The Cost Of Health

Last month I posted a Facebook picture and comment complaining about the cost of eating healthy. The picture was of a gallon of Organic Milk which cost $7, (a gallon of regular priced milk is $2.59). A friend of mine made this comment about the picture, "When eating healthy, you either pay with your WEALTH, or you pay with your HEALTH". Meaning if you wish to eat healthy, it's gonna cost you a lot of money or if your chose NOT to eat healthy, you'll pay with poor health. But is that really fair? Is it fair that an organic chicken sandwich cost over $10 but a chicken sandwich from a fast food restaurant only costs $1? And furthermore is it all coincidental or is it an underlying conspiracy by the government to control population by ensuring the wealthy get to live longer by indirectly forcing the poor to eat poorly? Well, that may be a stretch....but then again it might not be!

Personally, I'd love to be able to eat organic foods and avoid the processed and pesticides drenched foods that are sold in the stores but for the most part that would mean my lights, cable, and Internet would all get cut off. Especially in cities like Los Angeles and New York where food is already expensive enough. Last week I paid $57 for a bunch of bananas, a pack of margarine, a pack of cheese, 2 packs of turkey lunch meat, 2 loaves of bread, 2 boxes of Nilla Waffers, a small pack of Hormel Roast Beef & a box of Cheerios.... That's it.... $57 for that. RIDICULOUS! What are we to do when the cost of food is steadily increases, healthy food is twice as much yet we are being laid off and losing jobs?

The question I pose is, "Should the government do something to regulate the pricing of organic foods so that common people can also afford to eat better? Or should they simply improve and impose stricter regulations for the chemicals used to grow our normal foods? These days the poison in our meats and vegetables seem to be more dangerous than what cigarettes contain. At least when smoking cigarettes the potent ingredients are clearly printed right on the pack. When you go to the grocery store a buy a chicken the size of a turkey you have no idea what hormones were used to double the size or their effects. I also think the toxins in the foods we eat are the causes behind all these young athletes dying of heart attacks and seizures and suffering from all these concussions. There's no way anybody can convince me that there's no direct correlation between the two. Football players aren't hitting any harder and basketball teams aren't training any harder, yet every year more and more young athletes in peek condition are dying from health related issues. Just some FOOD for thought.