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Not only have the prices of crap food dropped, their *availability* has increased tremendously.
At the same time it is not as easy to get fresh healthy foods because of the consolidation of smaller local markets into larger regional ones.
If you gave folks a choice of:
A: Drive around the corner to Burger King for a $3.00 meal which requires no preparation, no thought and no work, even tho it isn't great for your health.
B: Drive ten minutes to a grocery store, figure out what to get, buy the food, drive home, cook it, clean up the mess and throw away the trash and deal with the whining of the kids cuz they HATE broccoli.
Which do you think most average tired people would choose?
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There is a lot of truth to what you say.
In the past 15 years or so, tons of supermarket chains closed, consolidated and shifted farther from homes, while fast food joints have sprung up on every corner along with taking up at least 50% of every commercial block.
It's oversimplifying things to blame the consumer for choosing what is easier and more available. The entire system is designed to push people that way. It's a predatory, greed based practice that works.
People are terribly socially isolated; most kids grow up in homes where both parents work; cooking skills are no longer valued or taught, so young adults aren't learning how to properly tend to their nutrition needs. In addition, planning meals then going to a grocery store to purchase the required ingredients is EXPENSIVE.
I too am a parent in a 2 parent working home. I am incredibly fortunate to live near a Trader Joe's where fresh food is affordable. I am fortunate to have a spouse who is passionate about cooking and teaching our son. But it is NOT easy, and a lot of nights its hard to wait until 7:30 or 8:00 for dinner because the next day starts early and will be long.
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If people would start roasting broccoli with a bit of olive oil instead of boiling it to death, their kids would probably like it. People need to learn how to get the best flavor from foods. People would be able to tolerate healthy food more if they knew how to cook it.
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I agree. Steaming is great as well. Just steam it with a little water and salt. When I have kids, the rule in the house will be, \"if you whine, you won't dine.\"
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Don't forget the lemon! I never understood the joy of broccoli until I had it steamed with lemon and salt (well, butter helps, too).
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\"When I have kids, the rule in the house will be, \"if you whine, you won't dine.\"
Let me know how that works out for you. ;)
/father of three
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Worked out great for my family.
It was an unspoken rule in my house during my childhood because whoever was cooking absolutely refused to make things differently just because I didn't like it.
You're just teaching your kid that you don't get what you want just because you want it. If my hypothetical kid liked spinach but hated broccoli, that would be different. But if he or she would rather have fries instead of vegetables, there's no way I would ever acquiesce to that.
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It worked great for my mom -- if we didn't like it, we could choose between not eating or making our own meal (if she was in a good mood). Not a picky kid among us, and all of us can cook.
I'm no longer a fan of Jon and Kate since their whole lives turned into an attention-whoring contest, but I have to admit \"you get what you get and you don't get upset\" works WONDERS with children.
Somehow because it rhymes, they accept it as an unalterable truth. It's crazy. (BTW I know they did not invent the phrase and it's from a book, but I learned it from their show)
I subscribe to quality over quantity.
I have a friend who has young children, and some days she's just too tired to make a decent and fresh meal, so she puts together some hamburger helper or puts a frozen lasagna in the oven. She tries to make fresh meals most of the time, and when she does they're healthy and nutritious and she really makes an effort. IMO, this is better than having dinner on the table at 7 every night, but dinner is always fatty and loaded with sodium, spice packets, and preservatives with nary a vegetable in sight.
More like people are lazy
http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1549394,00.html
we have more free time now then 40 years ago,
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Free time depends on alot of factors, primarily kids and job. The article you linked to did not really take into account either of those.
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No, your question should read: \"What do you think the laziest person would choose?\"
When my sister and I were kids, both my mom and my dad worked. And yet, every night there was a home cooked, non-fast food meal on the table at 6:30 PM. And 99% of my friends lived in households with similar routines. No one I knew ate fast food more than once or twice a month, and yet they came from the same working-class households as I.
People today are fat because people today are much lazier. The instant gratification culture has led to our unhealthiness, nothing more, nothing less.
