The increase in meat prices in the past 10 years has aggravated this problem. China is increasing the demand for meat at an unprecedented speed, which makes the price of meat in the international market increase by about 50% in 20 15 compared with 2005.
Therefore, poor people who love fast food need to spend more money than in 2005 to eat the same amount of animal protein.
The income of Americans has not risen much, so fast food restaurants dare not raise prices easily, in order not to let the rising raw material prices hurt the gross profit margin. Operators can only use less meat, use more inferior meat (ground meat) and eat more carbohydrates to reduce the cost of each meal. If you pay attention to the observation, you will find that the meat in the hamburgers of the two giants is less than that of 10 years ago.
The consumption behavior of the poor is very similar to that of children. What they care about is not how much nutrition a dollar can buy, but how much dopamine they can buy. The catering industry soon found a shortcut to cheating-significantly increasing the use of sugar can effectively increase the satisfaction of unit price.
Nowadays, companion drinks are growing much faster than fast food itself. Poor Americans are not only used to eating and drinking, but also the size of each cup is getting bigger and bigger. Drinks have quickly become the largest source of sugar in the American diet.
Excessive refined carbohydrates have high glycemic index and glycemic load, which will lead to rapid blood glucose fluctuation and high obesity rate. This is the root of the worsening obesity problem in the United States in recent years 10.
Rising meat prices have much less impact on the rich. Gluten-free food is now considered as a promising market.
Rich people can go to local small organic restaurants, replace wheat flour with nutritious grains such as quinoa and amaranth, and eat stews patiently cooked with onions, garlic, freshly ground dried jalapenos and tomatoes on low fire, accompanied by high-quality steaks. Its obesity rate is much lower than that of poor people who eat five hamburgers a day.