too good for us (refined carbs, added fats, and added sugars) are what, in practice make up about sixty-one percent of our diets!” (Avena, 2013). Because of the way the economy and culture have changed throughout the years, Americans diets and more importantly their health have also been affected. Why did Americans so easily change their diets?
Some people choose to intentionally change their diet. As times change, people’s preferences change, too. People are often drawn to sweet and savory foods that appeal to their senses, the same foods that are full of added sugars. Because people cannot eat high sodium, high fat, unhealthy foods all day and maintain a healthy diet at the same time, they have to choose between the two. Eagleton claims that for Freud, “harsh necessity means that we must repress some of our tendencies to pleasure and gratification…Every human being has to undergo this repression of what Freud named the “pleasure principle” by the “reality principle”, but for some of us, and arguably for whole societies, the repression may become excessive and make us ill…We are prepared to put up with repression as long as we see that there is something in it for us” (Eagleton, 1996). People are given choices in life and because they can only choose one, people are forced to repress one of the options. Some may choose to repress what is pleasurable to them, the unhealthy foods, in order to have a good health. However, many often choose to repress their good health, for what they consider pleasurable. For some because a Big Mac or an ice cream sundae tastes better, and costs less, than a salad or a banana, people intentionally choose the former. They would rather eat the unhealthier option because it is more appealing to them.
However, some people choose the unhealthier option even if they are appealed to the healthier foods. They unwillingly do so due to the cost of the two different types of foods. Williams states that, “The base is the real social existence of man. The base is the real relation of production corresponding to a stage of the development of material productive forces” (1991). The economic base predetermines culture; capitalism drives our culture. People choose their unhealthy food habits because of their material wealth, or lack there of. Foods that are considered healthy and good for you always seem to be more expensive then the foods that we should avoid in large amounts, the unhealthy foods. Many people would rather pick up the item that costs less, and may not be completely healthy for them, then buy an item that is organic or natural and costs almost twice as much. For example, a jar of the commonly advertised peanut butter, Skippy or Jif, costs about four dollars opposed to the jar of an all-natural peanut butter that costs around nine dollars. Many are shocked to find that the difference in prices is quite large for something as simple as peanut butter. However, the price is not the only difference in the two peanut butters. The Skippy or Jif peanut butters include hydrogenated oils, a process that causes an increase in saturated and trans fats (unhealthy fats that you should avoid), which in turn increase your cholesterol levels. The more expensive, all-natural peanut butter does not include hydrogenated oils, and is therefore termed the healthier option. However, because people fail to see the difference between the peanut butters and view the two as practically the same thing, many choose the cheaper, unhealthier option. Many people also often choose the item that has more portions for the cheaper price. For example, a sixteen-ounce bottle of wattle usually costs a dollar and a two-liter bottle of soda can also cost a dollar when it is on sale. The water bottle is the healthier choice, but because it is only one serving, compared to multiple servings in a two-liter bottle, most people buy the soda. In today’s society and economic situation, people want more for less. People would rather take the unhealthier option and put themselves at risk for all the illnesses associated with unhealthy eating, than pay the extra money for the healthier option.
Because of their financial status, some people feel the need to base all of their decisions, health related or not, on their income. A person’s financial status is one of the main factors when choosing whether or not they should eat healthy. Some people may not make enough money to have the liberty of basing their food choices on preference and therefore have to compromise their health. People who are just getting by would rather buy the cheaper food items than the healthier ones, and use the money they save for something that they find more important. If money is an issue for a family, it is easier for them to go out to the closest McDonalds or Burger King and buy a fast food dinner for just a minimal cost. With the availability of the dollar menu, it is possible for a family of four to all eat dinner for under ten dollars, opposed to going to the supermarket and buying enough chicken and vegetables for everyone. Even though a meal from McDonalds or Burger King is high in sodium, high in fat, low in nutrients, and packed with preservatives, it’s cheaper price is attracting to many who are tight on money and wish to save money.
The manner in which people decide what foods to eat or what foods to buy is largely revolved around the price associated with the item. Dr. Mark Hyman describes a scene he saw take place while grocery shopping,
“I overheard a conversation from a couple who had also picked up a fruit. ‘Oh, these avocados look good, let’s get some.’ Then looking up at the price, they said, ‘Two for five dollars!’ Dejected they put the avocado back and walked away from the vegetable aisle towards the aisles full of dead, boxed, canned, packaged goods where they can buy thousands of calories of poor-quality, nutrient-poor, factory-made, processed foods filled with sugar, fat, and salt for the same five dollars” (2013).
People are more consumed with the price of the food over the quality of the food. When doing their grocery shopping, many tend to focus their attention on the sale signs and displays or on the stores weekly sales paper.
