Response to: Healthy not just for the wealthy

Anna Eklund, Contributing Writer

Healthy food is something everyone should purchase, but accessibility is also important. Healthy food is less consumed because the average person has the idea that it is too expensive for their budget. This could be true, but healthy food should stay higher in price because it is a benefit for the environment and people.

When buying things high in price you pay for quality. If you end up buying cheaply made food it won’t fully nourish your body with good ingredients. A loaf of white bread is about two dollars whereas whole grain wheat bread cost upmost five dollars. When buying wheat bread you get more nutrition and higher quality indigents.

Then again, healthy food should have a higher price than junk food because it takes more money to make food and transport the food. The farmers who do not use pesticides and farm organic crops pay for their crops to be organic in the type of seeds they use as well as the other organic components. Also it costs more money to transport organic foods because some need to be kept at a certain temperature which costs more money to do. As well people who drive the special transporting modes need to be paid. Farmers go out of business because the increase in genetically modified foods. It’s much healthier to buy real food than food that’s just a copy of what it should be.

Junk food has been proved addictive in a 2009 study conducted by Scripps University Research Institute. The study showed that junk food triggers addiction like neuro-addictive qualities. The more junk food you eat, the more is needed to get the same feeling like a drug addiction. Healthy food should be more expensive because it doesn’t cause addictions like junk food , which is a huge benefit for everyone eating it.

When healthy foods are produced cheaply it is bad for the environment. It costs a lot of money to safely get rid of waste from making food. When making healthy food cheap the first thing sacrificed is the waste management. It is much better to safely get rid of the waste instead of just letting it go down the rivers and pollute miles of waterways.

Healthy food should be accessible because obesity rates are high. But in contrast, paying a little more money each grocery bill for the quality of healthy food is much more convenient than paying thousands of dollars of hard earned money on medical bills caused by the awful habits of unhealthy eating.

In conclusion, eating healthy can seem to cost more while you are making the purchases at the grocery store, but in the long run it will be worth it to make the healthy choice and buy healthy foods. Healthy foods are best when more expensive because you pay for the nutritious wholesome ingredients included in the food, an investment for your body, and can help the economy by paying farmer and not supporting genetically manufactured/modified foods.