Running Anthropology

Views from the ANThill
by douglas reeser on December 30, 2014

Running can lead to bonding with other runners and the community through which you run.
Photo courtesy of Larry D. Moore. 

If the number of people running races is any indication, the act of running continues to grow in popularity in the U.S. According to the State of the Sport by Running USA, "Over the past 20 years, every year, except 2003, set a new high in the number of finishers in U.S. running events." In 2012, there were a record 15,534,000 race finishers and a record 26,370 running events in the U.S. alone." That's 5% of the U.S. population that finished a race, and the actual number of runners in the U.S. would far surpass this percentage, as not every runner competes in a race. Clearly, running is quite popular in the U.S., and with the continued surge in the sport that really gained mainstream acceptance in the 1960s there has been a subsequent rise of a running culture.

Profit Over Health

Should profit take priority of health? In the U.S., the answer
is yes. Photo courtesy of PR Watch.

Views from the ANThill
by douglas reeser on December 13, 2013.
With the recent roll-out of the Affordable Care Act in the U.S., the health care system has come under scrutiny and has garnered much media attention. I am currently working on my dissertation that, in part, examines the national health care system in the small Caribbean nation of Belize. Having spent about 2 years living and researching how people maintain their health, and what they do and when they do it when they get sick, I was able to get an up-close and detailed look at the challenges, successes, and shortfalls of a national health insurance scheme.

In Belize, the national health care system is run by the Ministry of Health, which operates the 2 arms of the public health system: NHI (the National Health Insurance scheme), and the BHIS (the Belize Health Information System). The BHIS is basically a surveillance system, that has over 90% of the population's health records in the system. Once someone is in the BHIS, they can visit any health facility in the country, including rural clinics, hospitals, private doctors, and even pharmacies, and their complete health records will be available for the provider. The BHIS, in theory, provides patients with more effective treatment and medication, and allows the Ministry of Health to more quickly identify broader public health needs and emergencies.

The NHI is the part of the Belize health system that provides care. Available to any citizen, NHI provides access to health care at any of the country's rural health clinics, the more comprehensive policlinics, as well hospital care. My research, conducted in a rural and somewhat isolated part of the country, showed a number of problems with how the NHI services were staffed, funded, and provided. I've chosen to highlight these aspects of the system in my dissertation, as a service to the people in Belize who were so hospitable towards me, and who rely on the services of NHI.

Dissemination Disaster: Being Forced to Stop Sharing Research Results

A graphic showing the use of traditional home remedies from my data
brochure. Image courtesy of doug reeser.

Views from the ANThill

by douglas reeser on August 25, 2013

The completion of fieldwork is but one milestone in the research process of an anthropologist. Data analysis and write-up remain, followed by the dissemination of our research findings, one of the key ethical codes for anthropologists. The relationships we develop in the field carry on in time and space, and ethically, we must share our findings in a timely manner with those that helped make the research possible. Yet, research results may take years to be published, and there is no widely accepted means of distributing our findings more quickly to our non-academic stakeholders.

After spending a semester away from my fieldsite at the completion of my own dissertation research, I planned a return to visit with friends and maintain the connections that I had made. My research included a diverse range of people throughout the community, including medical doctors, nurses, pharmacists, traditional healers, government and administrative officials, and women spanning wide economic, age and ethnic backgrounds. From the beginning of my research, I planned to share my dissertation and shorter reports with various stakeholders, but I wanted to share some of my preliminary results in a widely accessible format.

Why be Normal? Thinking about Neurodiversity and Mental Health

Open Minds

Neurodiversity celebrates "the unique manifestations of
the human spirit."
Image courtesy of Reflections of a Chronic Anthropologist.

by Kristina Baines on July 29, 2013

Wherever you go, there you are. I’ve considered this old adage quite a bit lately in my thoughts and conversations. Wherever I turn, I can’t get away from the brain. By this, I don’t just mean my own thoughts, but conversations about the brain and what it does and how it makes us do what we do and be who we are. More specifically, these “brain-centered” conversations often turn to mental health and questions about the role of brain function and chemistry in keeping us well. 

This flurry of mentally-focused activity is strange for me.  I am not a brain scientist.  I am not more than casually acquainted with mental illness.  My son doesn’t even have ADHD.  In fact, I spent the better part of the last decade chipping at the walls of the Cartesian divide between mental and physical health and, thus, the idea that there is mental illness distinct from physical illness at all.  As part of my recent doctoral dissertation research, I explicitly blur those lines, arguing that what we do and what we think and how we feel are fundamentally intertwined.

