We would like it if healthier food options were more affordable at Ball State. It is ridiculous that more nutritional foods are priced so high, which usually results in people resorting to more non-nutritional foods simply because they are cheaper. College students complain about the "freshman 15" but there is a simple way to fix that issue. If the costs of healthful foods were lowered, more students would be more apt to purchase them instead of the more energy-dense, unhealthful foods.
When students feel as if they have no other choice but to buy the cheapest option because they do not have enough money to buy healthier foods, it may lead to several health issues. The main side effect that derives from consuming unhealthy food is obesity. It is an epidemic in the United States, but if Ball State would cooperate in lowering healthy food prices, it may just protect us from the obesity plague here in Muncie, Indiana.
It is proven that the price of a calorie from unhealthful, energy-dense foods are cheaper than the calories from healthful, less-dense foods. If we simply lower the costs of these less-dense foods, then the consumers would be able to purchase healthier foods, which in return will help protect them from all of the side-effects that may stem from eating non-nutritional foods: pre-mature death, type 2 diabetes, heart disease, stroke, stress, sleep anea, depression, high blood cholesterol, gall-bladder disease, osteoarthritis, asthma, cancer, complications of pregnancy, menstrual irregularities, and hirsutism.
