Health

Why Cheap Food is More Expensive Than You Think

October 29th 2014

As Jacqui Rossi says in her new exclusive video for attn, "many Americans, mostly low income Americans, have lousy access to healthy, affordable food. This bad food is harder for your body to extract nutrients from and so you overeat, which leads to more obesity."

 

If you follow news about nutrition, it will come as no surprise we've seen a huge spike in obesity the past few decades. We started to see a change in our food in the 1970's when there was a push to produce more corn to fatten cattle and cheapen food. Naturally, the industrial scaling of production led to a surplus; while corn-based food became cheaper and (to many) tastier, it also made it unhealthier.

During this same time period, there was also a steady increase in sugar added to the American diet to enhance taste (particularly in low fat foods). As Rossi says in her video, sugar is not only highly addictive, but a contributor to preventable diseases such as diabetes. 

The total estimated financial burden of diabetes in 2012 was $245 billion dollars. Such an increase in medical costs has caused many states to divert tax dollars from other critical social services as well as public education. 

One solution besides eating more conscientiously?

Incentivizing health eating through food stamps...