Despite the recent WHO definition, which outlines this holistic view of health, it is clear from everyday living that our medical community, and our popular culture, are not giving up “mental health” discussions anytime soon.  From ADHD to autism to depression to PTSD, it is difficult not to become involved in mental health debates.  Lately, I feel compelled to leap into these discussions, ignoring that I have almost no personal or professional experience with any of these disorders.  Complaints fly that our culture is over-diagnosing, over-labeling, over-medicating, under-counseling, ignoring potential causation and generally freaking out.  We are caught up in a multi-faceted mental crisis.

The Curandera: Healing in Action

July 10, 2013
Traditional healers play an integral role in the health and well-being of people around the world, and are able to treat ailments and conditions in ways unfamiliar to biomedical science. Check out this brief video that shows such a healer in action in Mexico and how and why they have maintained their effectiveness.

"A short (seven minute) piece that shows a rural curandera treating various village children with plants and other methods including various types of limpias or cleansings. Through interviewing the curandera we learn what is the most important thing that enables healing..."

Can Your Diet Make You Happy?

A recent study using data from the UK shows that a healthy serving of fruits
and vegetables everyday can have a positive effect on your mental well-being. 

A recent study from the UK says yes!

by douglas reeser on June 21, 2013
A good friend of mine in Belize recently started working a new job. The job is with a family business, and requires long hours 6 or 7 days per week. I could see the toll the hours were taking, and urged her to be sure to take care of herself, especially by keeping up with a healthy and nutritious diet. I knew that eating well during a time of stress would help her tired body, and I found myself wondering if a healthy diet would also have an effect on her mental health. I know physical health, mental health, and diet are all entangled, but I wondered if diet could directly affect your mental well-being - can your diet make you happy?

After a few days, this question continued to linger in my mind, so I decided to do a little research. My own anthropological research has focused on health and diet, and so I had a few places to look, but I didn't find anything specifically about diet and happiness. I broadened my search and came across an article from 2012 in the journal, Social Indicators Research, a social-science journal that focuses on quality of life measurement. The article I found was titled with the very question I was asking: "Is Psychological Well-Being Linked to the Consumption of Fruit and Vegetables?" It turns out that few studies have actually been done on happiness and health, and perhaps none trying to tease out diet as a factor in our happiness.

Confessions of a Turmeric Junky

Jars of Yellow Ginger for sale at the market in Punta Gorda, Belize.

Photo by Federico Cintrón-Moscoso.

by douglas reeser on May 21, 2013
This is a confession. I may have a problem. I'm a turmeric freak. I put it on everything. Eggs, sandwiches, pizza, salads, you name it, and I probably sprinkle some turmeric on it. I go through more turmeric in a week than most Indian restaurants go through in a month. Most of my plates and bowls are stained with that distinctive yellowy-orange hue after years of daily exposure. Most people think I'm a bit crazy when they watch me in the kitchen, especially when I start loading up with my herbs and spices. When I think food, I think medicine, and turmeric is one of my primary agents.

It all started a few years ago. I've been mostly vegetarian since the early 1990's. but it took a while for my vegetarian diet to actually become healthy. I eventually began cooking regularly, which led to my discovery of the joy of food. And as my interest in herbalism and natural medicine slowly grew out of that dietary change, I finally began to realize that eating well was my path to good health. I haven't had health insurance for over 20 years, so self-maintanance of my body has become something of a vital approach to my daily life. Part of that approach has been the regular inclusion of medicinal herbs and spices in my cooking, which began in earnest 4 or 5 years ago.

Health or Debt? It's Really Not a Choice

March 21, 2013
Strike Debt, the organization that grew out of the Occupy Movement and began buying up student debt, has added medical debt to its list of targets. This great animated video explains why in a pretty clear way, and hopefully it continues to inspire solidarity and collective action. It is by helping each other that we will find our way forward through all of this...

Check out the video, and then visit Strike Debt to get involved.

Can Health Care be a Human Right?

The UN declared access to medical care a human right in
1948, but 65 years later, many still remain without access
 to health services.

by douglas reeser on February 11, 2013
The concept of human rights remains at least slightly murky in the public mind, and is especially so when it comes to the right to health care. As stated in Article 25 of the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights, health and medical care fall under the domain of human rights:

Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and of his family, including food, clothing, housing and medical care and necessary social services, and the right to security in the event of unemployment, sickness, disability, widowhood,old age or other lack of livelihood in circumstances beyond his control. 

