HEALTHY eating is often bandied about, but it is not easy to practise.

My family makes conscious efforts to ensure that our food is organic and pesticide-free, but it isn’t rare for us to come across vague labels that highlight appealing properties of the food while neglecting additional information that may have contradictory implications.

My mother recently came home from the grocer’s with a bag of seemingly pesticide-free produce.

Seeing that she had paid almost three times the price of regular produce, my curiosity was piqued: why was it so expensive?

I took a look at the label and upon reading it, I discovered that between the words “pesticide” and “free”, which led my mother to make the purchase, the word “residual” was printed significantly smaller.

The said produce was just cleansed of the residue of the pesticides used to grow it. This is one of many examples of the times we’ve been misled.

Labels on foods should serve their original purpose of providing consumers with candid information but unfortunately, many labels can be misleading.

The next time you intend to purchase any food item, read the label carefully to avoid spending three times as much, and keep in mind that the devil is in the details. 

Another point relevant to the healthy eating debate is equal access.

Most low-income households view food primarily as sustenance, opting for economically and easily accessible products over everything else.

With sky-high prices, it is only natural that most organic foods are inaccessible to these groups.

On the other hand, buying cheaper food comes at the cost of quality and nutrition.

For my family, it is a constant effort to make healthier choices, especially when the system isn’t built to make that easy.

For example, we source our produce from a supplier who grows local, pesticide-free and mostly organic vegetables.

A small 250g portion of cauliflower from this supplier costs around RM10, while the same quantity from a regular grocery store might go for RM3.

The price only gets higher for vegetables that are more difficult to grow.

This isn’t just about spending more; it’s about availability. Not all provision stores carry such items. These healthier options are often confined to higher-end grocers, limiting access to those who live in urban centres and can afford the markup.

A person’s income shouldn’t determine their level of health, but the unfortunate truth is: it does.

Growing your own vegetables can be a more economical alternative to purchasing overpriced produce.

If you’re in an urban area with limited planting space, hydroponic or vertical farming offers a sustainable and space-efficient solution. These methods require an upfront investment, but it is a worthwhile price to pay when weighing the benefits.

If you do decide to grow your own, using homemade pesticides like garlic and chili sprays or neem oil solutions instead of chemically produced ones, ensures that your crops remain as safe and natural as intended. 

Conforming to healthy eating habits is relatively straightforward: eat clean, choose organic, and support ethical sources.

But in practice, this lifestyle is lined with financial and informational barriers. What’s advertised as “healthy” might be diluted with marketing loopholes. What’s grown ethically is priced beyond most people’s means. And what’s easy to access is often the least nourishing.

So, where does that leave us? For now, it means reading labels carefully, supporting trustworthy local growers, and reclaiming agency by producing what we can ourselves.

Healthy eating shouldn’t be an exclusive privilege; it should be a widely accessible right. Until that becomes a reality, our best tool is awareness, our best investment is effort, and our best defence is knowledge. 

Janani, 15, a student in Selangor, is a participant of the BRATs Young Journalist Programme run by The Star’s Newspaper-in-Education (Star-NiE) team.

For updates on the BRATs programme, go to facebook.com/niebrats.