Posted 5/7/2012
By William Kitner
Everyone has heard the saying “You get what you pay for.” Everyone knows quality costs money, so why do people want their food to be cheap? Before we look into the cost of food, let’s use some common sense by comparing a couple household appliances.
Juicing is a great thing to do for your health. In fact, if I was ever diagnosed with a serious disease, I would fast for as long as I could making my own organic juices. In the film Fat Sick and Nearly Dead, Joe Cross documents his amazing recovery by just drinking juice. But first, you need a juicer. Sure, you can go to Wal-Mart and get one for $40 – but guess what? It’s not going to be a very good machine. It will be a pain in the butt to clean, it’s going to be loud, and the juice you get will be so/so. Recently, I purchased a Hurom Slow Juicer. It’s pricey at $350, but was it worth it? Oh yeah! It’s actually quite an amazing machine. It’s quiet, super easy to clean, and not only do you get more juice, but the juice itself is superior. Yes, I had to pay for quality. But in the end, it’s going to last me a lot longer than the $40 juicer and because it’s easy and fun to use, I know I will use it more. In fact, since I’ve gotten it, I have made a juice every day. Before, when I had the cheap version, I hardly ever wanted to juice because it was such a pain in the butt.
Now, let’s look at the blender – a household appliance that all healthy people need to have. Who wouldn’t want to make a super food smoothie every day? Again, you can buy a cheap model for less than $30, but you know as well as I do that it’s going to be lame. It’s not going to be able to make almond milk or ice cream. It just won’t do the job that a high end Vitamix will do. Yes, the Vitamix is $500, but it will last a long time and it’s made in the USA (in Cleveland, Ohio). The machine can make almost anything you want – from smoothies, soups, ice cream, salsa, and so on. Is it pricey? Of course it is. But that’s the whole point. It’s pricey because it’s the best. I have close to $1000 invested in both my Vitamix and the Hurom Juicer and I couldn’t be happier with my purchases. (By the way, neither of these products are sponsors of KTRN – this is from personal experience).
I think it’s pretty common sense that you get what you pay for. It’s not just with blenders and juicers, but with just about everything in life. So here is the main question everyone should be asking themselves: How can a $1 double cheeseburger from a fast food joint be a good purchase? The answer: It isn’t.
For some reason, people have no problem spending big money on their cars, homes, and clothes, but when it comes to food, they want it to be as cheap (and fast) as possible, so they line up at the nearest drive-thru to order off the dollar menu. This makes no sense. If you use the saying “you get what you pay for” in regards to food, it should become automatically obvious that something must be seriously wrong with a sandwich that costs a whopping dollar. It can’t be real food. It has to be junk. Think about it for a minute. They are selling you two “beef” patties, two slices of cheese, a hamburger bun, onions, ketchup, pickles, mustard, and lettuce for a dollar. And somehow they still make money from it. Hello! Is anyone home? Why would you eat this? If it was real food, it would cost more money. For some reason, when most people think about food, they don’t use the same analogy that they use when buying other products (like a car), they just automatically want it to be cheap.
It’s not only fast food either. Think about the frozen food in the grocery store. I’ve seen the sales: 10 for $10. That’s right, ten full dinners for $10 dollars. Again, something has to be wrong with the food. There is no way humanly possible that it can be quality at such a cheap cost. Not only does the manufacturer need to make money, so does the grocery store. While the frozen dinner costs you a dollar, it probably only cost the company 50 cents to make it. That’s right, 50 cents for a Salisbury steak dinner. Then again, why is anyone eating Salisbury steak to begin with?
Nobody wants to spend a lot of money – I get it. Everyone wants a deal and a bargain. That’s totally cool. But you can still eat healthy food without breaking the bank. So the next time you scarf down a 69 cent taco, think about why it’s so cheap. Look at the type of people who have their grocery carts full of cheap frozen dinners. Ask yourself how the company could possibly be making money off the sale of such cheap food. Next, eat the food and tell me how you feel. There is a good chance you’ll find yourself bloated, fatigued, and running towards the nearest toilet. It’s just not worth it. It’s your body. It’s your health. It’s your life. So instead of buying a fancy car, or the most expensive stereo, you might consider buying organic healthy food. An expensive shirt is not going to save your life.
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