Words Matter: Cheap Food

affordable, economical, bargain, inexpensive, reasonably priced, low-priced, money saving, good value ….

Don’t all of those words or phrases seem like better ways to describe food rather than referring to it as “cheap food or “cheap meals”?

I’ll admit that this may be my own bias. When I think of the word “cheap”, I think of something that is of lesser quality. It seems to also imply a value judgement, as in being lesser value. A cheap product is one that’s not made as well, or worth less — not worthless — but perhaps just not worth (as) much.

But does what we say reflect what we search for?

Let’s see what Google Search revealed.

The search results numbers for each term were (in order from most to least):

“Good value food” — 2,870,000,000

“Cheap food” — 2,160,000, 000

“Affordable food” — 1,080,000,000

“Money saving food” — 850,000,000

“Low-priced food” — 525,000,000

“Inexpensive food” — 182,000,000

“Bargain food” — 178,000,000

“Economical food” — 121,000,000

Obviously many people have no qualms about using the word “cheap” when it comes to food; or at least don’t mind using that as a search term. But if you’re not comfortable with the word “cheap”, how about trying some of the other word options in those top 5 search terms instead when it comes to crafting your articles and giving a title to your talks:

“10 Money Saving Meals”

“Affordable Foods to Stock In Your Pantry”

“Popular Low-Priced Meals the Whole Family will Enjoy”

“Good Value Foods to Feed Your Family”

Words matter and you’re entitled to choose words that both you and your audience are comfortable saying, hearing and using.