WHY IS EATING HEALTHY SO EXPENSIVE?!?!?!111

WindSparrow

snowflake930 wrote: »

Your post indicated access to public transportation, fast food, and corner stores available. All of which are not available in rural areas and most small towns. I am truly sorry you have such a difficult life, and I do realize that many people do. This post is about eating healthy, and for people living in areas that have public transportation, it is possible to eat healthy. It takes work and planning for everyone (I live in the country 12 miles from the nearest town so I do know what it takes). People make choices in their lives all the time, no matter their circumstances.

Thank you for your kind words. There has been a slight misunderstanding; I do not consider myself to live in a food desert or to have any other particular difficulties in making healthy eating choices (aside from my own preferences at any given moment). However I am well aware of the privileges and blessings conferred on me by my particular circumstances. And I know that there are millions of people in my country (the U.S.) whose circumstances are exponentially more difficult than mine. For them, there are a variety of systemic inequities and injustices that act as roadblocks to making the optimal choices in nutrition that we call "healthy" which I am unwilling to chalk up to "excuses". It is not for myself that I seek absolution; instead, I invite you to consider lives lived at or below the poverty line in places where resources and access to them are far different to what we in less urban areas can imagine.

lemurcat12

Re: "we in less urban areas," I think that's why public transportation was brought up. (And you seem to be equating "urban areas" and poor areas. Unintentional, I assume?)

Anyway, we talked about the food desert definition on another thread and the stats, and while it's hard to figure out, it appeared that the percentage of people who live in areas that qualify (having to do with closeness of the stores plus lack of car, and differing based on urban or not) was actually much lower than you would think from the discussions of the issue. And one can certainly question the definitions, as I know from living in a city (an urban area, indeed, although my area is not a food desert, although of course there are areas of this city that are identified as such), that there are questionable elements to the definition.

In saying that, I'm not at all questioning the fact that there are reasons why cooking healthful meals is harder for some than others and that access (and work schedule, etc.) are part of it, but that's different from saying that such foods are actually unavailable or that the reason for obesity in the US is that "healthy foods" are unaffordable or so on, which is not the case. Among other things, the obesity issue is far broader than and not limited to the poor, let alone the urban poor.

WindSparrow

coreyreichle wrote: »

WindSparrow wrote: »

Ready2Rock206 wrote: »

Those people who claim they can't eat healthy because it is too expensive are usually just looking for an excuse to not lose weight. Stop eating out and be a little creative and it's really not bad at all. Of course I am a terrible shopper and I like to eat out so I always spend too much money but that's a whole other issue...

Unless, of course, they live in a place where it is difficult to access those types of foods. Not everyone has a car to go shopping in another neighborhood if there is no good grocery store near where they live. If you have no car, and inexpensive forms of better quality, nutritious foods take hours of public transportation to get to, and you are already exhausted from work plus caring for your family, you are going to take what you can get at the corner store or fast food dollar menus. The segment of the population most likely to have physically active jobs is also the segment of the population most likely suffer from obesity. Laziness and making excuses - are they really doing that, or are others simply making assumptions? Being able to look down on others without having a clue what their lives are like is a precious, precious privilege. Guard it carefully.

You do know one can lose weight by eating McDonald's, right?

What's that got to do with the price of eggs in China?

You do know that losing weight and eating healthy are not necessarily synonymous, right? You do know that a diet of Twinkies carefully planned and measured such that it causes weight loss is still extremely poor nutrition and therefore unhealthy, right? You do know that the food choices at McDonald's which are most nutrient-dense while being least kcal. dense are not on the inexpensive side, right? I refuse categorically to accept that the only valid measure of "healthy eating" is body weight.

