So, I am truly grateful for health care reform and all accompanying initiatives that our President has brought forth recently. However, wellness on the daily is still expensive.

It’s no wonder so many poor people are overweight and have all the ailments to go with them. Healthy living is expensive! I am blessed to have a full-time, salaried job but I still consider myself “poor.” Thankfully, I have enough money to buy fresh produce and grains that haven’t been bleached and processed beyond nutritional recognition. Still, sometimes I do have to make “either-or” decisions in the market and organic options? For. Get. It.

When I go in “Yes! Organic Market!,” I usually walk out with two items or less because all the meat, dairy and produce there costs nearly twice that of similar products in mainstream grocery stores. So, pesticides and hormones it is! I try to be as healthy as possible but at what cost? Not being able to pay my rent?

Then, I think about the MASSES of people who are less fortunate than I. No wonder they are eating whatever parts of the animal they can get their hands on, frying stuff with canola oil instead of sautéing with olive oil, and relying almost wholly on boxed and canned goods for sustenance.

My friend/hairdresser, who I consider a health FIEND, helped me understand that it costs more to produce foods that are free of chemicals and additives because these aren’t the foods that are mass-produced. They are a rarity. And when you add in the cost to ship them? Yikes. So, I will give “The Man” a pass this time, but I still think we need to come up with a way to make healthy options more accessible to the average Joe and the below-average Joe, too.