Why does it cost so much to eat healthy?

The American Psychological Association has recently suggested having a television in a child's bedroom can lead to childhood obesity. They have even gone so far as to suggest banning the allowance of having televisions in their rooms.

First of all, it's obvious they would never be able to actually ban having a television in a child's room. Are they going to do monthly raids on households to see if there is a television set in a bedroom? I highly doubt it.

My nephew will be 2-years-old in April and he has to sleep with his television on because, like his mother, he finds the background noise soothing and he is terrified of the dark.

I found this out the hard way because the breaker for his room got kicked the other night when I was watching him, and he was screaming.

He is a toddler. He has never sat down to watch a movie, nor has he taken more than two minutes to stop running from end to end of our house. He never stops.

I have a 6-year-old niece and 3-year-old nephew, neither of who will ever sit down and watch a movie. They are kids who love to run and play, and wear Aunt Brina and their parents out.

There are so many blames placed on what is causing obesity, and it's frustrating that these organizations that are advocating healthy children aren't looking at the real problem.

The cost of food.

If it were up to my family, it would be lean meats, salad and vegetables or fruit every night, but on our budget it is completely unrealistic.

Most of the time it's boxed meals, bagged sides and a bottled beverage.

The cost of healthy foods is often double, if not triple, the cost of foods that end up stocking our kitchen shelves and refrigerator.

Baked chicken is one of my favorite main dishes, but the chicken breast also ranks among the highest price of meat choices.

So, often times we are stuck with $1 pizzas out of the frozen food section, or a box of Hamburger Helper.

One of my favorite snacks for when I'm on the go between meetings are grapes, but the more than $3 per pound cost is pricey when you only have a couple dollars left out of your check after paying the electric bill.

So, it's often knock-off brand of snack cakes that gets thrown in the cart for when we are busy and don't have a chance to fix a meal.

A 2-liter of pop is half the price and twice the size of a bottle of 100 percent apple juice. Quantity is a big deal. When I'm on the go and stop at a convenience store, a 32-ounce soda is half the price of a decent sized bottle of water.

These things add up quickly.

I was always an overweight kid, but it wasn't due to lack of exercise. I played basketball for 10 years, and spent every warm, and often freezing, moment outside I could, playing with the neighborhood kids.

It all comes back to what we could afford to put on the table, and that was often the cheapest selection we could find for that week.

There will be kids who constantly want to sit at a gaming console or don't know what an imagination is, but I believe these are exceptions and not the rules.

Sabrina is a staff writer for the Greene County Daily World. She can be reached by email at swestfall@gcdailyworld.com or by telephone at 847-4487.