Why Is Healthier Food Harder To Find?

I don't think that it takes a genius to workout why the healthier food options are harder to find, and it has been that ways for a while too. It's for a similar reason for why they are adding all of this crap to our food. Not only that, but as well as being harder to find, when you do eventually manage to find those healthier foods, they are always a lot more expensive then the food that will do your body no favors.

 

It wouldn't be almost impossible to verify whether the "organic foods" actually are organic or not. Most stores are into this scam of selling non-organic foods as organic.

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That's old news but is evidence that when they can get away with it, stores will do whatever it takes to make more profits.

I'd suggest using organic delivery services. They are the better alternative.

 

I watched a documentary once about the 'is it organic or not?' question and it turns out that many foods that are supposed to be organic, and are labeled as such, actually are not, and are being sold at these expensive prices, when they are not what the consumer is looking for. Same with healthy bottled water. Turns out it is just tap water most of the time.

 

Pretty hard to make shelf stable items healthy. That's why it's harder to find.. highly processed foods are rarely healthy. Gluten free doesn't mean healthy. Fat free REALLY doesn't mean healthy. Vegan or vegetarian doesn't mean healthy. Non of these are healthy because of what's added, taken away, processed beyond recognition and then flavoured beyond belief to make it edible again. Nobody would eat this stuff if they didn't lol. Yes, they're all playing on people's lack of nutrition education.

 

All of the above, more or less. I think if you want food with the greatest chance of being healthy, you need to go to local growers, bakers, and the like. Even then I suppose you don't necessarily know what processes they use on their foods, but things like farmers' markets and food share programs are more likely to give you fresh, raw produce than the average supermarket.

 

I agree with this, as well as growing your own, when possible. Also, if you're going to grow your own, I'd be careful planting in the ground, unless you've lived there for years, and know the history of the soil and the soil and plants/trees around your land. I've got a pecan tree that hangs over my house, but I wouldn't eat the nuts from it, because God only knows what is in the soil here. Many of my neighbors are happy to spray toxins all over the place to get rid of insects and weeds, and my neighbor and his buddies use the area near the tree for an outdoor toilet. When I was growing tomatoes and lettuce, I did it in containers, up on my balcony, with 'organic' potting soil. The seeds were just regular seeds though, so were probably GMO.

 

I was happily surprised to learn that Kroger has not only store brands for many of the products they sell, but also has an organic line of meat that is pretty affordable. I stumbled upon it when I was bargain hunting in the meat aisle, which usually gives the same results as hunting for dinosaurs, but I found some packages of their

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products, and was very happy with how the chicken tasted. Here's an

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about the brand, it's an interview with a Kroger executive who states that Simple Truth is the largest natural food brand in the United States.

 

I too am inclined to think they are and not just supermarkets but food manufacturers also and they get away with it too.

Simply because - apart from consumers now wanting so called “ healthy “ convenience foods that are quickly prepared - they play on - as JosieP mentioned - the lack of the lack of consumer nutritional education - which as that is fueled by the media's confusing, false and often misleading information issued by so called “ experts " - is made even easier - particularly as many people are now so confused as to what healthy eating is - that it is all too easy to fall into the trap of buying foods with a “ healthy, natural or organic etc “ tag - thinking they are the healthier option - when in actual fact - although they are marketed that way - its all an illusion - especially as - they are generally quite the opposite of healthy and just overly processed foods with a so called “ healthy “ tag.

So bearing in mind - that its not necessary to buy these expensive so called “ healthy “ specialized foods with the “ healthy, vegan, vegetarian, natural, gluten free or organic “ tags in order to eat healthily and healthy eating is in reality - actually nothing more - than eating a varied well balanced diet containing natural nutrient dense foods - instead of overly processed chemically produced food containing loads of preservatives and additives - there really is no reason to fall into the trap or why healthier food should be more expensive or for that matter difficult to find.

Especially as a healthy diet generally consists of eating a wide variety of natural foods - the majority of which are natural plant based foods - such as fruit, vegetables, beans, grains, legumes, pulses, nuts and seeds - all of which are not only inexpensive - but everyday foods that can be found on the shelves of almost every supermarket or grocery store.

 

That's why the title of this thread had me confused - healthier foods like those described above are available everywhere. Any type of pre-packaged food, no matter what it is free-from, is generally processed to within an inch of its life.

