The video shared by TikToker Keda Play (@kedaplay), which has not been independently verified by Newsweek, was overlaid with a message that read “Being American in England” and began with the user saying: “Ya’ll just got it figured out around here. You mean to tell me that I can walk into almost any store around here and just buy nutritional little meals. Fresh, you know what I’m saying?”
According to a 2017 study by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the cost of eating healthily was found to be 65 percent higher in the U.S. than in the U.K.
A 2020 report for the FAO on the cost and affordability of healthy diets across and within countries stated: “Price and affordability are key barriers to accessing sufficient, safe, nutritious food to meet dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life.”
The study’s findings suggested that: “nutrition education and behavior change alone will not substantially improve dietary consumption where nutrient adequate and healthy diets, even in their cheapest form, are unaffordable for the majority of the poor.”
The user in the latest TikTok video showcased various items from the U.K. grocery chain Marks & Spencer (M&S), including ready-made meals (such as a “cauli panang curry” and roasted vegetables with pasta) and a package of mango chunks, stating: “And you don’t have to pay a premium for this. The only place that I can think [of] in the States where you can get fresh stuff put together like this is at Whole Foods [the organic foods grocery chain] and you’re gonna pay a premium for it.”
“We’re going to continue to lower our prices over time at Whole Foods,” Mackey said on CNBC’s Power Lunch show at the time. “Cut our costs, lower prices, get more business, lower prices, cut costs, and so I think we’re in a virtuous circle right now.”
Several TikTokers, including some who appeared to be based in the U.K., responded to the original poster’s expression of culture shock in the latest video.
In a comment that got 13,500 likes, Sarah Duncs Canny suggested: “Girl get your self to Tesco’s [another U.K. grocery chain] on the meal deals. Your life will never be the same.”
User alspeculiarart said: “I never knew that, they don’t want u being healthy x.”
And in a comment that got 10,800 likes, user nh101nh wrote: “You’ve made me appreciate this more now, was taking it for granted.”
Newsweek has contacted the original poster for comment.