Member-only story
Spending More for Poorer Health
My personal experiences and observations as an American who has traveled
This morning I ate a yogurt bar. I wanted something healthy that tasted like a treat. It had a dark chocolate shell and was seriously yummy. Today I finally read the ingredients. Let’s say I will not be buying it in future.
It’s not the cane sugar per se. It’s the quantity of it, along with some of the other ingredients.
This is the gotcha in American supermarkets and restaurants — there is a plethora of processed foods and they are placed front and center. It’s only when you travel around the perimeter that you find actually healthy stuff — fruits, vegetables, eggs, meat… yet even there, pitfalls abound. Factory farming and pesticides means that the diets that kept our great-grandparents healthy no longer work for us.
Small-scale farmers and ranchers who provide healthier options are not subsidized by the government, so they make barely enough to survive. Meanwhile, lobbyists from big pharma partners with those from agribusiness to profit from our pain.
There are ways to get around this. Unfortunately, to have truly nourishing meals, you either grow a lot of your own ingredients or you pay more to buy the good stuff.
