We often hear that healthy food costs a fortune, and indeed I am a strong believer of that. It doesn’t need a second opinion, just go to the market and shop for your diet/ healthy lifestyle.
However, I have done my part of research and it is indeed a big challenge to the healthy food suppliers for the following reasons:
First, fruits are seasonal food, so certain types grow in summer or winter or spring. This makes the prices of off-season fruits get higher. We all know that with new technologies, all types of fruits became available in all seasons, however this comes with a cost because the process of making the fruits all-seasons available is a costly procedure.
Second, the extreme weather conditions made huge losses to the fruits and vegetables. Giving the example of Texas last year, winter storm Uri caused massive losses in several agricultural sectors.
Third reason is the cost of transportation. Healthy foods such as fruits and vegetables are often brought from farms to supermarkets, which adds up to the total cost of the food.
Another important reason is the storage & shelf life of healthy food. Let’s take a small comparison between canned food and fresh fruits. Canned food can be stored in normal conditions for a long time. However, when it comes to fresh fruits, they need to have refrigeration and lighting, which makes up of 65% of a grocery store’s energy use. An extra cost for a shorter shelf life.
Obviously, canned foods can be mass produced, unlike the healthy food which cannot be mass produced.
So, for these reasons and more, it is real that healthy food is more expensive than unhealthy food, but for valid reasons.
