Why are healthy foods so expensive?

The reason that healthy foods are so expensive is simple economics. Even though recent trends have pointed to an increased demand of healthy, natural and organic food, supply is still very low and the cost to produce them is very high. One important factor that makes food healthy is freshness. Fruits and vegetables can only grow in specific climates of the world and only at certain times of the year. Usually this climate area is far from your house, and even though it is only grown for a few months out of the year, is demanded all the time. We want to eat kiwis and strawberries all year round, right? To make this a reality, companies need to store the food in giant air conditioned warehouses and ship the food across the world to meet local demand. As you can imagine, this is a very expensive process and the cost is passed onto the consumer. On the other hand, unhealthy foods are grown (or raised) in huge quantities. For example corn that is used to make high fructose corn syrup (the ingredient that adds sugar to everything including candy, fruit juice and soda) is grown all around the world and is heavily subsidized in this country. Manufacturers have a cheap supply of sugar that they use to make all sorts of unhealthy foods. Until the demand of healthy food rises above the demand for unhealthy foods, the supply won't expand and the prices won't come down. Fortunately, with the country starting to notice that buying expensive food now can prevent expensive hospital bills later, the mood is changing. For more information on shopping for healthy food on a budget, visit the Guide to Grocery Shopping. You can also see how others save money at the store and share your own tips at the diet and nutrition forums.

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