When people talk about healthy eating and drinking, the conversation invariably turns to quality ingredients. Quality ingredients are typically whole foods, natural meat and produce that it fresh and has not been processed. These ingredients contain many of the same wholesome properties that they did just before harvest. Since your body rebuilds its cells with the ingredients you eat, it makes sense that high quality food is good for your health.
But high quality food is good for your health in another way. Cheap, discounted food is at the root of American obesity. Many of these cheap foods are subsidized, such as those composed of corn, wheat, and other cheap carbohydrates.
It takes a lot of food to feed a country the size of the United States. The US Federal government chooses to subsidize these foods because it guarantees that nearly all people in the United States will have access to abundant calories.
However, this method does not prioritize nutrition. Cheap, processed foods may be affordable, but they are devoid of most of the nutritional properties of quality, natural foods. Quality is therefore scarcer and more expensive. But that, it turns out, is not a bad thing.
The average American has more to eat than they actually need. Hunger exists in the US, but it is the exception to the rule. More than 65% of Americans are considered obese, due in large part to the overabundance of cheap, calorie rich foods made of subsidized carbohydrates.
If you’ve grown up on these foods, it can be difficult to make the switch to more expensive foods, but the change is worth it. Not only will you be exposed to healthier ingredients, most people will be able to afford less food overall.
At first this sounds like a bad thing. If I order high quality wine online, I won’t be able to afford as much of it. For people who struggle with their weight, this turns out to be the best possible situation. Obesity is a side effect of eating too much bad stuff. If we focus our sights and our wallets on food of a higher quality, we’ll enjoy it more and eat less.
Nutrition is a cycle passed from the ground up through the plants and animals we eat. It takes a lot of time and energy to invest in the nutrition of the land which supports these plants and animals.
Cheap food is grown and harvested quickly, often fed with soil and feed that is relatively deprived of natural nutritive elements. High quality foods are expensive because they take more time and money to develop. Naturally fertilizing the field that feeds your livestock is more expensive than feeding them only corn, but the resulting meat will be more delicious, more nutritious, and better for the environment.
All told, it’s worth it to eat more expensive foods, especially for people who struggle with their weight. Choosing high quality food is choosing to give your body only the best ingredients from which to grow and repair itself. It’s an investment in yourself and a better allocation of your material resources.
