The Sad Truth

Reading this week's article was sad, but not very enlightening. Over the past three weeks, Lia, Glenn, and I have been faced, time and time again, with the truth that processed foods are easier to come by, easier to prepare, and are cheaper. It's not surprising that low-income families buy processed foods that are high in sodium and sugar. For them, it's economical.

Working at the Salvation Army in Newark, Ohio, it's become quite clear to me what the poor in this country eat. The food pantry is stocked with boxes of Mac' and Cheese and canned soups and vegetables. There are shelves of cookies and Ramen. There are frozen pizzas and peanut butter. All of this food is high in artificial preservatives, high fructose corn syrup, and all have a decided lack of nutrition. And so when low-income individuals or families come in, they are faced with shelves and shelves of boxed, processed foods.

The most depressing thing for me to watch, however, is not the accumulation of the massive pile of boxed goods in the pantry. It's when a family comes in and is offered fresh carrots, or a head of lettuce... and they decline the offer. Just last week I watched a mother turn down a bag of apples, but load up on mac' and cheese. I can't seem to understand how or why fresh food is not as appealing as processed. It's sad, and it needs to change.

Part of the problem that I see is the inevitable addiction that comes with regularly consuming fast foods or processed foods--foods that are pumped so full of chemically engineered flavors that they have no counterpart in nature. I've eaten a Big Mac, I've eaten chicken fingers--they taste good. But consistently eating flavors that have no natural source is bound to make fresh produce taste bland. Consistently eating foods high in sodium and sugar is going to make fresh foods taste flavorless. Those engineered flavors, salt, and sugar will become the norm, and anything less than that will be uninteresting. And it's awful that those fake tastes are coming to be the norm in our country.

It's not ok to be providing our poor with only unhealthy foods. It's hard to change an entire system, but we need to find a way to promote fresh foods among the lower-income classes. We can't rely so much on giving out "filler foods" (to borrow a phrase from Amy Barger)--we need to start promoting fresh fruits, vegetables, and meats. We need to change prices in stores so that the cheap foods are the healthy ones. We need to start thinking about what we put into our bodies, and what the long term effects of those choices are. It's fantastic that 750 farmer's markets accept SNAP credits... but only 750?!? We have a domestic population of over 300 million people (census.gov)! That's one farmer's market for every 400,000 people! It's a start, but it's not enough. We need to push these changes. We can start locally. Every person makes a difference. And together, all of our small local changes will show. We can make a difference.