Gluten Free Food Prices...

[diagnosed5yrsago]

So I think that if the president were to get enough letters from Celiac patients about the costly prices of gluten free foods that maybe he would lower them... Who is with me on this one?? It is rediculous and outrageous.. I go to the store and when I get to the health food section I get so furious.

[RiceGuy]

Well, the ready-made gluten-free stuff is expensive, as is most any specialty food item. That's what happens when the folks making them are small companies with limited purchasing-power/resources, etc. I'd recommend focusing more on the basic ingredients you need to make your own meals from scratch. These items are generally widely available anyway, like rice for example.

As for letters to the president, he doesn't have anything to do with the price of gluten-free foods. But I'm guessing you know that so I suppose that part is in jest.

[tarnalberry]

None of that specialty gluten-free food is necessary, however. You can eat a perfectly healthy, balanced, gluten-free (and dairy and soy free, for that matter) diet by sticking to whole, unprocessed, naturally gluten free foods. When you buy the more expensive options, it is your choice to do so. Supply and demand dictates that our niche market is going to pay more for a specialty item that isn't going to see volume discounts and the like. Federally or state mandated price caps don't work for gas, and there are serious issues with their use in milk - they certainly won't work with gluten free goods; you'll just drive manufacturers out of the market.

[katrinamaria]

i agree! gluten-free prices suck! i don't buy much of the processed stuff (never the cakes, cookes, etc) either, but it is still costly! fresh fruits and veggies alone aren't cheap!! plus all the flours are more expensive, xanthan gum, the cereals, etc, etc, etc..........

i'm a poor college student.....i try to get buy on smuggling from the dining center and generic brand fruity pebbles....

[lorka150]

i have to agree with the people saying that it isn't expensive... i mean, celery and peanut butter and tofu cost me the same, no matter what

as for flours, xanthan, and so forth... it might be 10$ for xanthan gum, but you don't use very much and it lasts a long time. the flours are the same price, unless you were to buy simple, refined flour. cereal is essentially the same. the things you do buy (like, for example, flour), but while on sale, or similar. like muffins and bars? make your own. bread? the same.

[Sweetfudge]

hey i hear ya! i try and do the "naturally" gluten free foods but sometimes you just wanna eat something without all the hassle of making it! you can get a bag of burritos for 2 bucks but a gluten free pizza...5 dollars for one meal! sheesh! it is tough, especially being restricted by diet, to also feel restricted in the wallet!

[gfp]

So I think that if the president were to get enough letters from Celiac patients about the costly prices of gluten free foods that maybe he would lower them... Who is with me on this one?? It is rediculous and outrageous.. I go to the store and when I get to the health food section I get so furious.

The cost of food is set by two things, the market and the cost of producing it.

Most people eat rubbish... to start off with so the whole system is geared to producing cheap rubbish. This is just capitalism and I really don't expect your president to do anything he see's as anti-Capitalist.

There is a much larger debate which I don't really want to get into over what exactly Capitalism is... put simply we could say capitalism (small c) is an economic system largely as defined by Adam Smith in his treatise wealth of nations. Capitalism (large C) however is a more recent phenomenom, one could apply to the US where Capitalism is not seen merely as an economic system but as a polito-social system as well.

The point is that Capitalism simply promotes the most efficient way of the means of production but the means of production covers everything from raw materials though transport and sale and the most efficent way to do this is to own all the stages and to provide the minimum possible quality.

If you relate this to food then it is simply the lowest quality of food on which most people don't die quickly.

This means the most efficient way of producing chicken is in battery's, pumping them full of chemicals and feeding them whatever is cheapest and promotes the fastest growth rate. The cheapest method will always be used because most people want the cheapest hence the quality manufacturers will not be able to compete with the profit margins that the lowest quality manufacturers have.

On top of this you have the practice of political lobbying. The large corporations pay to have legislation set in their favor. An example of this is quality control of things that only happen in a low quality production environment. We can use chickens again....

If chickens are put in batteries then basically they stand in their own faeces all day, the burns you see on the legs of battery chickens are their own waste ...however they still produce eggs of a kind.

If you take a free range egg then there is no need to cook it so long as it is fresh and uncracked. You can make mayo or sorbet from the egg.

If on the other hand you take a battery egg then it has been covered in excrement from an unhealthy chicken and generally treated unhygenically but much cheaper.

Since the statement I made concerns most people not dying quickly and food poisioning from contaminated eggs can kill quickly then legislation happens BUT it doesn't happen only for the battery eggs because they are rich enoufgh to pay off polititians to make sure it goes across the board, otherwise the battery industry would lose some of its competitive advantage over the free range eggs.

Hence free range eggs need to be pasturised as well to be used....

Now it doesn't matter if we are talking Peanuts or Fruit .... very few presidents are likely to be concerned about something that minimises the profit of the peanut king or the fruit king.... (if you can't guess who I'm talking about then just stop and think)

The US political system is designed (specifically) so that only the independently wealthy can be elected to power and the way to be independently wealthy is to own a monopoly or near monopoly, be that fruit or peanuts.

Additionally getting into power is also so expensive that you need support that you pay back later so noone gets elected without a debt to the other fabulously rich who donated.

Anyway the point is you can only sell so much Fresh fruit, mango's and pineapples don't grow in NY state... so the most effcient way of preserving it is pack it full of chemicals and stick it in a tin or packet.

It is possibly a sad reflection that the most healthy thing average american is likely to eat i a day is tinned or packaged fruit. Average is important because this is where the largest market is.

The point is you don't see small producers or farmers owning free range farmers who are billionaires... but you do see producers owning mass prodcing farms and the who distribtion process being free range.

The only ways to address this balance is if enough people stop buying rubbish OR government intervention.

I don't see the first one happening....people don't want to even know how their food is made and what is added (we are a tiny exception)

The government intervention is against everything the US stands for.... if people buy it then they should have it (so long as it is made in the US and isn't drugs) .. and it seems what most people want is the basic food elements in a microwavable packet.

If you look at a country like France where I live then the government helps to support small farms and food manufacturers but they do this by intervention and all food on the whole costs a bit more than the US.

However French supermarkets sell well over 50% Free Range chickens and eggs....not to mention every other product. Fresh vegetable markets are common in Paris everyday ... indeed their are 20-30 daily fresh produce markets in Paris daily but this is not efficient, its much more efficient to have a single producer who owns the haulage companies and takes them direct to a warehouse for distribution to supermarkets.

[rinne]

I've always loved food, good food prepared simply and my taste buds tell me that organic is better so I have been willing to pay more. The prepared gluten free stuff tastes just as bad to me as the prepared regular stuff so I don't buy it.

I sympathize with your desire for convenience foods and frustration with the prices but you might take this as an opportunity to really improve your diet by preparing more of your own food and you'll save money at the same time.

[cmzirkelbach]

People could write to their congressional reps about making gluten free/allergy free food duty free. Gluten free products made outside of North America (under NAFTA) have customs duty imposed on them which can add up to 8% to the cost.

[lorka150]

hey i hear ya! i try and do the "naturally" gluten free foods but sometimes you just wanna eat something without all the hassle of making it! you can get a bag of burritos for 2 bucks but a gluten free pizza...5 dollars for one meal! sheesh! it is tough, especially being restricted by diet, to also feel restricted in the wallet!

i understand. if i wasn't allergic to rice and buckwheat, as well as casein/egg free, i might opt to try something, too.