Please, Please Olive Garden! Not Cheaper Food!

I just came across this news piece

http://www.nbcnews.com/business/olive-garden-promises-cheaper-food-more-options-1C8595202

Those of us who live at the intersection of society and science know that one of the most serious problems impacting health around the globe is the increasing rates of obesity.   Even in some developing countries the incidence of heart disease and type2 diabetes in increasing as a result of the expanding availability of Western-style calorie rich but nutrient poor food.

Why do we expect food to be cheap?   Why do we desire cheap food?  Sure I have read all the evolutionary just so stories about how we are hard-wired to eat.    But those explanations tell us why we desire plentiful food.   They do not explain why we want cheap food.

Cheap food – over processed and of dubious nutritional value is probably at the heart of much of the chronic disease with which we struggle.   Could it be that people really don’t understand that you get what you pay for?    Food should be expensive — it is what sustains us.   It is nourishment.    What I find most amazing is the folks who would never dream of drinking a can of some cheap soda, or a cheap bottle of beer, or a glass of jug wine are happy to line up for cheap food.

Please Olive Garden — don’t serve cheap food.   If you must cut costs, provide less of good food.    And with your advertising you can help educate a public that has forgotten how to value a basic requirement of life.