Why aren't healthier foods priced lower than junk foods?

When I am living in India, I buy a whole weeks worth of fresh fruits and vegetables for 11 dollars.

The same amount of food in Charlotte NC costs me 50. I stood at the cash register and almost cried. Needless to say, my trip back to India at the end of the month can not come fast enough for me. Not to mention, fresh young coconuts are a quarter.

I don't think you really understand the price structure. Eating fresh food is way cheaper.

Really?

Then how come when I go to the grocery store and perimeter shop and buy fresh foods my bill is $100-$150/week? If I were to go up and down the aisles and buy the stuff that's always on sale I guarantee my bill would be less.

i guess i can be happy to live in a place where gmo food isnt allowed to be old, and where fast food costs more than a normal lunch at a restaurant

Just where in the world is this Utopia?

Europe?

It is perfectly possible in most of France (if I remember, its been a while) to get a decent, home cooked meal for less than McDonalds or Quick (the burger chains seem to be pretty expensive there, maybe because novelty value).

I think you will find food is now acknowledged as an addiction. Watch the news this morning, plus it's not just sugar, it's far more than that

News organizations are an entertainment industry and don't make money based on how true or accurate their stories are, but how entertaining they are.

Food is not an addiction, it is something that is required to sustain life. The problem is that many people never learn the simple life skill of moderating their intake and many also mistakenly believe that hunger and exertion are things that should never be experienced.

Food is not an addiction, it is something that is required to sustain life. The problem is that many people never learn the simple life skill of moderating their intake and many also mistakenly believe that hunger and exertion are things that should never be experienced.

I think this is closer to the mark - an awful lot of jobs are sedentary now and for those who have not discovered logging foods, it is very easy to overeat because they dont move about much.

I think you will find food is now acknowledged as an addiction. Watch the news this morning, plus it's not just sugar, it's far more than that

News organizations are an entertainment industry and don't make money based on how true or accurate their stories are, but how entertaining they are.

Food is not an addiction, it is something that is required to sustain life. The problem is that many people never learn the simple life skill of moderating their intake and many also mistakenly believe that hunger and exertion are things that should never be experienced.

SIGH....this is the kind of stuff that kills people. If you are not an addict or understand addiction, offering the opinion that people never learned to moderate is incredibly irresponsible. Please refrain from such garbage in the future.

The idea that a person can be addicted to food has recently gotten more support from science.

Experiments in animals and humans show that, for some people, the same reward and pleasure centers of the brain that are triggered by addictive drugs like cocaine and heroin are also activated by food, especially highly palatable foods. Highly palatable foods are foods rich in:

Sugar
Fat
Salt

Like addictive drugs, highly palatable foods trigger feel-good brain chemicals such as dopamine. Once people experience pleasure associated with increased dopamine transmission in the brain's reward pathway from eating certain foods, they quickly feel the need to eat again.

The reward signals from highly palatable foods may override other signals of fullness and satisfaction. As a result, people keep eating, even when they're not hungry.

People who show signs of food addiction may also develop a tolerance to food. They eat more and more, only to find that food satisfies them less and less.

Scientists believe that food addiction may play an important role in obesity. But normal-weight people may also struggle with food addiction. Their bodies may simply be genetically programmed to better handle the extra calories they take in. Or they may increase their physical activity to compensate for overeating.

People who are addicted to food will continue to eat despite negative consequences, such as weight gain or damaged relationships. And like people who are addicted to drugs or gambling, people who are addicted to food will have trouble stopping their behavior, even if they want to or have tried many times to cut back.
Signs of Food Addiction

Researchers at Yale University's Rudd Center for Food Science & Policy have developed a questionnaire to identify people with food addictions.

Here's a sample of questions that can help determine if you have a food addiction. Do these actions apply to you? Do you:

End up eating more than planned when you start eating certain foods
Keep eating certain foods even if you're no longer hungry
Eat to the point of feeling ill
Worry about not eating certain types of foods or worry about cutting down on certain types of foods
When certain foods aren't available, go out of your way to obtain them

The questionnaire also asks about the impact of your relationship with food on your personal life. Do these situations apply to you:

You eat certain foods so often or in such large amounts that you start eating food instead of working, spending time with the family, or doing recreational activities.
You avoid professional or social situations where certain foods are available because of fear of overeating.
You have problems functioning effectively at your job or school because of food and eating.

The questionnaire asks about withdrawal symptoms. For example, when you cut down on certain foods (excluding caffeinated beverages), do you have symptoms such as:

Anxiety
Agitation
Other physical symptoms

The questionnaire also tries to gauge the impact of food decisions on your emotions. Do these situations apply to you?