Once arriving at the supermarket, customers first grab a shopping cart from outside and head toward the entrance. The store is conveniently set up so that sale items are displayed between the two sets of sliding doors that lead in to the store. Once customers enter through the first set of sliding doors, they have to pass through the small hallway, full of sale items on display, in order to enter the rest of the store, which is beyond the second set of sliding doors. Attracted by the big red “SALE” signs or the “Buy one get one FREE” signs, many customers stop and grab the bag of chips or the Entenmann’s donuts that are being advertised. Upon entering this hallway section, a customer tells her son to, “Grab those; they’re on sale,” referring to the Entenmann’s donuts. A little girl also grabs a box of donuts and tosses them into her shopping cart, without asking, but telling the lady that she’s with that they are her favorite donuts. The lady does not object or remove the box of donuts from the cart – perhaps because she saw the sale sign.
When the customers make it pass the second sliding doors and into the actual store, almost all grab the A&P’s weekly store sales paper, which is located on a stand right next to the door. The paper highlights the current specials and even offers a few coupons on top of the current sale prices. The prices of the items on sale are in large font, bolded and in stars – a way to easily catch the customer’s attention. One customer grabs the sales paper, steps aside and starts looking at the paper, flipping through the pages. Another customer walks in with the paper already in hand. Even as they are pushing their shopping carts through the aisles, customers continue to browse through the paper and search the aisles for the same items that are being advertised.
When it comes to shopping, the price of an item is a major determinant on whether the customer chooses to buy or not to buy the item. Coupons, too, steer customers to purchase certain items. Seeing a coupon dispenser by the milk products, a lady takes a coupon, looks at it and then picks up an almond milk carton from the refrigerator. People like to save money, so if something is at a discounted price, customers tend to buy the sale priced item – they even tend to buy multiples of it. On display are boxes of pasta with a big sign overhead reading “10 for $10.” Seeing this sign, a customer stops and grabs multiple boxes of pasta and throws them in her shopping cart. Another customer, pushing a shopping cart with about a dozen two-liter soda bottles in it, also stops and grabs a couple of the pastas that are displayed. A lady and a little boy stop to look at the bags of chips, but they don’t end up taking any. The lady says, “they’re not on sale,” and the two walk away, the little boy looking upset.
When the customers complete their shopping, they head towards the cash registers and wait in line to check out. When being rung up by the cashier, some customers talk on the phone or with whoever they’re with, some bag their own groceries and others carefully watch the screen where the prices are being displayed. When checking out, the cashier scans the items, places them on the conveyer belt and then proceeds to bag the items. However, one cashier scans a jar of jelly and says something to the customer. The customer shakes her head and the cashier scans the jelly once again. However, she doesn’t put the jelly on the conveyer belt to be bagged with the other items, but instead puts it underneath the register. At the self-scan registers, a customer scans a bottle of juice, but doesn’t bag it as she did with her other items. Instead, she walks over to the lady monitoring the self-scan registers and returns a minute later empty handed and continues scanning the rest of her groceries. When all items were scanned and bagged, customers would hand over coupons to the cashier; one person even had a stack of them. And when it came time to pay some customers used cash and some swiped their credit cards. After placing their bags back into their shopping carts, customers left and loaded their car trunks with grocery bags.
For many people who were grocery shopping, their purchases were greatly affected by the prices of the items. People want to buy the healthier item, but the cost pushes them in the other direction. There is proof that people are correct when they say it is difficult to maintain a healthy diet because healthy, nutrient rich foods are expensive. “The most comprehensive study of its kind indicates that yes, unhealthy food is about $1.50 cheaper per day, or about $550 per year, than healthy food” (Polis, 2013). For many people, five hundred and fifty dollars is a lot of money just to eat healthy and they question the need to spend this extra money on healthy foods. If they can buy cheaper, unhealthier food and use the money they save on other needed items, then why not?
Carey Polis goes on to answer this question by quoting a doctor who discusses the price difference of healthy and unhealthy foods and the effects of each. Dr. Dariush Mozaffarian states that, “this price difference is very small in comparison to the economic costs of diet-related chronic diseases, which would be dramatically reduced by healthy diets” (Polis, 2013). What people fail to realize is that five hundred and fifty dollars is not a significant amount to spend on healthy foods compared to the amount of money that they’ll have to spend in the future. Dr. Hyman argues that “the costs of eating fast, junk, and processed foods are often deferred until later” (Hyman, 2013). Unhealthy eating is associated with many different types of illnesses such as diabetes, obesity, coronary artery disease, high blood pressure, type two diabetes, heart attacks, and strokes. With these types of illnesses, you have to visit the doctor often for check ups and have to stay on medications for the remainder of your life in order to control the illness and its symptoms. Both the frequent doctor visits and the monthly payments for the medications are costly, much more than the costs of buying healthy foods in the first place. In the end, people who try to avoid spending the extra money are going to end up spending it, because “you either pay the farmer [by buying organic foods] or you pay the doctor” (Brad, n.d.). In reality, people who think that they are saving money by purchasing the cheaper, unhealthy foods instead of the slightly more expensive, healthy foods will actually end up spending more money. Because, like Dr. Mark Hyman says, “the true cost of unhealthy food isn’t just the price tag – in fact, the real costs are hidden” (2013).