This declaration, however, leaves it unclear exactly how far these rights are extended. Does the right to medical care include cancer treatment? Does it include mental health care services? Does it include a monthly check up? The implications of the universal right to health and medical care are steep: health services must not simply be available, they must be freely available to all people at all times. Under this framework, the concept of health and health care as a human right has not been widely accepted around the globe. How then, can we begin to move towards making this right a reality? 

Infrastructural Violence and the Belizean Health System

The hospital in Punta Gorda Town, Belize
Photo by douglas reeser.

Views from the ANThill

by douglas reeser on January 19, 2013

Life in the southern Toledo District of Belize is full of contradictions. It has a tropical climate, and the beautiful geography of the Maya Mountains and the Caribbean Sea makes it an aesthetically pleasant place to live. There is a rich ethnic diversity in the district, and after a short time there, it often feels like everyone knows everyone else. This small-town rural feel and its distance from the more populous parts of the country have also served to insulate the district from most of the violence that has plagued larger cities in the north of the country.

Along with its rural location and low population density, however, the Toledo District has a fair amount of problems. Poverty rates in the district have historically hovered around 70%-75%, unemployment is usually over 20%, and jobs are always scarce. Additionally, there is a sense articulated by many of my research participants that the district is neglected in many ways by the State. Indeed, my research of the health system has revealed this perception to be a fair characterization.

The State has a National Health Insurance (NHI) program under which citizens typically make a small co-payment for most health services provided through the state-run clinics and hospitals. In the Toledo District, the co-pay has been waived, so that health services can be obtained for free. Despite this kind gesture from the State, there remain limitations to the services people have access to. In the understaffed clinics and hospital, there are only general practitioners available, and more serious health issues and emergencies require patients be transferred to a larger regional hospital that is about 3 hours away by vehicle.

Recycled Minds in 2012

by Lana Lynne on December 31, 2012

Keep taking the road less traveled...
photo by douglas reeser

The changing of the calendar year always compels reflection of the past and prediction of the future. This seemingly universal response to a new year is something that the contributors to Recycled Minds like to do year-round – reflect, interpret, and possibly offer new ways of thinking about the world. What we like to do is tell stories, one of the most powerful tools in humankind’s handbag for preserving and encouraging knowledge. As a culture, we have become accustomed to hearing a single story – one that hopes to leave us complacent and taciturn. Our storytelling intentionally seeks out a different narrative with many perspectives, and we’d like to thank our readers for contributing to this collection of ideas.

Following is a short reflection on some of our stories from 2012.

Since douglas spent most of the year in the field for his dissertation research, many articles he wrote for his “Views from the ANThill” column centered on his experience as a field researcher. Among other things, he wrote about  knowledge and trust among his research participants, how language affects research and fieldwork, applied anthropology at work with the development of language classes, going through research slumps, and the positive experience of working with a local research assistant.

Similarly, the Maya and other indigenous people of Belize were a frequent topic of conversation, given doog’s research interests, including a fun video of Maya Day 2012; a not-so-fun look at the creation of a new Belizean ministry that lumps together Forestry, Fisheries, Sustainable Development and Indigenous People; and how the decline of the ancient Maya compares to today’s environmental destruction and concentration of wealth.

The “Consumption Junction” column continued to examine consumption in its various manifestations, including an article on agency and panopticism in a digital world, pursuing meaning instead of money, and the state of literature in our self-centered “culture of me.”

The Bounds of Belief in Belize: Health, Belief, and Biomedicine in Rural Communities

Conference Flyer where this paper was presented

by douglas c reeser on 12.12.12
As an anthropologist, it is expected that I present my research to the public. One of the most accepted means of doing this is through national and international conferences. A big issue with conferences, however, is that they reach a very specific public. Conferences are often quite costly which limits who has access, many papers are presented to very small audiences, and the papers are rarely published or otherwise made available. So while I get "credit" in the eyes of colleagues and potential employers for presenting at a prestigious conference, chances are just 20 people ever get to see, hear, or read my paper. To me, that is a limited public.

I was lucky enough to have a paper accepted at the latest annual meetings of the American Anthropological Association. I was only able to attend because of a small travel grant that covered my airfare to San Francisco and my room for the week. Although well attended, the conference is quite pricey (almost $200 for student membership and registration), which limits attendees to primarily anthropologists. My paper was given on the first day of the conference when many people are still arriving, and the audience was quite small. So in an effort to make my research available to a wider public, I am sharing the paper here, for free.

