Essay Sample on Eating Healthy on a Budget: Balancing Cost and Nutrients

There is a vast variety of food eaten by humans, most of which contain many elements like minerals and vitamins essential for the body. However, there is an increased shift to less healthy food among many people citing the increasing cost of healthy eating. Less healthy foods cost about $1.5 less than the healthiest diets (Harrison et al., 2010). To get all nutrients necessary for healthy body growth and functioning, one needs to eat a variety of foods, mostly fresh fruits, fresh vegetables, legumes, nuts, whole grains, and other types of food. This paper seeks to discuss the problem of the expensive cost of healthy eating, effects on human health, and the solutions to the said problem.

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Poor diets are known to be the leading factors in global diseases and 20% of all deaths worldwide. Unavailability and high cost of healthy food are the primary cause of inadequate diet consumption, especially among the vulnerable groups in society, thus contributing significantly to diet-associated diseases and mortality. Healthy foods are seen to be more expensive in more impoverished communities and become markedly cheaper throughout development. Therefore, the cost is one reason why many Americans choose to consume less healthy food. Besides, processed food contains many calories at a lower price than fresh food, which demands a bigger budget. Research by Harrison and colleagues (2010), identified that the cost of healthy food in major cities was 24.2% cheaper than in the nearest remote area. More so, the Healthy Food Access Basket (HFAB) cost has risen by about 50% in most cities compared to the less healthy alternatives (Harrison et al., 2010). As a nurse practitioner, this trend is worrying because most of the people everybody needs to consume healthy food to resist diseases, infections, and to have a generally healthy body. Besides, nurses interact with people of all ages, most of who have different health problems. On the one hand, children, for instance, need to be provided with a healthy and balanced diet which is free from empty calories. The type of food containing carbohydrates, proteins, minerals, vitamins, and fats is thus essential for children to help them develop a robust immune system (Harrison et al., 2010). On the other hand, older adults require a lot of vitamins and proteins for body repair. One needs different types of food apart from the usual staple rice or wheat to maintain a healthy diet.

Unhealthy foods cost less because food policies have focused on the production of large volumes of inexpensive food. These policies have led to complex activities that favor the sale of highly processed food with maximum profits. Although this trend has helped reduce the burden of high-cost healthy food in low-income families, the difference is minimal compared to the economic cost of less healthy food concerning chronic diseases caused by unhealthy food (Harrison et al., 2010). For instance, the lower prices of soft drinks and sugar-rich snacks have led to a significant increase in cases of obesity among the adult population. Furthermore, an increase in industrial development has led to a drop in processed food prices and thus to influence the choices people make on what to eat. Besides, the cost of healthy eating has also affected the availability of such food products in the local market. Therefore, managing cost Across the food production sector and nutrition-sensitive agriculture are essential because it will allow people to access healthy food at a more affordable price. Correctly, more emphasis must be put production of nutrient-rich organic foods rather than staple foods.

The big problem that we are facing today is that most agricultural research in the past decades focused on staple foods. Besides, most people grow a lot of staple food and invest a lumpsum amount of money in this kind of agriculture rather than focusing on the production of healthy and high nutritious food. In most countries, research focuses on poverty reduction and food security, which leads to the creation of food that is not the kind of food that HFAB would consider healthy (Harrison et al., 2010). The fact is that the feasibility of a person eating eggs, which are ten times expensive than rice, which is a staple food, is very low despite eggs being healthy food. Therefore, it is crucial to change the role of prices in controlling people's nutritional behavior. Even as the government makes policies to regulate food production and costs, it is critical to consider the consequences of such systems and do an in-depth analysis of whether the plans make healthy food available at an affordable price. The availability of most elements contained in HFAB like cucumber, green beans, mangoes, oranges, kiwi fruits, rockmelon, among many others, is a challenge to many people because of the high cost of such commodities (Harrison et al., 2010). Ironically, policies aimed at bulk production of such products have created an avenue of the inorganic output, which has increased the risk of harmful chemical residues in the agricultural foods produced.

Conclusion

Finally, it is crucial to be very cautious about the type of food one is taking. Besides, there is that old saying that "cheap is expensive." Although it is a bit expensive, healthy food goes a long way to control several lifestyle diseases like diabetes, high blood pressure, and some type of cancer like blood cancer. On the contrary, eating less healthy food can be detrimental, particularly in one’s health. Thus, it beats the sense of buying cheaper, less healthy meals only to spend more money on hospital bills due to the effects of the same food. Therefore, people should concentrate on producing nutrient-rich food crops available in the markets at a lower price. People should also take advantage of available foods like green vegetables, fresh fruits, legumes, grains, pods, and other fresh foods that are healthy and highly nutritious in the local markets. It is also essential for people to practice farming such crops as vegetables and fruits in their kitchen gardens to supplement the ones obtained from the market.

Reference

Harrison, M., Lee, A., Findlay, M., Nicholls, R., Leonard, D., & Martin, C. (2010). The increasing cost of healthy food. Australian and New Zealand Journal of Public Health, 34(2), 179–186. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1753-6405.2010.00504.x