Making Food Choices

Last night my roommate and I, freshly home from Fall Break were standing in the kitchen talking about how our parents keep yelling at us for eating out nonstop. When you're over 21 and a college student at Ball State it is more than likely you'll see a laundry list of "Dill Street, Puerta Vallarta, and Scotty's Brewhouse" on your bank statement each month. The reason for this being convenience. I can't even begin to tell you how many times I have searched my fridge looking for dinner to ultimately decide on eating Tidal's Dip at Scotty's with a pitcher of beer. Do I think that this is a healthy lifestyle choice, no, although it is probably worse on my bank account.
As a fairly health conscious person (I buy 90% of my groceries at Trader Joe's or Whole Foods and read food blogs like the New York Times) it makes me absolutely sick to watch documentaries and see fat kids and adults who think that they can't financially afford to eat food from the supermarket. I think that that like we talked about in class the problem doesn't lie so much in the financials but in the accessibility. With the amount of trips I take out to eat every month I could surely afford to stock my fridge full of healthy choices, fresh fruits and vegetables but instead I choose the convenience of grabbing something prepared by someone else and trying to choose the somewhat healthiest thing on the menu. Most of these working or lower class families that choose to go through a McDonald's are families on the go. The could very easily find a supermarket meal under $20 to feed their family of 5 but instead they go for what is readily available to them.