Why does it cost so much more to eat moderately healthy food? Seriously, this is bugging me. My boss warned me about the pre-wedding “I’ll eat whatever is easiest” fast food munchies that afflicted him when he was getting married, so I’m trying to eat good things. Unfortunately, my efforts are being hampered, to some extent, by the selection around here.
I could walk into the cafeteria and grab a Caesar salad with grilled chicken and a drink for around seven bucks. Or I could get in line at Wendy’s and walk away with a heavily deep-fried meal for around five bucks. And if I wanted to throw all gourmet pretense aside I could hit the vending machines for pre-packaged sandwiches with stale bread and limp lettuce at about a dollar each.
I’d noticed the same thing with Smithee food… One year I got the standard Unhealthy Snacks&tm; and the Drinks Of Colors Not Found In Nature&tm; and I was able to get a cartload packed with stuff for under fifty bucks. It fed about thirty people and there were leftovers that lasted for a couple of weeks. And whatever dye it was that they used in the artificial grape drink undergoes a really disturbing transformation after a couple of days digestion.
I suspect that it’s the sheer weight of preservatives that affect the cost the most… Healthier food costs more because you have to take better care of it before it spoils. There’s some break-even point where the amount of money you save by not buying chemicals meets the amount of money you lose by having your product rot off the shelves…
So basically, if you don’t care that you’re eating what amounts to embalmed food, you can have a feast for cheap. If you want something that was farmed instead of extruded, you’ve got to pay for all the stuff that went to waste because nobody else wanted it.
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