I have always found it strange when friends from the US have said it is cheaper to eat junk food than home cooked, because it just seems backwards. So I thought I would have a look at why this is the case, considering that the US is commonly cited as the fattest developed country on earth, with an obesity rate of around 42% - and overweight at over 75% of the population. Which is quite incredible.
The answer to my question is quite simple and as expected.
Money.
After WWII, subsidies were introduced to establish cheaper, reliable food supplies and over time (as incentives will always do) these have led to shaping industrial farming. About 100B per year is spent on subsidies with over half of it going to corn, soybeans, wheat, and rice alone. And the products are where high-fructose corn syrup, and various oils found in processed foods are derived. Another quarter of the spending goes to industrial livestock farming of meat and poultry.
Now a cheap food supply is a good thing, but what has happened is that food "producers" have access to cheap ingredients that they will of course use to pack into their food as much as possible to lower costs. The outcome is low-quality, processed foods. What this means is that it is cheaper to produce calorie-dense foods, than nutrient-dense foods.
Incentives matter.
But it is another (of many) indicator that corporations do not care about you, your family, your health outcomes, or the future of society. All they care about is making a little more profit, and if they can get away with adding recycled paper pulp into your cereal, that is what they will do. They probably don't do this (yet), but perhaps at some point they will lobby for it under the guise of being better for the environment, and the government will pass a law enabling it.
The incentive to eat unhealthy food stems from a powerful combination of biological "hardwiring," environmental convenience, and psychological engineering. Essentially, your brain is designed to reward you for finding high-calorie energy sources, and modern food systems capitalize on this instinct.
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The biological engineering is clear. Calorie-dense foods are great for our mental development to a point, but ere hard to come by once upon a time in our history. We were "rewarded" for finding calories, and as a result our brains grew.
Yay!
However, it is the other two that have really screwed us over, because we have been able to make so much in our lives convenient, and we are also hardwired to feel rewarded for taking the easiest path. Again, a great evolutionary mechanism, but it cuts both ways. Finding shortcuts can help us innovate, but we will also shortcut to feeling good, whether because it is easy, or because it is tasty, or because it makes us believe something about ourselves. Food (at least in the US) is always available.
And then the "psychological engineering" comes into play, where we are conditioned by culture, marketing, friends, family, and our own repeated behaviours where we shortcut to feel good, and eat more and more of the crap that is available, even though it is not in our best interest to do so. You might think it is because you feel good doing it, but all that conditioning is in service to the best interest of the bottom line for your local food conglomerate.
The more shit you eat, the richer they get.
And, they will food you shit until it is pouring out of every orifice, and then a little bit more. And then, they will sell you some other derivative processed products to combat your bourgeoning waistline. And because they will not actually work (other than making you feel like they might and then feel like a failure when you keep expanding), they will happily use their corporate network to sell you insurances for health, so you can visit the doctor more, and take drugs from companies they have invested into - until you die from side-effects and are buried by your loved ones, who are on the same loop, but not quite as far along as you yet.
I don't blame fat people for getting fat or struggling to lose weight, because these days, pretty much all the incentives are aligned for corporations to make us fat. To make us stupid. To make us powerless consumers who have no agency other than to do what we are told to do, eat what we are told to buy, and die the way our living behaviours dictated.
Yet, each of us still have some chance to change our consumer fates, but it means opting-out of convenience and finding ways to mitigate the negative impacts of our hardwiring. It is easier said than done, and that is part of the problem too, isn't it? Being healthy isn't convenient. It isn't convenient to eat healthily or exercise enough. It isn't convenient to think critically and design one's life to have better outcomes. It isn't convenient to do anything other than what the corporations have been incentivized to get us to do for their profit.
But it isn't convenient to do what they want us to do either, is it?
If you haven't noticed, this world pisses me off no end. However for now at least, I have to live in it, with a majority of people who behave in ways that are counter to getting the outcomes they want. A world where people feed themselves and their children unhealthy food. A world where people feed themselves and their children unhealthy information. A world where people feed themselves and their children unhealthy environmental conditions.
It is no wonder we are physically, mentally, emotionally, and socially unhealthy, because each day we are making the decision to consume in just the way they want us to in order to maximise their profits.
For most people in the US, it is not that much more expensive to eat a home-cooked meal instead of a processed product, but it is far more inconvenient. And for many Americans the cost difference is negligible to their expenses. So it isn't money. What it comes down to is the convenience and psychological engineering of eating poorly, and moving too little.
But of course, no one has the power to change their own behaviours.
Poor Health: Subsidized by governments. Facilitated by convenience. Driven by profits.
Taraz
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