Read the abstract and the entire paper after the jump:

Research on Botánicas in Tampa, Florida

A botanica shop, similar to many, in the city of Tampa, Florida.
Picture courtesy of google maps.

by douglas reeser on October 19, 2012
A couple of years ago I put together a small exploratory research project on botánica shops in Tampa, Florida with a colleague and friend who was also at the University of South Florida at the time. Botánicas are small shops found in many cities across the US that cater to a mostly Latin American and Caribbean immigrant population. They sell a variety of herbal and other products, and often provide services related to one of many Latin American/Caribbean medico-religious traditions like Curanderismo, Santeria, and espiritismo. Well it took a while, but I finally got a paper based on the research published. It just came out in the latest issue of vis-à-vis: Explorations in Anthropology, an open-access, peer-reviewed journal out of the University of Toronto. The abstract:

Botánicas are shops found in most major U.S. cities with a Latino population that carry products and provide services that are essential elements of alternative medico-religious systems that originated in Latin America and the Caribbean. This paper briefly examines the ways in which immigrants in the U.S. utilize traditional or alternative systems of healing, often – and even usually – as a complement to biomedicine. It then summarizes the small amount of literature on botánicas and the role they play in immigrant health in the U.S. This is followed by a discussion of an exploratory research project on botánicas in Tampa, FL, where a number of botánica shops are found in various neighborhoods in the city. A basic description of the shops and interviews with shop owners are presented, followed by a discussion on the potential significance of the geographic location of two particular groups of botánicas is explored.

Click 'continue reading" to see the full paper, or visit our Free Library for the link.

Views from the ANThill: Bringing Traditional Medicine into the Hospital

A Q'eqchi' Maya healer works on a patient whose soul
has left his body, leaving him listless and unable to eat.
Photo by douglas reeser.

by douglas reeser on July 13th, 2012
It was 2005 when I began my graduate training in anthropology. I had decided to get more serious about my interest in indigenous issues, and follow a path towards understanding traditional and indigenous knowledge in its many forms. It was then that I came across Joseph Bastien's Drum and Stethoscope, a book that details efforts in Bolivia to integrate traditional medicines with the biomedicine practiced in the nation's hospitals. This is a book from 1992, and 20 years later, we have yet to see significant advance in such efforts.

That's why I was excited to see an article from the BBC News about such efforts in Ecuador. Irene Caselli reports for the BBC on a new project in Riobamba, a small town in the Andes Mountains.  Riobamba's Alternative Andean Hospital is a private health center that has integrated Western and Andean medicine into its services. It's a place where traditional healers practice their unique services along side of biomedical doctors, where the two traditions are allowed to complement each other in an open and direct way.

Here in Belize, where I have been studying the health system for the last year, the State provides free healthcare through public clinics and hospitals. In the south of the country where I am working, traditional medicines remain active and fairly popular. Largely because of international pressure from organizations like the WHO, the Belize Ministry of Health is working on the formulation of a national policy on traditional medicine. It is not yet clear if they will move towards a partnership or integration of some sort, but it is at least promising that they are considering such issues.

Notes on Urban Gardening

A bumblebee enjoying the thyme in my front yard

by lana lynne on June 24, 2012
My back and front yards measure about 300 square feet combined. This is not untypical in cities, of course, but I actually live in a section of the city that is often mistaken for the greener suburbs due to its lower-density development, tree-lined streets, and ubiquitous strip of grass between the sidewalk and street in front of each house. This strip of grass, I've come to think, is somewhat a matter of pride to the residents here, much in the same way a well-groomed, expansive lawn signals wealth in the country. There can be no other swatch of greenery beyond the sidewalk to the front door, but most houses have, at the very least, this patch of grass. I watch my old-timey neighbor laboriously care for his patch, especially the small, ugly blotch of brown that refuses to grow seed. When he came out one morning last year and saw that my stretch of grass had been torn out and replaced by flowers and shrubs (and later a tree), he was outright flabbergasted. Not only had I callously tossed out what he tended to for 20 years, but it was an uppity act of indifference to the working class roots of the neighborhood.

