The Cheaper Choice

Photo by Daniel Borris, NYT

I just read Mark Bittman's latest in the Sunday edition of the New York Times. Good stuff. He tackles the common thought that junk food is cheaper than real food. 

I highly recommend you read the article, but here are a few of my favorite quotes:

"But food choices are not black and white; the alternative to fast food is not necessarily organic food, any more than the alternative to soda is Bordeaux.

The alternative to soda is water, and the alternative to junk food is not grass-fed beef and greens from a trendy farmers’ market, but anything other than junk food: rice, grains, pasta, beans, fresh vegetables, canned vegetables, frozen vegetables, meat, fish, poultry, dairy products, bread, peanut butter, a thousand other things cooked at home — in almost every case a far superior alternative."

"The smart campaign is not to get McDonald’s to serve better food but to get people to see cooking as a joy rather than a burden, or at least as part of a normal life."

The take home on all of this is that it doesn't have to expensive or difficult to eat real food. Anything is better than nothing, you can start by just forgoing processed food one day a week.

Anyone can eat better, whole foods that were designed for our bodies and nourishment, (Genesis 1:29); it doesn't have to be everything at once. Start small, and you don't need to spend more to do it. Yeah, organic and local is great- but unprocessed is the most important place to start.