Clear Solution (Or Fat Chance)

It just occured to me the reason why obesity is a big problem in America while my good friend, Andrew was telling me how he wouldn't eat anywhere other than McDonald's because he didn't want to pay too much.

Bad food is so cheap, whereas healthy food costs too much. This, I believe, is the main reason why we eat so unhealthy in this country. Therefore, I have the solution to this problem.

We make healthy foods tax exempt. There are no taxes whatsoever on foods that are good for you. On foods that are very good for you, the government subsidizes them. They'll get that money back on the next point, so don't worry. Foods that are neither healthy nor unheathy keep their sales tax. Unheathy foods get taxed based on how bad for you they are. The more unheathy, the higher the tax. I don't think people will eat McDonald's because it's cheap if they have to pay $10 for a Big Mac. They'll only eat it if they want a Big Mac. Then the only obese people will be those who choose to be obese and not the people who eat crap because they can't afford to eat healthy.

Discuss.

I don't agree with this at all. You can buy a full course meal at the grocery store for less than some meal deals through a fast food chain. I don't think it's about cost at all but more about time and not wanting to put effort into cooking. It's about taking the easy way out, in other words.

This is especially true with organic produce. Their markups are terrible.

Though you can get fruit and vegetables relatively cheap from a market.

Nobody really has time to cook good food these days as well (I include myself in that number. :( ), so salt and fat laden ready meals are used a lot, and that doesn't help.

I must stop putting those fake, additive-ridden bacon bits on my salad, too... :mad:

1000$ say that fast food companies will cry foul, citing that they have made efforts to show customers the nutritional content (lol) of their food. But I still like your idea.

'Healthy' food, or 'moral' food (truly free range chicken / eggs cost a bit more than regular / cheap / fast food. If you gave them an edge, it may actually help.

Currently I think eating healthy does cost more, and thus being healthy almost seems like a luxury only richer people can have.

*waits for those who disagree*

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I don't agree with this at all. You can buy a full course meal at the grocery store for less than some meal deals through a fast food chain. I don't think it's about cost at all but more about time and not wanting to put effort into cooking. It's about taking the easy way out, in other words.

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This is true, and probably one of the best arguments. Good thing I modified the argument such that all food is more expensive than healthy food.

Food has always been just fine where I live, healthy or no. The problem is a lot of people like to eat at restaurants/fast food or premade namebrand stuff from the grocery store. The less processed a food is, the cheaper itwill probably be. It's not hard to eat well for cheap, most people are just too lazy to do so.

The whole dollar menu that McDonald's has does make it easier for low class and even middle class families. It's certainly cheaper than buying food at the local market for a meal. So I do think that unhealthy food tends to be cheaper, but I think paying a bit more for your food is worth it in the long run.

I agree with PG. I've been looking into more of the "moral"-ish food products like locally grown and well treated free range chicken, beef, eggs, milk, and all this stuff costs more than the regular stuff you'd find in the supermarket.

You would think that the less processed stuff would be cheaper, but a lot of times, it's not. Organic products are a lot more expensive at my grocery store than the regular non-organic products.

Alton Brown said that people should stop looking toward organic and focus more on locally grown stuff, but that's even harder to do. =/

I wouldn't mind eating healthier, and not only that but stop eating the stuff with questionable ethics behind it. But time and money makes it hard to do. And yes, I LOOOOOVE eating out. I think eating out is one of the greatest joys in life.

Interesting though, the restaurants that use FRESH quality ingredients will always be restaurants that cost more than processed chain restaurants. With the exception of In-n-Out.

The problem with organic food is that yuppies buy it. If it wasn't a niche market, it would probably be cheaper, also you have to remember that growing food organically doesn't yield the same crop/quality as the 'normal' stuff, meaning they throw out half of their harvest because it's inedible.

eating local is hard for people in many places because depending on where you live....there might not be that much to snack on :D Living in Ontario, Canada is actually pretty good for local food, but in the winter it gets slightly ridiculous.

Hm. And there I was thinking the US government was founded on ideals of personal liberty and classical liberalism.

I think it has more to do with people not willing to do any exercise to burn off the food they eat, then the food itself.

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Originally Posted by theundeadhero

I think it has more to do with people not willing to do any exercise to burn off the food they eat, then the food itself.

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And thats why I love you.

I live in vermont, I've grown up eating vermont made stuff. I ahven't eatin mcdonalds in forever

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Originally Posted by NeoCracker

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Originally Posted by theundeadhero

I think it has more to do with people not willing to do any exercise to burn off the food they eat, then the food itself.

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And thats why I love you.

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I'd say the caloric intake of the average american (including canada) is far above what is necessary for their lifestyle, so it's both I would think.

time=money => non-fast food is two-fold expensive.

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Originally Posted by rubah

time=money => non-fast food is two-fold expensive.

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Explain yoself! Going to the store to pick up some food can stock you for a week, thereby saving time from going to get food for seven days. Go out and get fast food once a day and I'm sure it'll add up to more than it takes to stop by the store once. Not to mention the gas with the back and the forth and the so on.

