Empowered Consumers Make Healthier Food Choices
I made McDonald’s lose.
Anyone complaining about corporate giants running the food industry is suffering from the victim mentality rampant in our consumerist culture. Realizing the power that consumers have instead of further disparaging us will boost the entire food industry in the long run. We are told constantly that we’re being taken advantage of by big corporations or the government or an interpolation of the two.
We don’t realize the power we actually have as consumers when the loudest food reporters tell us that we are just pawns in a game of “Big Food” chess and that their only goal is to leech off of us everything that they can. However, there is a real reason that the organic industry has grown exponentially in the past few years, and it’s the same reason McDonalds had to close 500 locations in 2015. Consumers, you and me, have started speaking out for ourselves!
A healthier choice in the grocery store today means a more healthy selection there tomorrow.
We don’t want an unhealthy society, we don’t want to be addicted to sugar, and we don’t want to feel like we have no other choice in the food we buy. Things have started changing, and they will continue to change as more of us learn to vote with our dollars for healthier food so that the selection of these options will continue to grow and the rest of the junk food will shrink. Companies are scrambling to make their current offerings seem healthier, but we are also demanding transparency! Healthy doesn’t mean organic or all-natural or any of those other food fads. It means getting back to your basic food groups with wholesome meals. Like, don’t forget to throw a bunch of carrots and peas or spinach into your hamburger helper.
It’s that simple.
Everyone hates on Walmart as the worst corporate entity, but I have to admit, I shop there on a very regular basis because they are one of the few sources of an easy to make, cheap, tasty, healthier option (with vegetables!) meal that I enjoy eating and actually lost weight eating a few years ago. These meals come from the freezer section and they can even be microwaved. The part of Walmart that contains these meals is only one section of a freezer case, but I keep voting with my dollars for this option because it helps me out so much when I don’t want to or have time to actually cook. The entire rest of the freezer section, I pretty much avoid like the plague.
This particular food option has helped me do what seems like the impossible to some people: I have all but eliminated fast food chains from my life. I am part of the reason McDonald’s is losing. I am part of the reason that salads are now part of every single restaurant menu. When you choose healthier, you are that reason too. I have exercised my power as a consumer to choose better. When I stumbled on those freezer meals, I had the courage to try something different and new. I put in the effort to look outside of the usual hot spots in the grocery store so that I wasn’t just getting what I’m used to eating, and leaving feeling like this was my lot in life. I drove home every day knowing without exception that I had food that was yummy and that I would be full after I ate it.
Fast food is far less appealing when you have a good meal waiting for you at home.
So, to you I say, go get’em. Realize that you are in charge of your food. You CAN tell those food companies what to do and how you want your food.
And by go get’em I mean get those veggies. Everyone needs more veggies.
:)
