Recently I talked about slotting fees and how they are the reason why junk food is so popular at the supermarket. Slotting fees are a fee paid by food companies to supermarkets, so they would place the food company's products on shelves in higher traffic aisles, which consequently results in more sales. Because junk food companies have more profit, they can spend more on slotting fees (and advertising).

Now, slotting fees probably are a very important reason for junk food's popularity, but it's definitely not the most important reason. The main reason for the popularity of junk food can probably be found in the denomination of the term itself.

Junk Food: low price

Obviously, the Junk in "Junk food" refers to the fact that the food is in fact ... garbage. When you eat Junk food your body is filled with fast sugars, trans fats and other additives. Following a diet like this will result in weight gain, an instable immune system and an overall sickening feeling.

Why does junk food have this unhealthy effect? Because junk food has no nutritional value and contains very cheap ingredients. Why cheap ingredients? More profit for the food companies of course. Don't ever think the food companies care about your health. No antioxidants, omega 3 or vitamines to be found in these products.

Fast Food: convenience

The Fast in "Fast Food" refers to the convenience in preparation. Junk food or fast food can be consumed at any time, anywhere and it doesn't require any effort at all to prepare. In the largest fast food nation in the world you don't even have to exit your car to order a meal. Just drive by a speaker, place an order and pick up the junk at the counter. The faster you are served, the sooner you'll return for more.

Real Food: an investment

The reason why I'm writing this post is because I read an article by Christina, who writes for the Former Fat Guy Blog. The article is titled Invest In Yourself With High Quality Food. Christina cleverly points out how we shouldn't be cheap when it comes to food. "When you pay the extra price for healthy food, you are actually investing in yourself". This is an important concept you must understand when you want to shop healthy!

Here's an excerpt from the article:

Eating on the “cheap” can save you money but it can also cost you thousands of dollars on prescription drugs, time away from work, valued time with your family not to mention a lesser quality of life. How do you want to live your life? (...)

I’m not pleading innocent and I will admit I have in the past succumbed to the stockpiling purchasing. At one time I had 22 Lipton’s Sidekicks in my pantry and numerous tinned soups. While unloading the groceries, I took quick stock and realized that I kept buying more because they were on sale. I hadn’t even used up what I had. I wondered about the shelf life of these items so as I read the packaging to look for expiry date because I didn’t want them to go bad, it was then I read the Nutritional Facts. (...)

Buying in bulk: a bad deal?

It's very note worthy how Christine talks about stocking up and buying in bulk. Very often food companies assign lower prices for products in large quantities. Why's that? Because the ingredients are cheap. Very often you pay more for the packaging than the food itself. You get a discount because high volume means overall less packaging.

Now, when looking at the price difference, you pay $2.25 for the 6 pack and $4.50 for the 12 pack. When doing the math, it means you're paying $1 per quart for a 12 pack and $1.50 per quart for a 6 pack. (one quart = 32 ounces). Even cheaper is the 2 liter bottle, containing 67 ounces. For this you only have to pay $0.71.

Obviously, You pay a lot less when buying larger quantities then if you were to buy pepsi in smaller quantities. The 2 liter bottle did contain less ounces than the 12 pack while it was cheaper. That's because a bottle is only one big package, while the 12 pack has 12 small packages.

Image by Fillmore photography

Buying in bulk: what's the big deal?

Now you might think, what's the big deal? The big deal lies in the fact that this system will make people more inclined to buy food and soft drinks in larger quantities. As a result, they'll be eating and drinking a lot more. Obesitas, anyone?

The worst part of this whole story is that mainly junk food companies provide their products in bulk format. Junk food is one of the only food type (besides water) of which the ingredients are often cheaper than the packaging. Horrifying, isn't it.

One of the several reasons why the junk food ingredients (cf. High Fructose Corn Syrup) are so cheap is because they are subsidized by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). In another one of my posts you can read more about these USDA subsidies.

If you want to receive notifications of new blog posts, subscribe to my RSS feed or Mailing list.

TrackBack URI for this entry

Comments (2)

Great post - right on the money
written by Metroknow - AlmostFit.com , March 05, 2008

I really enjoyed this post, and agree wholeheartedly. In a recent post I pointed out how sad it is that "American Cheese" is reduced fat processed imitation poly-cheese wrapped in individual plastic sleeves and then rewrapped in another plastic wrapper - instead of some high quality sharp cheddar made by midwestern American farmers...thank you, food industrialization moguls.

I'll definitely be checking back often - I really enjoyed it. Thanks.

lol
written by HEEELLO , July 12, 2008

SOUNDS TRUE ;)