The High Costs of Living Large...Or Maybe Not So High? (Blog Post #3)

Food is an item that exists universally and is loved by almost every human being. The type of food that is loved, however, differs from person to person. A term exists for people who acquire a passion for food, and they are dubbed as “foodies.” A foodie, as defined by the Oxford English Dictionary, is “a person with a particular interest in food; a gourmet.” People like to enjoy food through different methods. What is “junk” to one person, may be a delicacy to another. This food preference generally depends on a person or family’s socioeconomic status. People who receive a lower to middle income based salary typically tend to consume more unhealthy foods than people who take in a higher based salary. This observation can be attributed to the fact that most consumers are under the false impression that to eat healthy and to eat “good” food requires a significantly large amount of money that most do not possess. To a certain extent, this is true. A reason does exist why so many poor, or less fortunate, people are overweight and battling obesity and the medical conditions that accompany obesity.

It is easy to see why so many consumers would think that eating healthy is expensive and, for some, completely unaffordable. When one enters a store, such as Whole Foods Market, the prices of whole, fresh produce and other various health products, practically scream at the customer. Paying almost six dollars for ten ripe tomatoes is a slightly over the top. This is especially true when compared to walking into Walmart and seeing a pack of thirty frozen quesadillas in a package for just four dollars. The math is undeniable and when the average working dad or mom has a family to feed at home, he or she is going to go with the package that feeds more without sending them into bankruptcy. And let us be honest, the taste of the preservative filled frozen quesadillas will prove to be more appealing to the kids than freshly bought tomatoes.

Hope does exist for the average income family with the yearning intention to eat healthy. While the prices at Whole Foods Market may appear daunting at first, closer inspection shows that there are bargain prices! The people at Whole Foods Market understand their consumers’ dilemma and, in recent years, have made significant changes to their pricings. For this reason, Whole Foods Market offers what they call 365 Everyday Value® products. Just on their website alone they claim, “Our 365 Everyday Value® products can fill your pantry without emptying your pocketbook. With value prices every day of the year, our products are formulated to meet all our quality standards, come in both natural and organic selections, and will change the way you shop at Whole Foods Market. That's because we have it all — from whole grain flours and shade-grown coffee to organic milk and frozen veggies. We make it easy to stock up on the best products for the best price.” Many in the health foods industry are following suite of Whole Foods Market everyday value items because with previous pricings, the industry was losing millions of customers.

Besides being less expensive than healthier foods, unhealthy products are more convenient to a population and require little to almost no effort to obtain. Fast food chains engulf us in their ever growing presence. Just the mere sight of a McDonalds can send my taste buds in to over drive. Those golden arches almost always shout out at me as I am driving by, inviting me through the drive thru; and with the dollar menu to use at its disposal, it is hard for me, or any customer, to resist the alluring McDonalds temptation.

Fast food is there at the tip of our hands and, unfortunately, that is one factor that allows it to hold a substantial advantage over healthy eating. We do not see any healthy fast food chains where all that is served is salad and turkey burgers on whole grain bread. To my personal knowledge, such a place simply does not exist.
Healthy foods take time to prepare and to cook, and most of the working class does not have that time needed or do not want to put forth that time. After all, you can’t just purchase a tomato and present it to your family as “dinner.” Perhaps as a midday pick-me-up, a tomato will do just fine, but as dinner? No. The tomato needs to be included in what to cook for dinner and those other accompanying ingredients are what can put a burning hole in consumers’ wallets and time of day. Not everyone wants to spend more than twenty minutes in the kitchen. Americans, especially, want fast, easy, on-the-go meals that are filling and inexpensive. Most do not even make healthy a priority when thinking about food. It is because of this American mentality that fast food chains flourish, as well as, semi homemade cooking.

Semi homemade cooking revolutionized the food industry with its convenience, affordability, and nutritional goodness. Sandra Lee is a big name in the food network because of her breakthrough with semi homemade cooking. On her website, the positive aspects of semi homemade cooking are discussed by stating, “With her trademark 70/30 philosophy, which combines 70% ready-made products with 30% fresh touches, Sandra creates inspirational meals and breathtaking living environments that are affordable and attainable, making her the foremost recognized advocate to every over-extended person.” Semi homemade cooking is just one method in which the working class can save time and money on food, but not at the expense of their families’ health. While not all semi homemade food items are healthy, a wide range of those items are and are available to everyone.

As stated earlier, when people start eating poorly, their health fails them. This can be correlated to their socioeconomic status. Several research and studies provide evidence to support that coronary artery disease is more prevalent among people in the lower socioeconomic spectrum than people on the higher end of it (1). This is due to lower income people reducing themselves to eating junk which weakens their bodies internally.

To some extent, the amount of money we have limits us of the type of foods we can eat or obtain. For example, when watching an episode of the cooking show, Good Eats with Alton Brown, Brown describes how to make coconut cake in a series of steps. Brown uses fresh coconut for his recipe and tells his audience that they too should use fresh coconut ingredients to receive optimal results for their cake. The audience gets the vibe that Brown frowns upon the cheaply store bought ingredients, like prepackaged coconut powder, because the cake’s flavor will not come out as tasty. Brown’s attitude towards the affordable ingredients versus the hard to obtain and costly ingredients supports why many consumers believe that their socioeconomic status serves as a barrier between them and flavorsome food. What low income consumers should note, however, is that it is in fact possible to receive that same full of flavor food as the higher income consumers because nowadays there are stores that sell these items at reasonable prices; such as walmart, costco, and various others. The ingredients may not be as fresh, but the difference in taste between food items when cooked will be minimal.

Another way in which socioeconomic status limits us is when it comes to deciding on what restaurant to dine at. There are the fast food chains, as stated previously, that provide food for more than reasonable prices and are extremely convenient. For some people, the fast food chains are more than enough to satisfy their food cravings for “good” food, but what about for others? What about the others who want the five star restaurants where they are catered to their every whim for the amount of money they pay? Where they are brought out food that they have never even heard of, but just want because that is what the upper class is eating? Well, for these people, they may have a problem.

Ruth Reichl describes in her book, “Garlic and Sapphires,” her experiences as a food critic for the New York Times. In her experiences she supports the claim that not everyone can afford to dine in the four star restaurants of New York City. She understood that people’s incomes limit them to where they can treat themselves out for lunch or dinner. It is because of this that she expands her critic powers to include dining at the not so fancy restaurants but that still serve outstanding food. People just need to open their minds a little and they will see that great tasting food is within their grasps. They do not have to reduce themselves to consuming junk food just because that is what is “within” their budget.

The main thing that limits individuals from appreciating good food is not really their socioeconomic status, but rather, it is their willingness to put forth time and effort to finding the good food and searching for the bargains. Maybe before, socioeconomic status played a more significant role in what food people consumed, but nowadays, with all the new, affordable restaurants and more health food supermarkets, it really should not be a problem for most.