The easiest way to find healthier food is to learn how to cook it yourself, from scratch.

 

That's a huge problem too though.. because people think that their highly processed ingredients being thrown together at home is healthy eating. Or if you just don't buy it at a restaurant, it's healthy eating. All different versions of the exact same foods. People are VERY confused.

 

I don't think you can necessarily trust the organic label, and some foods that come in their own peel like banans and oranges, what is the difference if it is organic or not..I would need a very compelling reason to purchase organic foods, and so far I can't find one. I think you can get the same results by rinsing your produce anyway.

 

I don't think it's necessarily hard to find healthy food, at least not where I live. It's just kind of a challenge to only eat healthy food all the time. As much as I love to cook and prepare meals from scratch, I still often times enjoy processed foods as well. It sometimes comes down to cost, it's too expensive at times to make everything from scratch.

It also helps to keep your shopping list simple, and try to weed out any expensive ingredients that you don't really need. I'll pass on the fancy lettuces, and stick with the simple and inexpensive iceberg for example. Or instead of the heirloom tomatoes or fancy packaged grape tomatoes, I will stick with the more common and inexpensive Roma tomatoes. No individually wrapped English cucumbers, I just get the regular cucumbers which cost a fraction of the price.

I rarely buy organic, since I refuse to pay an arm and a leg for vegetables, which quite frankly are often not even that fresh looking. I've seen our grocers try to sell something like a pack of "organic" corn or yellow squash for like $7, which is nuts, considering the non-organic versions would only cost me around $2 a pack.

 

I just think that we all need to go back to the basics where food is concerned, and start growing our own stuff. That way we know what goes into it, and what doesn't. We know what gets sprayed onto what we grow and what doesn't. Of course they don't want that, because it would greatly take away from the food industry monetarily.

 

We absolutely need to go back to basics and there's everyone's answer to health and weight loss to boot. Pretty simple really, but soooooooo hard and unheard of. If it's more expensive, you're doing it wrong (ok, I shouldn't say wrong, do it how you want lol.. but it does get healthier and cheaper the more real you get). But yes, if you're looking for healthy in the packaged food aisles (to each their own) you're doing it wrong. These industries are not their for your health.. they're there to play the game with your lack of knowledge and suck every penny out of you that they can. Their job isn't health.. they leave that up to the healthcare you'll need once you've lived on their foods for too long.

I wish I could grow my own food right now, but I'll get there. I question everything that goes into my body and I'm not fool enough to think it's all clean. When I can, I buy from people I've looked into and agree with their practices. Because it's important to me. We can only do our best.. sadly, not enough people care enough to even do that. Hence the overwhelming majority of crap foods people are complaining about. But demand says complaining is just that.. they're still buying the junk more than the stuff they should be buying more of. Can't fool the money machines.. they know what you really want. The only way to get more of the good stuff in stores is to start paying for the world you want. Vote with your dollars.

 

The demand for healthy food is just not as big as it is for junk food, so it costs more to produce and distribute it. If the standard were leaning more towards healthy food then the prices would be the other way around, but unfortunately junk food is just much tastier and easier to manipulate as well as being less expensive to produce. There really is just too many factors in the way of making healthy food mainstream enough for it to be cheap and accessible, but maybe someday the demand for it will become large enough that it competes better with junk food.

 

Well here's the thing - as the only difference between good quality white bread and wholewheat brown breads - is that the latter contains more fiber and therefore tends to be more filling.- brown bread isn't actually any healthier than white - as both contain the same in terms of nutrients.

Brown bread is however - another area where looks can be misleading and people often pay way more than they need to - particularly as - unless you are making your own bread or buying it from a bakery that only uses natural ingredients - the majority of brown breads sold in stores - are generally made from the same bleached white flour that white breads are made from - but with coloring agents - such as caramel or treacle, along with fiber flakes or grains, sweeteners, emulsifiers, preservatives and other additives added to make it look “ healthy ” rustic and brown - therefore what you are actually paying that extra bit more for - is in fact nothing more than white bread in disguise.

Which is why when choosing the healthiest option - the ingredients are far more important than the color of the bread - meaning - any bread - regardless of color - with a short ingredient list - for example, containing not much more than - flour, water, yeast, and salt - is obviously a much healthier choice - than bread that contains a long list of ingredients plus additives and preservatives.