I was running to my hairdresser the other day when I stopped dead in my tracks and read the sandwich board of a hot dog stand. Since I was walking quickly, I thought I had misread the jumbo hot dog + can of soda pop combo deal as a mistake at $2.50.
I live in a city that has followed the footsteps of New York City and you’ll find a hot dog stand everywhere you turn in the centre of the city.
Not long ago there was an article about a hot dog vendor who worked on the university campus 365 days a year and was able to pull a cool $250,000 a year selling hot dogs to university students and professors.
I could not believe the amount of money that hot dogs could bring you and I couldn’t believe that many people were willing to eat that many hot dogs.
I remember talking to a friend of mine about this and he said he worked with someone who ate two hot dogs and a pop every single day AND even on weekends. My friend’s colleague didn’t eat anything else because where else can you get that much food that fast for only a few dollars?
I eat Italian sausages that I prepare at home or that I eat when I eat out, but I haven’t eaten hot dogs since I was a teenager. I used to eat my share of hot dogs until I had a heart to heart discussion with my-then-best-friend’s dad who used to work in a hot dog manufacturing plant when he was a young guy. Since working at that plant he had never touched a hot dog or relish for that matter.
I begged my friend to tell me why her dad was so set in his ways and what was so bad about hot dogs. She simply said that her dad refused to talk about the horror.
I did finally ask her dad and he said pretty much the same thing she warned me. He said that since working there he could never touch a hot dog again because he know exactly how they were prepared and that once you know, you just cannot bring yourself to eat that stuff.
I didn’t have a lot to go on, but I do remember my friend’s dad’s face as he talked to me and from that moment on, I decided not to eat hot dogs.
When I took note of the price on that sandwich board, it was clear to me that those hot dog stands were making a boat load of money because they were selling extremely cheap food and the people eating the cheap food didn’t particularly care as long as the food was cheap.
I stood there and thought to myself there is no way you can eat a healthy meal for $2.50.
I know off the top of my head that I could most likely buy the following healthy food for about $2.50:
* One protein bar
* A bunch of bananas
* A healthy muffin (I buy mine for $1.70 each)
* A couple of healthy cookies (at either $1.00 each or heartier ones at $2.50 each)
* Health chips
* A chocolate bar
* An individual tub of organic yogurt
But as you can see none of those would be considered a meal … they are more snacks. It’s true that some protein bars are meal replacements, but those are usually at least $4.
If I wanted to spend $2.50 on healthy foods, I could eat something that would hold me until I had a proper meal, but I would never be able to buy as much food as that jumbo hot dog + can of soda pop combo deal at $2.50.
Michael Pollan’s In Defence of Food, David Wolfe’s Superfoods, Colin and Thomas Campbell’s The China Study, David A. Kessler’s The End of Overeating and Gary Taubes’ Good Calories Bad Calories are all books that allude to the cost of healthy foods and how difficult it is for families who earn low incomes or so many families who are now dealing with this new economy and who have less money to buy healthy foods to make good food choices.
Eating organic foods and eating healthy foods becomes a real struggle when you are juggling bills, mortgages and other responsibilities. If you stop by a hot dog stand and pull out $2.50, you get a meal (not the best meal, but a meal nonetheless) that will hold you until the next meal.
The sandwich board was a real reminder to me that the theory of allowing as many people as humanly possible to access good quality foods is a noble one, but the sad reality remains that a $2.50 unhealthy meal is unbeatable.
If you know of any healthy meal that costs less than $2.50, I’d love to hear from you and I would love to update this post.
© All copyrights reserved to http://www.eatsmartagesmart.com in all countries.
>>>> If you’re viewing this healthy eating or healthy living tipas part of an aggregatedcontentstreamfrom different sites, or as a re-blogged post, please check out the contenton the original Web site atwww.EatSmartAgeSmart.com
I was running to my hairdresser the other day when I stopped dead in my tracks and read the sandwich board of a hot dog stand. Since I was walking quickly, I thought I had misread the jumbo hot dog + can of soda pop combo deal as a mistake at $2.50.
I live in a city that has followed the footsteps of New York City and you’ll find a hot dog stand everywhere you turn in the centre of the city.
Not long ago there was an article about a hot dog vendor who worked on the university campus 365 days a year and was able to pull a cool $250,000 a year selling hot dogs to university students and professors.
I could not believe the amount of money that hot dogs could bring you and I couldn’t believe that many people were willing to eat that many hot dogs.
I remember talking to a friend of mine about this and he said he worked with someone who ate two hot dogs and a pop every single day AND even on weekends. My friend’s colleague didn’t eat anything else because where else can you get that much food that fast for only a few dollars?
I eat Italian sausages that I prepare at home or that I eat when I eat out, but I haven’t eaten hot dogs since I was a teenager. I used to eat my share of hot dogs until I had a heart to heart discussion with my-then-best-friend’s dad who used to work in a hot dog manufacturing plant when he was a young guy. Since working at that plant he had never touched a hot dog or relish for that matter.
I begged my friend to tell me why her dad was so set in his ways and what was so bad about hot dogs. She simply said that her dad refused to talk about the horror.
I did finally ask her dad and he said pretty much the same thing she warned me. He said that since working there he could never touch a hot dog again because he know exactly how they were prepared and that once you know, you just cannot bring yourself to eat that stuff.
I didn’t have a lot to go on, but I do remember my friend’s dad’s face as he talked to me and from that moment on, I decided not to eat hot dogs.
When I took note of the price on that sandwich board, it was clear to me that those hot dog stands were making a boat load of money because they were selling extremely cheap food and the people eating the cheap food didn’t particularly care as long as the food was cheap.
I stood there and thought to myself there is no way you can eat a healthy meal for $2.50.
I know off the top of my head that I could most likely buy the following healthy food for about $2.50:
* One protein bar
* A bunch of bananas
* A healthy muffin (I buy mine for $1.70 each)
* A couple of healthy cookies (at either $1.00 each or heartier ones at $2.50 each)
* Health chips
* A chocolate bar
* An individual tub of organic yogurt
But as you can see none of those would be considered a meal … they are more snacks. It’s true that some protein bars are meal replacements, but those are usually at least $4.
If I wanted to spend $2.50 on healthy foods, I could eat something that would hold me until I had a proper meal, but I would never be able to buy as much food as that jumbo hot dog + can of soda pop combo deal at $2.50.
Michael Pollan’s In Defence of Food, David Wolfe’s Superfoods, Colin and Thomas Campbell’s The China Study, David A. Kessler’s The End of Overeating and Gary Taubes’ Good Calories Bad Calories are all books that allude to the cost of healthy foods and how difficult it is for families who earn low incomes or so many families who are now dealing with this new economy and who have less money to buy healthy foods to make good food choices.
Eating organic foods and eating healthy foods becomes a real struggle when you are juggling bills, mortgages and other responsibilities. If you stop by a hot dog stand and pull out $2.50, you get a meal (not the best meal, but a meal nonetheless) that will hold you until the next meal.
The sandwich board was a real reminder to me that the theory of allowing as many people as humanly possible to access good quality foods is a noble one, but the sad reality remains that a $2.50 unhealthy meal is unbeatable.
If you know of any healthy meal that costs less than $2.50, I’d love to hear from you and I would love to update this post.
© All copyrights reserved to http://www.eatsmartagesmart.com in all countries.
>>>> If you’re viewing this healthy eating or healthy living tipas part of an aggregatedcontentstreamfrom different sites, or as a re-blogged post, please check out the contenton the original Web site atwww.EatSmartAgeSmart.com