A recent survey by the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine and Morning Consult found that a majority of US adults incorrectly believe that a plant-based diet is more expensive than one that includes meat and dairy.
The survey, which polled 2,206 US adults between June 10 and June 12, 2025, revealed that more than 60% of respondents share this view. Baby Boomers were the most likely to think that plant-based eating is significantly more expensive, with 67% of them believing plant-based foods cost somewhat or much more than a typical Standard American Diet.
It’s important to recognize that many people don’t have convenient access to anything other than processed garbage. It’s great you had the ability to completely shift your dietary norms, but people living in food deserts don’t have the same opportunities you do. People’s dietary limitations are often shaped by experience, access, and affordability.
Which just makes it even more important that people with the privilege to change their diet for the better - people with access to fresh food and home kitchens and time to cook - take advantage of that and change their diet.
And that people fight, through collective action, for policies that make it easier for more people to change their diet, such as community groceries and farmers’ markets in food deserts, higher minimum wages and better worker protections to give people more time and energy to cook, and so forth.
Recognizing that eating healthy is a privilege shouldn’t discourage you from eating healthy. It should encourage you to fight to get more people that privilege.