Because “all this healthy food” is expensive as hell. Does anyone who posts and re-posts these graphics stop to think about costs? Access to a grocery store?
Nope. They think food deserts are a myth. They have no idea how fucking expensive fresh fruit is. I mean — fuck’s sake, that bowl of fruit costs more than the burger and fries!
As a current employee in a grocery store, I can very loudly and affirmatively second the cost of that bowl of fruit. Never mind the chicken, the wheat wrap/tortillas, the fancy-ass tomatoes, the avocados and guacamole…
This is exactly what we went over in our sustainability class last semester. It’s easy for upper-middle class people to say “why don’t you just eat healthier” because they can afford to eat healthier. Being cheap and relatively convenient is the basis of how fast food succeeds economically, and that’s exactly why it’s the only feasible choice for a lot of people.
not to mention the amount of TIME it takes to prepare food. tons of people have school or work or both that eats up a shit ton of their time and really don’t have that option of spending a lot of time when they get back home to cook.
Not to mention the inherent assumption that people have ready access to a CAR to get to the store, TIME off of work to GO to the store, TIME off of work to clean up after the meal, AND an already established kitchen that is stocked enough to prepare that meal.
Basically the whole “why don’t you just eat healthy” argument is CLASSIST as fuck.
This is ridiculous. It absolutely costs more to eat out. Even 3 cheap fast food meals a day can cost $15 to $30 or more a day… That would be at the very least $450 a month for 1 person to eat out every meal. I can easily spend $200-$250 a month on healthy food… And not be lacking anything.
How the hell is it ever cheaper to eat out? That’s just a stupid cop out excuse for people to continue slowly ruining their bodies, and feel better about it. It’s bullshit.
I’m not buying it.
awez:
The problem is, not everyone can afford 3 meals a day. When you are living in poverty, food is almost always where financial cuts are made. To buy all that fresh healthy food, you have to have that $50-$60 (and that’s if it’s just you and you’re not supporting anyone) all at once to buy all the stuff to prepare a handful of meals. If you’re living with only a few extra dollars a day for food, you buy the cheapest thing you can, that will also give you the most amount of food (like a $5 meal from a fast food restaurant). Additionally, as previously mentioned, there are people who live without the time or ability to go to the store prepare a meal, etc. Some people would literally starve to death without fast food.
Time is a complete cop out in my eyes. You can make time for anything if its important to you. If you all of a sudden found yourself faced with an illness that you had to set aside 2 hours a day for treatment for… Would you find the time? Absolutely. So if you need to find the time to keep yourself healthy, and you really want to do it badly enough, you will.
As for the cost of food, I’m still not seeing in any way how eating out is cheaper… And I am actually going to make it a point to disprove this with actual facts by the weekend.. It legit doesn’t make any sense to me.
Like just a breakfast sandwich at McDonald’s for instance is like $3.50… But you can buy a carton of eggs for less than $3… And a bag of 6 English muffins for about $3… And I’m sure a cheese slice on its own is worth probably $0.25 or less… So you could make six breakfast sandwiches for say $7.50… Making them like $1.25 each.
Or bread is $2.00… Lunch meat you can get enough for say 6 sandwiches for $6.00… Lettuce is like $1.50 for a head… Tomatoes are like $2.00ish for 3… Now you’ve got 6 sandwiches for $11.50. Making them under $2 each. Throw an apple in there for another $1… And a yogurt for another $1… Drink some water instead of pop… And you’ve got a $4 lunch… Or you could just get a $7 meal at McDonald’s… And kill yourself slowly. Whatever works.
People will use every excuse they can get their hands on, but the bottom line is if you want something badly enough, you’ll make it happen.
awez:
Fast food has become ridiculously cheaper thanks to value meals and dollar menus. If you have $4 a day for food, you can go to the dollar menu and buy an entire meal for that price, including tax. You can’t buy an entire meal for $4 at the grocery store, you can buy like a piece of fruit and a bottle of water. If that’s all you have for the day, you’re not going to sustain yourself on ~100 calories worth of food; you’d pass out before you got out of the grocery store parking lot. You’re going to buy the most calories at the lowest price (at least ~1000). Calories equals energy. Energy to go and move and go to work and keep struggling to survive.
The problem with your analogy is that it requires you to have at least $15 in hand to go buy all that stuff. That is impossible for some people. Yeah, it works out to be cheaper in the long run to buy everything and make it ahead of time and have 10 breakfast sandwiches made from home, but if you don’t have a home/kitchen/gas/electricity, have no transportation to go to the store, and/or don’t have enough money to buy all the ingredients to make such a thing, you’re going to turn to other sources for food. There’s a McDonalds on every block. You can’t say that about grocery stores.
The convenience factor of these types of restaurants is a crucial part of their business model. They understand that time is crucial for many people, especially working adults and families. A lot of people work more than one job. A lot of people commute for several hours to their job. A lot of people can barely find time to sleep, not to mention cook a healthy meal for themselves and their families. You really can’t say that time is a cop out, until you yourself are struggling to find time to do the myriad of things human beings do day in and day out just to survive. Yeah, you might be able to find time to cook, but not everyone can. And you mention illness. Do you know how many people go to work and have to keep pretending like they’re not sick, despite being sick? There are countless studies that site astronomical numbers of people, way more than you’d expect, working despite being really fucking sick. I myself have found myself debating numerous times either staying home sick and giving myself the time I need to rest, or going to work, because I don’t get paid time off. Time is a commodity, which is just as valuable as money.
I’m also really not a fan of saying “if you want something bad enough, you can make it happen.” I live in a big ass city. I see poor and homeless people, every day, wanting with every fiber of their being to be fed, to have a roof over their heads, to be safe, to be seen and treated as a human being, but more often then not they’re just cold, hungry, and tired. Try telling them that they must not want those things badly enough.
Steph is great.
I don’t understand why people have such a hard time with this. I can get a burger, fries and a large coke from McDonald’s for $3 or less, but fresh produce? Nah not in my neck of the woods. That’s not to say that I don’t still try to buy healthy food, but it does serious damage to my bank account, and sometimes I just can’t manage it if I actually want to, ya know, pay bills and such. It’s so easy to just say, oh you can eat healthy if you really want to, but in practice, for people who are struggling through life, it’s not even close to being that simple.
I don’t live in a food desert, but I work until 10:30pm most nights (if not later) and takes me about an hour to get home. Guess which one of these is easier AND cheaper for me?
Exactly how is food from the store supposed to be cheaper for a meal than fast food? I see chicken in that pic at the bottom. And plenty of veggies. Looks yummy, also looks so damned expensive I want to pop someone for suggesting it is cheaper to eat that than Mickey D’s. A value meal at Mickey D’s is what $5 or $6 right? Well, here in my city (Chicago) chicken is running a little higher than that:
There are two chicken breasts in that pack. I snapped the pic precisely because that price was attached to two pieces of chicken. Now, kindly stop lying to people about what food costs.
I really want a big mac now.