Scary: How to spend less than $3/day on food and still live fat and happy (and die young)
I just had the pleasure to visit Europe and upon landing at one of the Middle-European airports, I saw hundreds of people around me and something seemed off in the scenery. Soon I realized what looked so different from what I was used to in American airports: I didn’t see a single truly obese person in sight, except one: a lady carrying an American passport in her hand on my right (for real). But that hardly is surprising; by now everyone knows that we’ve become the fattest country (the U.S.) in the world and by far the number one killer of Americans is obesity - either directly or indirectly.
Although the causality map of obesity is ridiculously complicated, the final gate for gaining or losing weight is practically always one’s mouth and the food that goes in there. And as I was shopping food after returning from Europe, I accidentally picked the wrong brand of Almond milk. This “milk” had water and sugar as ingredients and a cup of it had 190kcal – in comparison a cup of Coca Cola has only 100kcal. I thought this is so screwed up. Does it really make business sense to produce horrible junk and throw sugar and other needless ingredients into every product?
While grocery shopping, I decided to take a look at some of the typical products sold in super markets (Safeway in this case). I compared the daily cost of each product assuming a 2,000kcal/day diet and getting all energy from that single product. The frustrating list of results is below: You can easily live on $1-$3/day, eating highly processed food and fill your fuel tank with them. The problem: it’s all horrible junk you should never be touching anyway = Oreo Cookies, Twinkies, RedVines, soda, chips and cerials diet? All easily less than $4/day on a $2000kcal/day diet. Rather disgusting. You would think highly processed food ends up being expensive, but no.
Ramen Noodles also makes the top of the list. I wouldn’t recommend it either, as it’s all refined carbs and comes with a long list of stuff you want to avoid (courtesy of Safeway.com): Ramen Noodles: Enriched Flour (Wheat Flour, Niacin, Reduced Iron, Thiamine Mononitrate, Riboflavin, Folic Acid), Vegetable Oil (Contains One or More of the Following: Canola Oil, Cottonseed Oil, Palm Oil) Preserved by Tocopherols and/or TBHQ and/or Ascorbyl Palmitate, Contains Less than 2% of Salt, Sodium Tripolyphosphate, Potassium Carbonate, Sodium Carbonate, Sodium Alginate. Seasoning Mix: Salt, Monosodium glutamate, Hydrolyzed Soy, Corn and Wheat Protein, Chicken Powder, Soy Sauce Powder (Wheat, Soybeans, Maltodextrin, Salt), Onion Powder, Garlic Powder, Spices, Chicken Fat, Calcium Silicate (Anticaking Agent), Celery Powder, Sugar, Dehydrated Leek, Turmeric Color, Autolyzed Yeast Extract, Citric Acid, Disodium Guanylate, Disodium Inosinate, Natural Flavors, Artificial Flavors.
I’m waiting for the day when producing, selling and eating junk food is considered as bad (and is as expensive) as smoking today. I am sure that day will come, but it might be another 5+ years away. Junk food tax, anyone?