But forgoing the weekly act of lugging a weedwacker or a manual lawnmower to maintain a two by 20 foot strip of grass in favor of tending a flower bed has proven much more rewarding, if not for me than for the bees that now take unbridled pleasure in flying from flower to flower, their black and yellow stripes almost completely disguised in white pollen. This new development in my small corner of the world seems all the more important given the recent reports that bumblebees are going the way of their honeybee cousins. According to a recent article in Grist, these important pollinators have declined by 96% over the past two decades, posing a threat to native plants as well as the food supply.

My neighbors to the other side are less traditional when it comes to their yards -- or, if you look at it another way, more so. Taking advantage of the full sunlight despite close proximity to a busy arterial, their small front yards are filled with lush herbs and vegetables. Even their mostly concrete back yards are taken up by pots of veggies, raspberry patches, and trellises of beans. So far, their urban gardens have not met the same fate of the Tulsa gardener whose medicinal and edible front yard garden was illegally mowed down by the city. Her yard sounds as if it was an oasis of healthful plants whose benefits would surely outweigh any city ordinances. I look at my neighbors' inventive urban vegetable gardens and wonder why someone would ever take issue with their presence.

Medicinal Plant Knowledge, Botánicas and Health

The colorful interior of a typical botanica shop with candles, statuettes,
herbs and herbal products, stones and a plethora of various spiritual and
religious items.
Photo courtesy of Tarot by Jacqueline

by douglas reeser on May 30, 2012

A new study by ethnobotanists Ina Vandebroek and Michael Balick was just published in the journal PLoS ONE (and it's open access!). The article reports on a study conducted in New York City that measured medicinal plant knowledge among first generation immigrants from the Dominican Republic. The authors begin by explaining that the study participants noted a difference between food plants used as medicines and nonfood plant medicines. Food plants used as medicines made up 39% of the reported plants used by immigrants in NYC and knowledge of such plants was reported at a higher average per person than were nonfood medicinal plants.  

Among numerous findings, what is perhaps most significant about this study is that it shows that knowledge of medicinal food plants does not appear to be negatively affected by migration in either rural or urban migrating populations, and is actually reported at higher rates in NYC. In other words, people who migrated to NYC actually learned of more medicinal food plants once they were settled in their new home. The authors explain: 

“Our study demonstrated that cultural knowledge about medicinal plants in the context of a highly urbanized, transnational community in a globalized setting is kept alive and actively transformed by the geographic dynamics of that community.” 

This finding goes against most reports that traditional knowledge is typically lost or diminished among migrant populations. It has been argued that the new environments in which migrants find themselves make it difficult to transition their traditional knowledge, while the stress of migration makes it difficult to add to that prior knowledge base. This study shows otherwise. 

I found it particularly interesting when the authors attribute the increase in knowledge of food medicines to the use of botánicas among Latino populations in NYC. Botánicas are herbal/spiritual shops that are in many cities across the U.S., and are usually found in Latino neighborhoods. My research with botánicas in Tampa, FL showed that most shops offer consultations to customers. While, for legal reasons, the consultations are not advertised as medical, they do offer insight into a variety of health issues from the perspective of numerous medico-spiritual traditions actively practiced throughout Latin America and the Caribbean. My study (to be published in the open access journal vis-à-vis in September) posited that botánicas play a vital role in the overall health of its customers and may satisfy spiritual and psychological aspects of health and healing that are neglected by biomedical facilities. 

Other studies on botánicas have shown that they also offer important social space to customers who are often immigrants or children of immigrants. Some shops have become places where people gather to share remedies, stories, and other spiritual- and health-related information. The shops have become a safe space in which to discuss health and illness from a perspective that rests outside of the biomedical paradigm. This new study by Vandebroek and Balick reinforces this finding, and shows that people are not only using the botánica as a social space, they are learning there, and in turn expanding their knowledge base, and perhaps improving their health and that of their friends and families. 

"Nature's Economic Stimulus": The Value of Honeybees

Bee collecting pollen. Photo from pdphoto.org

by lana lynne on January 13, 2012
Nothing says nature like green, and it appears that beekeepers have decided to go straight for the wallet in an ongoing attempt to draw attention to the honeybee plight. On Tuesday, beekeepers and environmentalists came together to lay out the impact of honeybees on the U.S. economy, showing the substantial monetary effect long-range fall out that colony loss can have on the food system.

According to one apiary owner at the conference, the value of his colonies tops $5 million in just 6 months: "$500,000 from California almonds in January, $800,000 from Georgia blueberries in March, $2 million from Pennsylvania apples and cherries in April, $500,000 from Maine blueberries in May, and $1 million from Pennsylvania pumpkins in June." Numbers like these have earned the honeybee status as the most important pollinator in the world.

