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[dropcap]O[/dropcap]nce upon a time, in a faraway land, where kings and queens ruled, lived sick and overweight people. 

Many could not afford to buy fresh, delicious vegetables, and ripe, juicy fruits with the wee bit of gold they earned.

So the peasants made a deal with the kings and queens. In hopes to cure their starvation and gain money, the kings gave food to the peasants, which made them overweight and contract many diseases.

Not one of the  323,127,000 people in the land knew the real reason behind their sicknesses.

Why?

The kings and queens were keeping it a secret. For if this secret got out to the people, there would be an uprising.

 The people in the land spent all their time and riches striving to find a way to cure and prevent the diseases they had contracted, but the answer had been right in front of them the entire time.

Sorry to burst your bubble buddy, but this is real life.

The True Costs

Turns out, the kings and queens in the story above actually represent all of the fast food industries in America.

The poisonous food the kings were giving to the people represent all of the junk we put into our bodies that is slowly killing us each day. The leading cause of obesity is that of an unhealthy diet. The average American diet is full of fast food and high- calorie beverages.

You’re probably thinking, “but I can’t afford to pay for all of those fruits and vegetables all the time, and a burger costs so much less”, and you are absolutely right.

The true costs of cheap foods are hidden behind that one dollar you pay for your cheeseburger every week, or even every day.

McDonald's is bringing back the Dollar Menu, sort of. It's actually called the $1 $2 $3 Dollar Menu. https://t.co/kqzE5WlJFM pic.twitter.com/EPkFCnSJAk

— CNN (@CNN) December 5, 2017

The intention for the dollar menus you see at fast food restaurants was initially intended for teens in school that are trying to make a living and feed themselves at the same time. A fast and easy way to save time and money. What these restaurants did not think about is all of the lower income families that need to feed their children.

For most of these families, it is cheaper to buy ten dollars worth of food to feed their families instead of buying a tub of strawberries for six dollars that will only count as a snack for most people.

It is so easy to just grab a bite to eat on your way home from work from the drive-through at McDonald’s. It tastes good, and the price is great, but what are you really paying for?

Should poison really cost less?

Think about it.

There are many more costs behind processed food than there is for fresh produce. With fresh produce, you pay for farm equipment, seed, water, pesticides, harvesting, and then transportation to your local grocery store.

When you order a Big Mac from McDonald’s, farmers must take all of those steps from above, to grow the lettuce, cucumbers for the pickles, onions, and wheat for the bun.

That is already a lot to do, but then you add milking the cow for the cheese, killing the cow for beef, plus all of the food it took to make the cow big, all of the processing, transportation, adding preservatives to each of the products, then shipping these products off to stores to then be sold to McDonald’s or wherever you get your fast food from.

It costs more for less work, and it costs less to pay for:

1. More work
2. Unhealthy, fatty, high-calorie food
3. Developing diseases
   

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Availability

Junk food is everywhere!

It is so easy to just grab a big chocolate bar for fifty cents on your way out of the gas station, because its food, and who doesn’t like chocolate?

When was the last time you walked into the gas station and found a big basket of fruit or even an apple at the grocery store for fifty cents?

They do not offer fruits and vegetables, or decent food that we should be consuming more of at gas stations or movie theaters.

They offer the cheap stuff, like 89 cent donuts and chips. Sure, there might be a small basket of fruit depending on where you go, but for the most part, there isn’t.

If there is, it is usually one dollar and twenty cents per apple. That money eventually adds up and can cause a problem.

Health Risks

People are always blaming the person for being obese.

How about trying to put some of the blame on the costs as well? Nearly two out of every three adults are overweight because they cannot afford to buy healthy foods.

Recently I went to my usual grocery store.

I was planning on buying food from the produce section and thought that I wanted to get some spinach for a salad I would have later that night. So I walk over to the far wall where they keep their veggies and pick up a bag of spinach. I looked at the price and put it back on the shelf. I put it back because when I looked at the price, it read $7.99.

I am not going to pay eight dollars for ten ounces of spinach, so I went and got something else that cost less.

This is an example of how most Americans feel when they go to the grocery store.

So then why do we keep producing these poisonous foods that cause all sorts of problems like depression, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, insulin resistance, obesity, heart disease or stroke, and different cancers?

One word. Money.

Every person in the U.S. cares about money in some way, shape, or form. People need to make money, no matter the cost.

A fast food analysis from www.franchisehelp.com says,“Globally, fast food generates revenue of over $570 billion – that is bigger than the economic value of most countries.”

The cause of most diseases is how a person eats.

Imagine being able to spend those 570 billion dollars for research and curing diseases. That would be amazing. Not only would it help keep obesity rates from rising, but it would help prevent diseases and new ones from forming.

The prevalence of obesity and overweight has increased dramatically in the United States since the mid-1970s, and nearly two in three adult Americans are either overweight or obese. High costs—in health, social, and economic terms—are known to be associated with obesity.

Many of us choose junk food over organic food because it is less expensive.

So, what if fast food costs more than a meal you could make at home? Would you still pay for a ten dollar hamburger? Or would you make something at home and save thousands of dollars each year?

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Post by Lexi R.