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Fast food prices have been climbing rapidly since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. Inflation, shipping issues, supply chain disruption, and production problems all play a part, as does the corporate demand for skyrocketing profits. But when fast food becomes more expensive and less convenient, the question is: is that really a good thing?
How Much Fast Food Do Americans Eat?
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), over 36% of children and adults consume fast food on any given day. Those numbers hold across gender but not race. Black and Hispanic individuals are more likely to consume fast food than caucasian people, regardless of age group or gender.
Statistics show that Americans spend an average of $1,200 a year, or about 10% of their income, on fast food. That totals $110 billion yearly, more than the 2023 Department of Education and the Department of Energy budgets combined, per the US Treasury.
That is a lot of fast food.
Is It Really That Bad for Us?
To answer the question bluntly: yes. The Cleveland Clinic says fast food can contribute to higher rates of depression, cancer, Type 2 diabetes, heart disease, and others.
Fast food raises blood pressure due to high sodium and preservatives. The Clinic notes that a single bacon cheeseburger can equal the entire daily dose of sodium recommended by the American Heart Association.
Another problem is digestive issues. Humans need a certain amount of fiber to keep their gut flora healthy, and processed or fast foods simply don’t provide them. Instead, they offer high amounts of soluble carbohydrates that turn into calories instead of feeding your gut.
Mood and energy are also affected. Fast food doesn’t contain the vitamins, minerals, or antioxidants that fresh ingredients do.
Reduced intake of these nutrients can lead to an increased risk of depression. The simple sugars and carbohydrates can cause insulin spikes that give you brief bursts of energy, then leave you flagging until your next meal.
Why Do We Eat So Much Fast Food?
We consume fast food for various reasons: taste, convenience, time savings, and price. Simply put, it’s delicious, easy to get, and for the person on the go, there are few better options for quick calories at a reasonable price.
According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), the average American spends roughly 37 minutes a day preparing food. Those numbers go up when age and gender are taken into account.
Women preparers who use WIC, the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children, top the charts at 62 minutes daily.
In the same report, the USDA notes that fast food purchases shave an average of 31 minutes off time spent cooking, serving, and cleaning up after meals.
Those may sound like small numbers, but they only account for time actively spent preparing food. Americans spend an average of 41 minutes shopping and shop between one and two times a week. Most Americans spend almost six hours a week just buying and preparing food.
But that’s not the whole picture. How long it takes to get to and from the grocery store and put the groceries away depends on car ownership, distance to the nearest store, and how much–and what kind– of living space a person has.
Assume, for instance, that it takes 30 minutes to get to and from the grocery store and 10 minutes to put food away. That puts things at nearly 8 hours, a full-time shift at the average job. And again, that still doesn’t account for meal planning and assumes a nearby, well-stocked grocery store and reliable transportation.
But the time, effort, and financial savings don’t explain the entire problem. And that problem is often food deserts.
Food Deserts Are a Huge Issue
A food desert is an area with limited access to affordable, healthy food and ingredients. According to the USDA, food deserts are far more likely to occur in areas with high levels of poverty. Additionally, outside of very dense urban areas, large minority populations coincide with food deserts.
Another factor is access to transportation, both public and private.
In a paper authored by Angela and David C. Hilmers and Jayna Dave, the authors found that in low-income and minority-dense neighborhoods, there was an inverse relationship between healthy and fast food options. The more disadvantaged the neighborhood, the less likely it was to have nutritious food and the more likely it was to have fast food and convenience stores as the majority, or only, food options.
But while low-income people are dependent on fast food in many cases, they aren’t its primary consumers. The CDC reported that the higher a family’s income, the more fast food they ate.
So Are Rising Fast Food Prices a Bad Thing?
The answer is neither yes nor no. On the one hand, rising fast-food prices disproportionately affect low-income households in food deserts. On the other hand, eating more than an occasional fast food meal is bad for your health, and eating it regularly is even more so.
But the solution to the ongoing nutrition crisis cannot be reducing the cost of unhealthy food again. Low fast food costs contribute to food deserts and complex health problems in lower-income communities.
Solving the American nutrition problem requires legislation, more robust food subsidies at every level, and incentivizing food producers to get healthier options into low-income markets.
