We like to talk about eating healthily as if it were an easy choice. But how easy is it really - a thread Big Mac vs Pasta vs Steak/Saladpic.twitter.com/1gLAVPb2Tp
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The cookware is similar in our two dishes - pan, pot, salad bowl - but they BOTH require far more than the Big Mac
There's also the spice issue - if you've got plenty of spices already, as well as olive oil and balsamic, the steak is easy. If not, that's another $15 out of pocket at the start
In fact, if you include all the costs external to the recipe, the steak gets up to a whopping $11 per person, making it almost 3x the cost of the pasta and double the Big Mac
If we then add in cooking/prep time, the steak is 40 mins vs the pasta's 20 mins and the Big Mac's ~0 mins Healthy is looking a lot more expensive now, isn't it?
I can make pasta with cheese and red sauce for dinner in under 15 minutes start to finish, and only 1 or two pots to wash Making steak with salad takes minimum 20 minutes and leaves me with double the washing time afterwards
But this crap is never even considered when we talk about the cost of healthy and unhealthy foods. It's always "well vegetables are cheap, just buy more of them"
If you're working long hours, don't already own good cookware and have a fully-stocked spice-rack, cooking healthily is an ENORMOUS CHALLENGE
Whereas a Big Mac meal will leave you full and happy for only slightly more than a basic pasta meal, and it tastes waaaaay better
Next time you're talking about whether people can easily just eat healthy, realize that for many it's going to be a very expensive thing to do
If we truly want to address obesity and make health equitable, making healthy food cheaper and more accessible is an important step
But we have to remember that this isn't just about ingredients - it's a complex and multifaceted issue with many places we need to intervene
NOTE: I used the US cost of a Big Mac. To compare properly, the Big Mac should be $9.50 upfront, making it the most expensive per person in terms of upfront costs
This was a stupid mistake, but ultimately the point still stands - a Big Mac at no external cost is far cheaper than a healthy meal with many externalities built in
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