Or you could do what I do and at the beginning of the week, pick up food from a place that gives you lots of food for your money and then eat that for a whole week. There's a place down the street from me that's open 24 hours and you can get a gigantic plate of fried rice (it's enough for 3 meals at least) for $7 and a dish of marinated meat for $10. I can eat the whole week for less than $20. :p

Making healthy food tax exempt just means they'd have to get their tax elsewhere

I'm going to go to McDonalds right now. Seriously.

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Originally Posted by Old Manus

Making healthy food tax exempt just means they'd have to get their tax elsewhere

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Hmmm.... I wonder where they'd get those taxes. If only someone could come up with an idea about taxing crap food. Wait. Someone did.

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Originally Posted by oddler

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Originally Posted by rubah

time=money => non-fast food is two-fold expensive.

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Explain yoself! Going to the store to pick up some food can stock you for a week, thereby saving time from going to get food for seven days. Go out and get fast food once a day and I'm sure it'll add up to more than it takes to stop by the store once. Not to mention the gas with the back and the forth and the so on.

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Except that it takes half an hour to an hour and a half to cook a decent meal, so it would definitely be faster to go to a restaurant. But even food at the store follows this general reasoning. All that crap frozen stuff is cheaper and takes less time to cook. I spend almost as much money on a meal at home as I do eating out at a cheap restaurant. Something is seriously wrong here.

I guess it boils down to what it is you like to eat, then. My main meal is spaghetti with garlic bread and a salad. I can fix that in 10 minutes while doing something else like paying my bills. Or ramen. My god. 35 cents and a meal in itself. Sure, it's not the healthiest thing in the world but I agree with whoever it was that's already said that all it takes is a little exercise to cancel it out. People are just too lazy usually and they don't take the time to figure up how much time they'd save doing one or the other. I'm not going to say it's this way for everyone but, for me, it's faster and cheaper not to eat fast food. :choc2:

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Originally Posted by The Ceej

Hmmm.... I wonder where they'd get those taxes. If only someone could come up with an idea about taxing crap food. Wait. Someone did.

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I don't pretend to understand a federal economy, but I doubt it would be that simple.

What makes fast-food so alluring is not that it's cheap; rather, it's the fact that it's terribly conveniant.

Buying fresh produce and the like can prove to be cheaper, yet it cannot be said that it's easier to make or faster to prepare. Obviously, with fast-food, all one must do in means of preparation is travel to the restaraunt, order, and then simply wait.

Additionally, with a nation that has found that it's easier to simply stop by the fast-food chain and pick up food for the entire family at a somewhat reasonable price, it's difficult to tell a mother or father that they are destroying their family by simply not wanting to prepare food for the entire family.

When looking at preparation of a full course meal or the preparation required in ordering fast-food, I imagine most would chose fast-food.


It's conveniant, and thus, dangerous.

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Originally Posted by oddler

I don't agree with this at all. You can buy a full course meal at the grocery store for less than some meal deals through a fast food chain. I don't think it's about cost at all but more about time and not wanting to put effort into cooking. It's about taking the easy way out, in other words.

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Yes, this and the fact that fast food is, at least most of the time, pretty tasty. It has nothing to do with the cost of fast food - when I eat something from McDonald's or Burger King, it's because I feel like having a cheese burger.. in other words: I like the darn stuff! It's kinda a dilemma because I've turned into quite the health freak lately, but that's a whole other discussion I guess? It's all about the tastiness and the laziness in my opinion.. and the latter has become a really bad epidemic in the Western world as of late.

And people are talking about burning off the calories from unhealthy food like it's that simple. There's more than fat and cholesterol. They put poisons in these foods. Poisons such as high fructose corn syrup, aspartame and crap of which I don't even recall the names. You can't just burn off poisons.

well i only get mickely d's like twice a month and its not because of the cost. i like the food. i mean i think other places are better. taco bell and subway i think are better but dont always have the craving. subway costs about the same amount too as a meal.

all though it might not be so easy to burn off all the stuff in in mcdonalds food it is possible. the reason i stay fit is because i get massive amounts of exercise. and i do a fairly good job of balanceing it out with healthy food. if people can just eat in moderation obesity would go down. and if everyone wasnt so lazy theyd get the exercise they need. some people will claim they dont have the time which is bull i do sit ups push ups and whatever else jsut before i go to bed for like 5 minutes.

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Originally Posted by The Ceej

And people are talking about burning off the calories from unhealthy food like it's that simple. There's more than fat and cholesterol. They put poisons in these foods. Poisons such as high fructose corn syrup, aspartame and crap of which I don't even recall the names. You can't just burn off poisons.

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Well, technically you can. You know them Kidney-shaped jazzes at the base of your back? And that lump of meat that sits just over your intestines? Those pretty much deal with poisons. Besides which calling such things poison is just plain ludicrous. If you had said something like Arsenic, which is a poison then your credibility level wouldn't have slumped three points. Hell, why not Alcohol? That's pretty damn poisonous. Maybe we should ban that?

I had a goddamn tasty cheeseburger with some fries for dinner today, from TJ's. Pretty awesome. Cheap, fast, friendly, and extremely tasty and filling.

If you can give me one reason why I should sod around for any amount of time cooking when I can go get this stuff, I'd like to hear it. Bearing in mind that I don't consider having fast food a couple times a week to be a health risk.