Healthy v. Unhealthy Food

Healthy vs. Unhealthy Food

Liz Leist

Maintaining a healthy lifestyle is a way of life in which people can choose to participate. It is a lifestyle where staying healthy and putting good nutrients into your body is important in their daily lives. To others, it is about the dollar menu at McDonalds or the next big thing at Taco Bell. Many people think that eating healthy costs more than eating unhealthy. The truth is that it all depends on what you are actually buying. It could be a healthy selection from your local grocery store, for example Aldi, or an organic product from a higher end supermarket, like World Market. A recent study done by the Harvard School of Public Health students proves that on average it costs around $1.50 more a day eating healthy, than unhealthy eating, which yearly adds up to $550. This is an opportunity cost situation. If you spend money on healthy food, yes you may have less money for other things that you want, but this is a choice where money is well spent. Healthy eating is a good investment, even if it costs more money. In the end for the unhealthy food choice eaters, it has a chance of backfiring on them and could potentially cause health complications due to their unhealthy eating habits, and those medical bills can add up. When you look at it this way there should be no excuse to eating healthy, because you are doing yourself a favor by staying in good shape and not having the potential for a diet related chronic disease.

There are many different products that can be alternatives to junk food being such foods as peanut butter, fish, fresh vegetables, fruit, beans and rice. They can all be found at your local grocery store for reasonable prices, making them accessible to people. In other cases though, there are more than two million Americans that live 10 miles or more from a grocery store, because they live in such rural areas and households who have an accessible form of transportation live a little over half a mile from a supermarket. This causes scarcity in some parts of the world in low-income areas, causing them to not have a choice in what they choose to eat. These types of situations can be understandable, because fresh produce for example can only last a few days, and when the distance is long this can be a problem for those residents. For others though it does not take much to cook a simple healthy meal in less than 15 minutes.

By changing the way that you each, and with price not being that big of a difference, it can lower the risk of diet related chronic illnesses and health conditions. Would you rather pay $1.50 more a day for healthy, nutritious foods, or have to pay for future medical bills because of the consequences from unhealthy eating? Either way it is obvious that eating healthy is worth the $550 more a year, because it is the best thing that you can do for your body and health, even if you are on a budget. It will without a doubt increase your energy levels and overall emotional well being.

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Polis, Carey. "Eating Healthy vs. Unhealthy Will Cost You $550 More Per Year, Study Reveals." The Huffington Post. TheHuffingtonPost.com, 5 Dec. 2013. Web. 23 Feb. 2014. <http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/12/05/eating-healthy-vs-unhealthy_n_4383633.html>.

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