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Concur 100%. Our family sat down to dinner every night. Even after my mom starting working (when I was in grade school) she'd come home and cook dinner.
But then, both my parents were depression babies..born in the 1920's. They grew and canned food, paid cash for pretty much everything except the house and ate home cooked meals rather than going out.
We had home-cooked every night: awful canned vegetables/fruit (never frozen, never fresh), and MEAT. All loaded with salt, trace amount of fiber. I know folks in the world are going hungry, but gawd that was awful food!
But was it good for you? I'm not saying your parents were bad cooks, but I can attest in my own life that having a homecooked meal at night didn't mean that it actually tasted good or was good for you.
Oh yeah, my mom was very conscious of nutrition and a pretty damn good cook to boot. We had protein, grains, dairy and fruit / veggies at EVERY meal. She didn't stir up a pot of Mac and Cheese and call it a day. I didn't have a TV-dinner until I was 20-something. And I hated the taste of them.
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At the end of the day it pretty takes conscious action to home-make food that is less healthful than any prepared food. Sure, I add bacon fat to some of my dishes, but they certainly never contain HFCS, added sugar or artificial sweeteners (unless they are supposed to be sweet!), hydrogenated oils/trans fats, tons of salt or any of the other nasty stuff you find in prepared food. No matter how unhealthful your home cooking may be it's still better than eating prepared food.
I guess I was trying to make the point that \"home cooked\" doesn't always mean healthy, and it's quality that counts, not quantity.
I'm also talking more about taking short cuts to a homecooked meal. You know, like Sandra Lee's semi home made stuff. People using sauce packets and spice mixes instead of finding a way of making their own. Jars of tomato sauce instead of just making your own. Sure, fast food is worse than a homecooked meal, but people make concessions all the time, and they take shortcuts. A pack of taco spice mix and a pound of beef thrown together is probably still healthier than going to Taco Bell, but it's definitely not as healthy as it can be.
That depends on your definition of good for you or healthy. Both my parents worked growing up but my Mom always had dinner on the table every night and if she didn't have time, there were always homemade leftovers in the fridge. Granted, our family is Northern Italian and my Mom cooked with enough olive oil, butter, cream, sugar and carbs to make Paula Deen give her a hug. But everything was always from scratch, many of the things she made were recipes my grandmothers had taken from Italy, we always had salad and fruit with every meal and we never ever drank soda.
I generally try to cook healthier than Mom did (more lean meat, more vegetables in meals, less carbs), but I have no interest in spending my life in front of a stove. So sometimes I marinate my chicken before grilling in prepared Italian dressing and I sometimes use store-bought marinara sauce as a base for my \"homemade\" sauce as a time saver. Some people would say I'm the \"healthy one,\" some would say she is, it depends on your outlook. I would never criticize anyone who at least tries to make something 50% homemade.
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If I'm not mistaken, much of this price discrepancy has a lot to do with government subsidies to food companies...especially for foods containing HFCS.
But I thought trade bills like NAFTA were supposed to lower the cost of fresh fruit - among other products - since we're getting them from around the world. Have costs really risen for farms, or are companies like Sunkist (for example) just pocketing the increased profits?
I'd guess transportation costs play a huge role. First, fuel prices have obviously increased. Second, fresh produce isn't the kind of thing you want to ship cross country on rail (rail being cheap but slow). On the other hand, much soda can be bottled locally so you only have to ship the flavorings. This reduces weight and thus cost -- plus, the shipment is not time sensitive.
Sunkist comes from Florida and California, primarily.
I'm no fan of big corn, but big corn keeps meat cheap. Only 10% of the corn is made into things we eat. The rest is made into ethanol, seed or feed. Keep corn cheap but profitable, you keep pork, chicken and beef cheap.
That's not a good reason, it just defines intent.
Well, seeing as the US farmers are not growing fruit & veg in favor of growing subsidised corn & soy, you have to remember the increased shipping cost of putting fruit & veg on JETS to get them here offsets the benefits of the trade bills.
I think you answered your own question.