Why eating healthy is so expensive in America

Why eating healthy is so expensive in America

Why eating healthy is so expensive in America

Produce helps your health and hurts your wallet, but some strategies may change that.

Subscribe to our channel! http://goo.gl/0bsAjO

The American dinner plate is deficient in nutritious produce, and part of the problem is cost. Because diets low in fruits and vegetables have serious consequences, health advocates have tried to incentivizes Americans to choose apples over donuts for years but with little success.

In the US, a nation with high rates of diseases such as obesity and diabetes , a variety of strategies - from a junk food tax to a produce prescription program - are now being tested. But there are a number of factors that still stand in the way of Americans having healthier, more affordable produce and dietary options.

We asked the experts how to eat healthy on a budget. Here are 11 tips to keep in mind: http://bit.ly/2G0UjeY

Vox health correspondent, Julia Belluz, answers more of your everyday health questions: http://bit.ly/2G55Ie0

Vox.com is a news website that helps you cut through the noise and understand what’s really driving the events in the headlines. Check out http://www.vox.com.

Watch our full video catalog: http://goo.gl/IZONyE
Follow Vox on Facebook: http://goo.gl/U2g06o
Or Twitter: http://goo.gl/XFrZ5H


Content

0.179 -> With ten dollars, you can buy this many donuts.
2.68 -> And this many apples.
4.83 -> If you opt for the donuts, you get a lot more calories.
12.32 -> But not all calories are created equal.
14.72 -> Apples contain fiber and vitamins while donuts are full of saturated fats and chemically
19.24 -> processed ingredients.
21.34 -> Even though apples are healthier for you, you have to eat more of them to get the same
24.97 -> number of calories as one donut.
27.44 -> And it would cost you about five more dollars, which means...
30.58 -> the cost-effective choice is
32.23 -> usually not the nutritionally-sound one.
34.5 -> There’s a strong relationship between diets that are low in fruits and vegetables and obesity and
39.3 -> diabetes.
40.26 -> These two chronic diseases now rank among the nation’s gravest health concerns.
45.44 -> Produce is essential for a healthy diet, but Americans aren’t eating enough of it.
49.68 -> And part of the problem is cost.
51.54 -> So what can be done to add more produce to the American plate?
58.05 -> Fresh vegetables and fruits are often more expensive to farm than other types of crops
61.969 -> that end up in processed foods.
63.73 -> For example, fresh strawberries have to be picked by hand.
67.02 -> But strawberries destined for preserves can be harvested by a machine.
70.74 -> Bumps and bruises don’t matter in the process, and machines are more efficient and cheaper
74.63 -> in the long-run than human labor.
76.89 -> This extra work is reflected in the price difference between fresh strawberries and
80.67 -> other crops, and it also makes fresh strawberries more expensive to buy than processed strawberries
85.76 -> Government subsidies also play a role in the cost difference.
89.049 -> For example, the USDA doesn’t subsidize leafy vegetable crops in the same way it subsidizes
94.119 -> wheat, soy, and corn.
95.99 -> These three crops make up a lot of processed food, so products full of high-fructose corn
100.799 -> syrup and soybean oil have an unfair advantage.
103.88 -> When it comes to cost, the less nutritious food will win out.
107.56 -> Other incentives are needed to keep people away from cheap, processed foods.
111.79 -> Taxes on products on tobacco and alcohol have been effective at curbing consumption.
116.09 -> This line shows the average price per pack of cigarettes over the past forty years
120.07 -> The rising prices are partly fueled by federal and state cigarette tax increases in 1983,
126.649 -> throughout the early 2000’s, and 2009.
129.149 -> Meanwhile, per capita cigarette consumption (shown by this line) has steadily decreased
134.52 -> as prices have gone up.
137.489 -> And researchers are arguing that what need to start thinking about a junk food tax.The
142.219 -> tax would focus on non-essential food items like candy, soda and potato chips.
146.629 -> These unhealthy foods would be taxed at the manufacturing level, and higher costs at checkout
151.3 -> could steer customers toward healthier options.
154.08 -> But a junk food tax alone won’t fix obesity.
156.599 -> Or the already high costs of a healthy diet…
159.44 -> So what can be done?
161.96 -> We could make healthy produce sexy.
164.32 -> Okay, well there are other things too.
167.59 -> To address the cost issue, some programs are springing up that make produce more affordable
171.95 -> for lower-income people, through subsidies.
174.489 -> And since 2014, the USDA has granted over $65 million to expand these programs throughout
179.889 -> the US.
180.889 -> There’s also the Fruit and Vegetable Prescription Program or FvRX.
185.56 -> Doctors can give vouchers for produce to low-income patients who are at high-risk of diet-related
190.15 -> disease.
192.17 -> Growing produce in home or community gardens can encourage healthy eating with little investment,
196.68 -> but finding time to cook, let alone garden, can be a burden for families.
203.01 -> We don’t yet know which strategies and programs are work best, but they’re worth testing
206.93 -> for one simple reason:
208.16 -> if Americans ate a wider variety of fruits
211.019 -> and vegetables, and more fruits and vegetables, we know they’d be a whole lot healthier.

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HOE5QDDKDlY