Healthy Food is Expensive Because We Expect It: Is It True?

Is it too costly to remain healthy? According to most of the people, the costlier foods mean healthier foods. The study shows that people tend to associate higher costs with healthier foods without any evidence. Let’s assume you’re in the shop and you encounter two products. One product is a regular spaghetti sauce, and another one is an organic spaghetti sauce (price is almost double). What comes to your mind? Let me tell you what comes in your mind. You will assume that the organic spaghetti sauce is a lot healthier than the regular one.

Moreover, you will also suppose that it is expensive to remain healthy. There is also a chance that you will sacrifice some products to buy that expensive product. Many people do that. It is quite difficult to measure the relationship between price and health, as it can be measured in various ways like price per calorie, price per portion, and so on.

Is it that expensive to purchase healthy foods?

Many people believe that healthier foods mean expensive foods. In the case of some product category, it is true. Hey! Let me emphasize on the word ‘some, ’ and it means not in all food groups. “Healthier foods mean expensive foods” is based upon a lay theory or just an intuition of customers. The marketplace along with media has successfully spread the stereotype that expensive means healthy. This has made U.S. consumers look for products charging premium prices.

The lay theory along with marketplace and the media is responsible for this irrational belief. The lay theory is a non-expert’s idea on how things work. There are many lay theories on various subjects, and this does affect the way human beings behave.

There are many lay theories among consumers regarding foods. A group of researchers did a research about the lay theory among consumers, which stated that healthier foods mean expensive foods. The research showed that consumers tend to believe in the theory “higher costs mean expensive foods” even in the cases where there was no relationship between price and health.

The researchers were further interested to find out more about this type of consumer behavior. To learn more, researchers just provided customers with price information about the product without any information on nutrition. They were offered the option to choose from “Roasted Chicken Wrap” at $8.95 and “Chicken Balsamic Wrap” at $6.95. The consumers prefer “Roasted Chicken Wrap,” but interestingly when the prices of the products were flipped, they choose Chicken Balsamic Wrap over Roasted Chicken Wrap because they assumed that expensive product means strong product.

Again, the researchers conducted a research where they presented product, which claimed to be healthy. However, the product was priced below an average price. In this case, the consumers searched for the information instead of directly purchasing the product. This shows how the price can convince the customers to believe the product is healthy without any evidence.

This lay theory of higher price=healthier product goes beyond our imagination.

In other research, the group of researchers decided to find out more about this consumer behavior. The users were asked to assess the importance of DHA included products by informing them that DHA could reverse the condition of macular degeneration. When the DHA inclusive product was provided to them for a premium price, they provided more emphasis on DHA and its benefits. However, when they were provided with the DHA inclusive product at an average price, they did not give much emphasis on DHA.

All these types of behavior of consumers show that how much the users rely on lay theories. When the premium products contain ingredients that are beneficial for health, they give more emphasis on the health benefits of consuming the product. However, when the average priced products include the same health benefits, the consumers don’t give much emphasis on the similar health benefits.

This type of belief is quite dangerous. Well, it does not matter much for those people who have the unlimited budget; however, the people operating on the limited budget will think that it is impossible for them and their family to remain healthy when it is not the case. In fact, the study shows that the healthiest food costs only $1.5 more than the least healthy foods.

The consumers with the limited budget were just worrying about their health till now. Many people don’t even try to find out the facts. They are just following the lay theories, and what advertisement says. The study also shows that the majority of the people just follows the crowds, and they don’t think for themselves. This can hurt you a lot, to be honest.

Final verdict

What can you learn from this article? There are many things to learn from this article. First of all, you should be triumphal. Why? It is because you don’t need to be a millionaire to be healthy. You just need to spend around about $45 extra to consume the healthiest diet. All of the worries you were taking in the past are just in vain. Don’t listen to all the advertisements. You have the capacity to consume the healthiest diet. Search for the best diet plan, and start consuming healthy foods.

There is no correlation between price and health. No matter how much media and advertisement tries to convince you, don’t fall into the trap. You don’t need to empty your wallet every time to purchase premium products. From next time onwards, try to rely on the facts instead of your intuition. Your intuition is not a fact.

In today’s world, researching about something is very easy. Almost all the people have mobile phones in their wallet, and connecting to the internet is easy. All you need to do is to search about the health claims, nutrients mentioned in the product, and make some simple comparison with the average priced product. You will find out the information quickly. Rely on the facts before choosing the foods.

Meighan Sembrano is an enthusiast and passionate writer. She is a contributor to Consumer Health Digest. She is expertise in Beauty and skin care articles. Also, have contributed in the health and fitness field. Her work gives an enthusiast twist to the readers. She resonates the readers with her sincere and thoughtful words. You can follow Meighan on Twitter and Facebook.

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