Besides the personal costs an unhealthy diet and its effects result in, they also affect the economy and the nation as a whole. Because of the associated risks with unhealthy eating, the life expectancy of today is declining (Hyman, 2013). Unhealthy foods that are bad for you are also just as bad for the economy (Hyman, 2013). As more people develop the illnesses associated with unhealthy eating, the healthcare costs also rise. It is estimated that we spend almost one hundred and twenty billion dollars a year on healthcare costs just related to obesity (Hyman, 2013). Besides the financial effects, there are other costs of obesity. A report in the “Worldwatch Institute called Overfed and Underfed: The Global Epidemic of Malnutrition” discusses the effects of obesity caused by an unhealthy diet (Hyman, 2013). Some of the conclusions the authors of the report came to are: “obesity accounts for seven percent of lost productivity due to sick leave and disability, obese people visit their physicians forty percent more than normal weight people, obese people are two and a half times more likely to require drugs prescribed for cardiovascular and circulation disorders, and over one hundred thousand people a year have gastric bypass surgery” (Hyman, 2013). The United States is a country that pays very little for food, but consequently pays the most for its healthcare (Brad, n.d.). The amount of money being spent on issues related to unhealthy food habits and obesity is a large amount, and a completely avoidable one.
Our First Lady, Michelle Obama, is taking strides to decrease the amount of money being spent on obesity, but more importantly she’s working to solve the dilemma unhealthy eating and obesity pose, especially amongst children. Her program, Let’s Move!, is driven to help kids live longer, healthier lives. Michelle Obama is aware of the culture of today that promotes unhealthy and junk foods and believes that by “providing healthier foods in our schools and ensuring that every family has access to healthy, affordable food and helping children become more physically active,” we can put an end to obesity and its associated effects (Let’s Move!, 2014). Michelle Obama believes that by promoting health and changing people’s mindsets, we can decrease the effects and costs that unhealthy eating habits have had and will continue to have on the present economy and culture. With individuals like Michelle Obama promoting healthy eating and a healthy lifestyle, is it possible for our culture’s health habits to sway back to the healthy end of the spectrum?
“According to a recent food and health survey, fifty-two percent of Americans polled believe it’s easier to do their taxes than to figure out how to eat healthfully” (Avena, 2013). Because unhealthy foods are easily accessible, easy to make and cheap to buy, it is the easy way out. Compared to the effortlessness associated with eating unhealthily, many find that healthy eating is a tedious process. People would rather choose the easy way out and continue to eat unhealthily than learn to maintain a healthy diet. However, once you learn how to moderate and control your diet and how to shop wisely, healthy eating is an obtainable goal.
Many say that food is fuel, but in today’s culture that may not always be the case. With the transition of our culture and economy, the different types of available food and their effects sit on opposite ends of the health spectrum. Unhealthy foods may taste good, be easily accessible and be inexpensive, but these “benefits” are not worth it because having an unhealthy diet puts you at risk for a long list of health complications and illnesses. The good taste will only last for a couple of minutes, but a developed illness and its effects will last much longer. Healthy foods, on the other hand, may be more expensive, but the list of benefits associated with having a healthy diet greatly outnumbers those associated with having an unhealthy diet. However, people today are driven by the price tag they see and do not think about the price tag that will result in the future. People who continue to choose the unhealthy options may be saving money now, but they will end up paying much more for it later, and not just in terms of money, but also with their health. So, how much money do people think they are really saving by choosing the dollar menu burger over a salad or the boxed frozen foods over fresh meats or fruit?
WORKS CITED
“America’s Move to Raise A Healthier Generation of Kids” Let’s Move! Web. 08 May 2014.
Avena, Nicole. “The American Diet.” Psychology Today. Aug. 2013. Web. 07 May 2014.
Boyers, Linsay. “What Are the Consequences of Not Eating Healthy?” SFGate. N.D. Web. 05 May 2014.
Brad. “You Either Pay the Farmer or the Doctor.” Fooduciary. N.D. Web. 08 May 2014.
Crain, Esther. “Drinking Soda is Even Worse For You Than We Thought.” Women’s Health Mag. Apr. 2014. Web. 07 May 2014.
Eagleton, Terry. “Psychoanalysis.” Literary Theory. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1996. Pages 131-168. Print.
Hyman, Dr. Mark. “Why Eating Quick, Cheap Food is Actually More Expensive.” Dr. Mark Hyman. Apr. 2013. Web. 08 May 2014.
Polis, Carey. “Eating Healthy vs. Unhealthy Will Cost You $550 More Per Year, Study Reveals.” The Huffington Post. Dec. 2013. Web. 05 May 2014.
Renee, Janet. “What Are the Effects of an Unhealthy Diet?” Live Strong. Apr. 2014. Web. 06 May 2014.
Tedesco, Laura. “Study: Fructose Intake Linked to Slightly Higher Risk of Death.” Women’s Health Mag. Apr. 2014. Web. 07 May 2014.
Williams, Raymond. “Base and Superstructure in Marxist Cultural Theory.” Rethinking Popular Culture. Eds. Mukherji and Schudosn. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1991. Pages 407-423. Print.
Young, Dr. Lisa. “Benefits of Fruits and Vegetables.” The Huffington Post. July 2012. Web. 07 May 2014.