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Diet & Fitness 
  |  Eat Right  |  Food and Diet  |  Affordable nutrition
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Affordable nutrition

by Jonny Bowden, M.A.
There's no getting around it. The ugly truth is, it costs more to eat well than it does to eat junk food.

Let's first understand why. In heavily industrialised and populated countries, food is just another 'product'. For the manufacturers to make a profit, their food products must: reach a wide market, have a long shelf life and be relatively inexpensive to produce. Add to this, of course, that food has to taste and look good enough for you to want to buy it.

Note that, sadly, having a high nutritional value doesn't make the shortlist.

To reach a wide market, food has to travel well and resist spoiling during the time it's packaged, shipped and sitting on the grocer's shelf. And to be economical to produce, this food has to be resistant to annoying little problems such as the weather, climate, pests, bugs and the like.

What this means is manufacturers have to remove everything from food that will make it spoil quickly, which, coincidentally includes the very things that make it nutritionally beneficial. To make it taste nice, the food industry sweetens it. To make it visually pleasant, it colours it. To make it inexpensive, it sprays, genetically alters, selectively breeds, mass produces, processes and packages crops, meat, grains and dairy into 'food products'. It also adds preservatives and chemicals.

What does the consumer get? Two things: convenience and price. The problem is, it's a devil's bargain. When you realise that nutrition has an important role in the major causes of death in this country - including cancer, coronary heart disease and stroke - then you begin to think that this trade-off might not be such a bargain after all.

In the meantime, what can we do to improve our nutritional lives without breaking the bank?

iVillage TV - Diet & Fitness

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