Eating food causes problems such as depression, anxiety, self-loathing, or guilt.
You need to eat more and more food to reduce negative emotions or increase pleasure.
Eating the same amount of food doesn't reduce negative emotions or increase pleasure the way it used to.

Food is cheap in the US. For those traveling from Europe (or especially Scandinavia), it's incredible how much cheaper it is - yes, regular groceries too, not just junk food.
Sure the salaries are lower in the US but at the end of the day, Americans spend a much smaller percentage of their income on food than other countries. They are also less willing to spend time cooking and eating their food. There is a strong correlation between eating habits and obesity - eating in front of the telly causes people to not enjoy their food and eat faster.
Americans spend about half the time eating on a regular day than French people do. And the obesity rate is wayy higher.

If you're used to food being a marginal cost out of your total budget, then proper meals will feel expensive. Food is a real cost for me, but I do prioritize it.

At least this is my opinion.

Is this 'opinion' based on fact or guess work?

Why are almonds specifically healthy and oreos not if both are incorporated in to a diet that meets a specific person's requirements?

Healthier foods are almost invariably less expensive than "junk food" (unless you've bought into the hype surrounding "organic" products). Buy basic ingredients and cook from scratch, it's not rocket science. (I can feed my family a nutritious home made meal for less than a trip to the golden arches.....)

I do, however, agree with the OP's premise that ultimately we must take individual responsibility for our own health - inasmuch as there are certain factors we can control (what we eat, regular exercise, avoiding tobacco etc). I'm not sure what she means in respect to governments not "helping", I can see government departments of health being involved in educational programs (which they are to some extent in Canada at least) but beyond that would require even more government regulation and even more of a move towards the nanny state.

At least this is my opinion.

Is this 'opinion' based on fact or guess work?

o·pin·ion
əˈpinyən/
noun
noun: opinion; plural noun: opinions

1.a view or judgment formed about something, not necessarily based on fact or knowledge.

Hence the reason it is called an opinion.

You're getting more nutrient-dense foods for your money. They can sell "junk" foods 2 for 1 because they cost less to make.

In the long run, healthier foods will cost you less over your lifetime.

because doctors wouldn't be able to prescribe all those lovely medication people need from getting sick from eating junk food. Diabetes, heart disease, hypertension, stress all stem from an unhealthy diet (yes some is hereditary but I am speaking of those who have these from being overweight). if we could easily buy a bag of almonds for the same price as a bag of oreos, doctors would lose money. But instead you can get oreos 2/5$ but almonds are almost 6 $ a pound. At least this is my opinion.

Those are problems some people have with life whether or not they are addicted to things..

In all fairness, living is very addicting...


Jokes aside, as someone who lost over 100lbs and has about 20 left to go, I can say - with certainty - that for me food was never an addiction.

In my opinion it is not an addiction. It's a mechanism of habitual self-destruction... an "eff-it" attitude, if you will.

Personally, my logic was, "why shouldn't I eat this whole pizza? why shouldn't I sit around all day and watch things I enjoy? I'm already fat..."

I can see that with hindsight... and I still struggle with the occasional "eff-it" moments, because now I feel I can get away with it. And if I allowed that habit to once again take form, I would gain all the weight back.

What choices do you lack?

I don't lack any, but that's because I cook from scratch. However, if I wanted ten years ago to pick up a BBQ sauce made with cane sugars and no corn syrup, I could do so easily. We have since spent millions of taxpayer dollars subsidizing corn, corn syrup, and HFCS so that of the 47 brands I checked in three stores and two states (6 stores total, as they have different stock and markets) only one did not contain corn syrup.

There is nothing wrong with canned foods.

The problem is not keeping track of what you're eating and how much of it you're eating.

I can eat bolognese in a can every day of the week for cheap and still lose weight and get healthy.

THE problem?

There are plenty of things wrong with canned foods. And no one was suggesting that one cannot lose weight restricting calories on a diet composed of almost anything. And yes, that might improve overall health somewhat if you were at least overweight to begin with only because losing adipose tissue by any means (including surgical removal) will generally increase health relative to what it had been. I just don't confuse weight loss with health or think that "better" relative to very unhealthy is anything to pursue as a goal.

Ah, but my brain does, and it is part of my body. And, it can tell the difference between macronutrient dense foods and depleted foods.

The disconnect you're having here seems to be associated with the prevalent assumption that everyone who uses MFP just wants to lose weight or eat a diet somewhere better than patently unhealthy. Has it not occurred to you that some people might want to eat the most nutritious versions of foods, especially considering how the nutrient density of those foods has declined in the last half century? (to say nothing of the taste difefrence between canned or fresh peas and those that are flash frozen)