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Comment by johnny22 | Hacker News Reader

or we just make healthy food taste better.

I think we need to make it cheaper (via subsidizing fresh produce instead of the corn and cattle industry) relative to processed food and the rest will take care of itself. Funny thing is, people will scream "social engineering" if you say this, yet they're perfectly content to ignore the current social engineering.

This, times 1000. The only reason it's so cheap to eat at McDonald's is because of subsidies given to industrial beef, corn, and soy.

It's really not cheap to eat at McDonald's. You can buy a dozen eggs at the supermarket for the cost of one Egg McMuffin.

I think it's shortsighted, naive and optimistic to expect that subsidization of "fresh produce" would produce any better results than the current system.

After all, there's nothing inherently wrong with corn or cattle when they are produced in traditional ways, ie. corn that is not optimized for yield, sacrificing it's taste, and cattle is fed on grass, not on corn (which makes it sick).

healthy good DOES taste better. you've just been raised on rubbish so therefor you think that is how all food should taste.

I was the same. I hated peas, carrots, sweet potato, that sort of thing. A few years ago I was at a friends place and she grew all her own produce. It was the first time I had ever tasted fresh vegetables. Oh wow.

If (in Australia) the major super markets that advertise "We're the fresh food people" I'm sure more people would be enjoying something other than lollies (candy). As it stands at the moment any vegetable you buy from our two major players (coles and woolworths) are terrible.

Eating better? http://robbwolf.com/ try him.

I used to think radishes were boring and sorta yuck.

Then I grew a few at my own place, for a lark. Well, that was an explosion of taste I won't long forget.

Pro tip: Fresh radishes are nothing like the dried up junk in salads.

If a salad contains any dressing, it's not a salad anymore, it's a dish.

The only exception I allow is vinegar + olive oil. That's pretty yummy salad dressing (especially with balsamic vinegar), and pretty healthy.

Ummm, vinegar + oil is pretty much the composition of every dressing out there, sometimes with a small amount of emulsifier, such as mustard (vinaigrette) or egg yolk (mayonnaise). Is it the fact that you use olive oil that OS important? Or the fact that without an emulsifier the dressing is much thinner, and hence ends up on the plate, not the salad, so you eat less?

I just checked some random dressing in the fridge. It has 50% more carbs than fat. It has more sugar than fat. It tastes sweet. I should probably toss the piece of junk in the garbage, but then my wife would probably buy a replacement. :/

Ahh, yes, sorry. I forgot about premade sauces. I make all of my dressings myself, so they dont have any of that crap in them.

When I was in Switzerland, I lived mostly on home made Greek salads (Tomatos, Cucumbers, Onions, Olive Oil and Feta Cheese -- eaten 4x a week for about a year). They were delicious.

I made one when I got back to Canada, but the flavor was gone. I haven't made another one in over 4 years.

>or we just make healthy food taste better.

The very easy way to do that is cut processed sugars and carbs out of your diet for a few months, healthy foods will start tasting better, and you'll never be able to go back without getting sick.

I did that and the result is that Egg McMuffins - my old favorite - make me feel bloated, Girl Scout Cookies make me sick, and Wendy's burgers smell like cow manure.

The other factor is cost. Healthy food costs more, often significantly more.

Stuff labeled "healthy" tends to be, but you can make healthy food for cheap. You can make a lot of meals out of a couple dollars in ingredients.

Example: http://imgur.com/RYSLX [1] and http://imgur.com/xjJXR [2]

That could be made for a dollar or two, and it's easy to make stuff like that quickly and with different ingredients. I'd feel pretty content eating like that every day, and most of the parts are things you can freeze.

[1] Tuna + slightly melted shredded cheddar + cucumbers + salad mix + hot salsa + boiled egg + pepper

[2] Cabbage base, tuna, carrots, mozarella cheese, bell pepper

Have you tried to eat this way regularly, and did you end up spending less? How long did you last?

Healthy, cheap, and time effective.

Pick two, at most two and a half.

Healthy food costs more per calorie. But most people with unhealthy food habits are fat, and therefore eat more calories than they need. Clearly they are not optimizing for cost.

If by "healthy" you mean the certified organic stuff, free range animals, yes that can be expensive. But you can do a LOT better than the typical junk food diet for the same money at any "big box" supermarket.

Or realize that healthy food actually tastes better than unhealthy foods

Bacon already tastes as good as it's going to get! (No, this is not sarcasm.)

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