The Cost of a Healthy Diet
According to World Health Organization two thirds of Americans are overweight and
One third the population is obese. During the recent years there has been an increased
awareness when it comes to nutrition of food and healthy diets. Lately all of the fast food
restaurants have been posting the amount of calories per item on their menus to give the public
an idea of what they are eating. There also has been a shi” towards organic food and healthy
options rather than the normal choices such as a light mayo rather than regular mayo. However
when you look at the menu at a fast food restaurant do you look at the calories and say I won’t
have that I’ll have this instead or do you just not go to fast food restaurants because of how bad
they are. If you do pick the healthier choice and stay away from the unhealthy one rather then
not going at all that is good however why are you in the fast food restaurant in the ‘rst place?
Some would say that the convenience of McDonalds or Burger King is the reason while others
would say that the prices are cheap enough to ‘t their budgets. Some would just say that they
like the food and don’t really care how bad it is for them. This is partly the reason why the
United States is the sixth most overweight country in the world and ninth most obese according
to the World Health Organization. This is a serious problem that has been getting worse as the
years progress and is on the verge of becoming an epidemic. Because obesity is something that
leads to other diseases such as heart problems it should be addressed more aggressively then it
currently is. I feel that even with this increased awareness and a0ention to health it is still really
hard for children as well as adults to become health eaters and follow a healthy eating habit.
As I stated before there has been an increase towards the awareness of nutrition and
awareness of what you are putting in your body. For example there has been in increased
interest in organic foods and all natural products. According to the Organic Trade Association
organic food sales in the Unites States has reached $26.7 billion in the year 2010 which was a
7.7% growth from 2009. However with the convenience of fast food and the cost being
relatively low while the cost of organic and healthy food being relatively high, it is hard for us to
reverse the epidemic of obesity. One thing that I ‘nd to be negating the e;orts of the health
and organic movement is that fast food has truly become engrained in society and the nature of
us as Americans. However as the statistics show the organic market is growing at a relatively
slow pace. For example McDonald’s which is the single largest fast food chain in the world had
total revenue of $24 billion in the year 2010 and roughly a 6% increase from 2009 according to
the SEC. This would mean that a single company’s revenue, McDonald’s, was almost equal to
the total sales of organic foods in that same year. This would have to be partly due to the fact
