mistahtom: [YouTube video: Robert Lustig, M.D., M.S.L. - "Processed Food: An Experiment That Failed"]
Processed Food: An Experiment That Failed

This. Sugar is the devil. The sweet, delicious devil.

The Weekend Baker: Surely, this will be the time that people listen to the scientists/doctors that tell them that processed food is poison.  Surely.

Mistahtom's video is from 2017 and shows we have made progress.

But it also shows exactly what the drags are on future progress. The main one is poverty. Processed food is significantly cheaper than real food. Additionally poor people tend to live in food deserts, so even if people know better and are willing to burn a chunk of their meager budget on real food they may literally find it impossible to do so.

Other than addressing poverty and food deserts we really need to stop subsidizing farking corn.

The Weekend Baker: Boudyro: The main one is poverty. Processed food is significantly cheaper than real food. Additionally poor people tend to live in food deserts, so even if people know better and are willing to burn a chunk of their meager budget on real food they may literally find it impossible to do so.

The great thing about the former (processed food being cheaper than real food) is that it only harms the people who believe it.  I used to participate in that debate here, offering up a variety of examples of how you can eat healthy on a meager budget (I finally started eating healthy post-cancer, when I was so poor I was on the brink of bankruptcy).  The result was never a "Hey man, thanks for the suggestions."  It was always a string of "Yeah, buts..." which all boiled down to excuses.  People who believe as you do are as unlikely to be swayed from your belief as an anti-vaxxer will be convinced that Ivermectin is useless, so I don't bother anymore.  It's the internet, and people are going to believe what they want to believe.

As for the latter (food deserts), I've lived in them when I was poor, and I live in one now (no longer poor, but drive almost 40 miles round trip to get to the nearest grocery store, with only convenience stores and fast food in between).  Once I decided my health was important to me, I stopped using it as an excuse.

You're wrong.

https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/news/press-releases/healthy-vs-unhealthy-diet-costs-1-50-more/

Or from the video upthread:


That chart on the far right is healthy food costs (green line) vs less healthy costs.

And that's just a broad analysis at the country level. Not looking at the costs associated with people like you yourself mention who have to make extraordinary effort to get to where they can buy healthy food. Or that of they have a local story it costs more to get the food there.


You're also not grasping that it's cost per calorie. A box of Kraft Mac costs around a dollar and gives you 750 calories before you add milk and butter. A pint of fresh strawberries costs at least $3 and gets you 114 calories. To get 750 calories of strawberries costs $19 and change.

Lettuce? Prices fluctuate but average out to around $1. 800 grams in one head, no mention in my source if thats only the edible bits. That comes to 112 calories in a head of lettuce -- more that six and half heads to equal the mac's calories, at a cost of $7.

Now it's perfectly fair to argue most of us don't need all the calories we're scarfing. That's absolutely true. But for simplicity's sake let's pretend we can only eat one of the foods I've listed so far against our recommended caloric intake of 2k/day.

Strawberries: $52.63
Lettuce: $17.86
Kraft Mac: $2.66

Lets add some more "cheap" healthy foods:

Kidney beans: $4.72
White rice: $4.61


Feeling snacky? 2k calories of Doritos is less than a bag $5

2k calories of carrots? Somewhere around $10 for the low end.

The reason you didn't notice is that your caloric intake probably dropped precipitously with your health scare compared to what you used to eat.

Relying on everyone to have a wake up call about their health is inherently stupid public policy. It's well established that the best way to get a lot of people to change their behavior is spam education on what to do and make it as easy as possible for folks to do It. Not to terrify them into desperate actions.