How many times have you heard this in your life?
"You should watch your weight" or " You should eat better/healthier." My response? "Will you buy me the food? Will you pay for me to do this?"
In today's world we have to be honest, most of us don't have a big budget. When we eat the first thing we do is look for the cheapest option. "I'm starving. Lets go to Mc D's!" I bet you hear this more often then "I'm starving, Let's go grab a salad." Know why? My five dollars at Mc D's can get me four burgers. At the grocery store, if I were looking to shop for a salad, a pre-made (not very healthy) salad is four to seven dollars, it would be even more expensive if I made it my self. Here lies our everyday fight for quantity, what will keep us fuller longer? The four burgers from Mc D's could be split into two meals. My one pre-made salad is one meal, If that.
This doesn't mean we don't want to be healthy, don't get me wrong if I had the money I would. The reality is I don't.
In college you hear that you live off ramen noodles and pizza. For me that's half true. I try to be healthy but again it's expensive, then again there is just some stuff I don't feel comfortable putting in my body. I've been broke to were I have two or more days that I could possibly be without food and I settle for sandwiches or a PB&J, things I don't normally eat but it's still not ramen.
I say "it's still not ramen" because I know what it's made of, I know the chemicals and the ingredients that are not so natural and I just can't do it. I can't even eat canned soup. I open it and smell all the chemicals, I look at the processed, artificially flavored (not meat) things it contains and gag.
So, I go to HEB (because it's Texas and why would I go anywhere else?) and get avocados, bread, fruit, veggies and as much organic/natural things I can. I look at the packages and if I see "high fructose corn syrup" or anything I know to be almost always genetically mortified I don't get it. Problem is, most everything contains something with GM. That ham I put in my sandwich has preservative chemicals too.
Choices are up to you, and sometimes they're made for you. If you have the money you buy everything organic and all natural from places like sprouts and trader joes but when your broke 90 percent of the time, like me, you have to pick the lesser evil. 80 percent processed and genetically mortified or 14 percent. These are my only choices, because if I pick what I want, the all natural, I won't have enough food to make it to my next paycheck or possibly to Friday.
Another thing is that the organic and all natural foods parish fast, so you have to know exactly what you are going to eat and when, if not the food goes bad before you even had a bite. This also happens a lot to me when I buy fruits and veggies. I waste money, unintentionally, so instead I buy frozen fruits and veggies. My next problem occurs, space.
So, next time you see someone being so "unhealthy" think to your self, why? Then think, what can I do? Stand up for the natural healthy things in life to become the norm. Then, and only then, will the prices go down (supply and demand). When the unhealthy is no longer wanted then maybe everyone can afford to be healthy.
