Unhealthy Food is Just Easier

I also agree with the second part of the article which argues that food deserts are a fabrication. I don't thin people eat unhealthily because of a lack of access to healthy food, but rather the ease of access to unhealthy food. Let's look at it this way: It is not uncommon for fast food restaurants to share a parking lot with supermarkets. If you are a single mother with a limited income working two jobs; are you going to walk around the supermarket, buy food, take it home and cook it? Or are you going to buy a couple happy meals without having to leave your car so that you can go home to rest before you have to do it all over again tomorrow? In our current culture, the more common response would be the latter.

I think we, as a culture, have been conditioned into making decisions such as these. We're now the second generation of Americans who have grown up in a fast food culture, and its what we're used to. In school I knew people who only ate fast food. I would make them food, but they would choose to go to Wendy's instead because that is what they are used to (or I'm that bad at cooking, I never figured it out). These weren't impoverished people either, rather, they were usually the more well-off of the roommates.

We have also been conditioned into thinking we should be able to get an entire meal for $3 off the dollar menu. As the article points out, healthy food costs more... but only because the fast food costs so little. The United States has relatively low food costs, but we've grown up in a culture that places the the largest portion for the lowest price on a grease covered pedestal so paying an extra $0.50 for a healthier option that you then have to cook seems absurd. And that is why we are fat.