Push that trolley past me
Buying relatively healthy food is difficult.
We’ve built up a framework to sell “what people want” as cheaply and quickly as possible, and in the process, began processing every ingredient until it seems to match nearly any recipe. Instantly-edible (if barely nutritious) food is abundant, surrounding an option which would more likely be good for us to eat. It’s cheaper to buy the stuff that’s quickly produced and processed, as everything’s geared up for its creation, dispersal, and marketing.
The side of the shelf with relatively healthy food seems less interesting, more expensive, and to involve more work in preparing, so it’s difficult to make a healthy decision when you’re tired, hungry, and have little time to cook, or are on a budget—all important and ubiquitous nudges in the wrong direction.
There’s a branding around “healthy” “wholesom” “organic” food, which is often no better than its cheaper counterpart, and makes it a statement of your class, intentions, and income when pushing a trolley full of brown-paper, leaf-grean wrapped, Organic-branded produce which is supposedly less produced than the processed, pimary-coloured boxes for the poor.
So buying food is a challenge. It’s a challenge to your purse, to your diary, and to your identity.