Study after study points to pesticides as the likely culprit in the decline of honeybees. But as Claire Thompson points out in her Grist article, trying to get Big Agricultural to change its ways in an election year isn't likely. If any reason could convince industrial agriculture to become more sustainable, though, it may be profits.

Read more here: http://www.sacbee.com/2012/01/10/4177304/beekeepers-are-critical-to-economy.html#storylink=cpy

Pitching Big Food

Photo by Doog

by lana lynne on November 8, 2011
A new report published by the Center for Food Integrity, a consumer research group formed in 2006 by food industry power players (including Monsanto) to study consumer attitudes about the food system, gives interesting insight into the marketing research of Big Agriculture. The "consumer trust survey" used to compile the report asked people a variety of questions that revolved around the U.S.'s responsibility to "feed the world." While it found that support is waning for exporting food to help solve the world hunger problem, which is fascinating in itself, other interesting consumer attitudes came to light as well.

Noting a growing alienation from agriculture, the report states, "consumers aren't sure today's agriculture still qualifies as farming [because of ] generational and geographic distance between farmers and consumers, technological advances in farming, and changes in farm size and structure." If consumers don't see their food coming from farms, in other words, there is an inherent lack of trust, as the center uses as its guiding principle the idea that consumer trust in farmers is based on shared values.

What's also interesting is the priority goals delineated by their survey participants, which is broken down into goals driving consumer food choices, and perception of farmers' priority goals. Here, the farmers' goals are broken down further between commercial and family farms. The perception of the goals of commercial farmers are predictable, with affordable food and farm profitability at the top of the list. People evidently have slightly more trust in the family farmers, as people place affordable and safe food as family farmers' top two priorities. Consumers' own priorities? Also safe and affordable food, but profitable farms comes in last place.

As Tom Laskaway points out in his article on Grist, these consumer attitudes create a headache for Big Agriculture. Up until now, Big Agriculture has sold its practices (including the use of pesticides, GMO seeds, inhumane animal conditions, etc) to the public based on the idea that they are for the good of the world. If the report is true, not everyone is buying this rhetoric.

So what does this mean for the future of big farming marketing? From the sounds of it, a campaign full of down-on-the-farm goodness, tugging at the heartstrings of our nascent anti-big business sentiments.

Growing Food as a Subversive Act

by douglas reeser on October 30, 2011
Here at Recycled Minds, we love food. We grow it, we share it, we prepare it, we research it and we love to eat it! Above, check out this TedX talk by Roger Doiron, from Kitchen Gardeners International, who frames gardening as a truly subversive act because "It has the potential to radically alter the balance of power...in the entire world." Doiron goes on to explain:

When we encourage people to grow some of their own food, we're ecouraging them to take power into their hands, power over their diet, power over their health, and some power over their pocketbooks. So I think that's quite subversive because we're necessarily talking about taking that power away from someone else - from other actors in society that currently have power over food and health. You can think about who those actors might be.

This is a compelling video that will have you thinking seriously about growing some food. As the Occupy Movement continues to grow and evolve, food will become an increasingly larger part of its considerations. Growing food in your yard or other small spaces is a way to bring change into your life and those of others, and it can be a great way to bring people around you together - to create and embolden your community. Doiron offers a number of interesting frameworks for why this is becoming more and more important.

Enjoy - and go plant some food!

The Cost of Cooking -vs- Fast Food

by douglas reeser on September 26, 2011

Comparing Costs of a Meal for Four
Image courtesy of the New York Times

The New York Times printed this interesting graphic comparing the costs of different versions of a meal for four: a fast-food meal from McDonalds, a homemade chicken meal and a homemade rice and beans-based meal. The graphic shows that the non-fast-food options are not only cheaper, but on the healthier end of things.

Not to rain on any parades, but the info-graphic may be a bit misleading, as it leaves out a few integral pieces about the homemade meals. Purchasing the food requires that one has the ability to get to a grocery store; whether via foot, auto, or public transport, such food needs to be accessible. The food pictured assumes that you could purchase the ingredients as is, however can you really buy two slices of bacon, a cup of dried beans, or four slices of bread? Finally, homemade meals take time - time to go to the store, time to cook and time to serve. From store to table, a homemade meal certainly takes a bit more time.

Still, this is a useful graphic to begin to dispel the myth that fast-food is the cheapest way to eat. With some planning ahead, we can eat healthier meals at lower costs. Thanks New York Times!