You can declare that a thin person is healthy because they are thin and a fat person is unhealthy because they are fat (you CAN, but I WON'T); but if you try declare that a thin person eating so much candy all day that they have no appetite for a well-balanced meal is engaging in healthy eating while a fat person who takes in a variety of vegetables, fruits, whole grains, and lean protein sources throughout the day must necessarily be engaging in unhealthy eating, you may be declared to be talking through your hat.

gothchiq

For those without cars: Have you got friends with cars, with whom you can ride to the store on their grocery shopping days? I have schlepped so many girlfriends to grocery stores and drugstores in my busted old Camry. It doesn't cost me any more than going on my own to take them with me. My favorite though was in the old apartment complex when my beer loving neighbor would always come knocking at like ten or eleven on Friday night to go to the convenience store for a 12 pack of beer and a carton of cigarettes. Sometimes I couldn't take her because I wasn't sober. XD Scheduling ahead has much to be said for it.

chunky_pinup

Ready2Rock206 wrote: »

Those people who claim they can't eat healthy because it is too expensive are usually just looking for an excuse to not lose weight. Stop eating out and be a little creative and it's really not bad at all. Of course I am a terrible shopper and I like to eat out so I always spend too much money but that's a whole other issue...

You've clearly never lived in a food desert.

stealthq

DawniDeHart wrote: »

hereforthelolz wrote: »

This is a false equivilency. It's cheaper to cook healthy food at home than it is to eat outside the home all the time, but those aren't really comparable. If you are already eating at home most of the time anyway then grocery shopping is going to run you a lot more eating lean proteins and produce than it will eating lots of mac and cheese and Ramen noodles. Beans and rice are healthy, but also have a lot of calories.

Likewise, it's more expensive buying healthy food while out and about than it is buying unhealthy food in many cases. I can buy three slices of pizza at 7-11 for less than it would cost me for one container of fresh fruit. Which do you think is going to stick with me for longer?

What you're saying isn't wrong, however these are things that can easily be avoided by planning ahead. I bring my lunch to work, and I prep my lunch on my day off for the entire week (and this is from someone who can work 20 hours a day, and no, I am NOT exaggerating). I suppose it also helps that I subscribe the the IIFYM train of thought. I literally eat a $1 microwavable pizza every single night, but nutritionally, my diet is pretty solid. The only thing I'm still trying to figure is getting more potassium into my diet. Finally got the hang of iron and calcium, so I'm going in the right direction.

I don't notice that anyone else picked up on this.

Potassium is not required to be reported on nutritional labels, and often isn't. So, if you're using MFP to track it, the number you're getting is useless. Potassium is in most foods. It is very difficult to not be getting enough unless you are severely under-eating, or you have a requirement to get more than the RDA. If you're taking mega-doses of certain antibiotics, for example. In that case, a couple of bananas or a baked potato per day will generally take care of it.

mysticwryter

I know right!?! My family quit eating out. We occasionally go to Qdoba for some good burrito bowls but that's like 1-2 times/mo. We also got rid of soda, sweets, processed foods, microwavable foods. My son is all about sweet stuff and having candy in the house wasn't good (especially for me, lol). So we changed things up and started buying more fruits and my son is addicted to apples and grapes.

We also buy in bulk for our meats so we can either split up the amounts or cook all of it and divvy out portions for the week.

quiksylver296

Return2Fit wrote: »

When weighed against the future costs of illness and disease, eating healthy is cheap.
You need to look at the expense and an investment, and you either see value in that investment, or you don't.
People who reach potential have that unique ability to think forward while most of the herd can't think too far past this week's TV guide.

TV Guides still exist?!?

Hamsibian

Some people need to watch "A Place at the Table" and "Food Stamped".

coreyreichle

WindSparrow wrote: »

coreyreichle wrote: »

WindSparrow wrote: »

Ready2Rock206 wrote: »

Those people who claim they can't eat healthy because it is too expensive are usually just looking for an excuse to not lose weight. Stop eating out and be a little creative and it's really not bad at all. Of course I am a terrible shopper and I like to eat out so I always spend too much money but that's a whole other issue...

Unless, of course, they live in a place where it is difficult to access those types of foods. Not everyone has a car to go shopping in another neighborhood if there is no good grocery store near where they live. If you have no car, and inexpensive forms of better quality, nutritious foods take hours of public transportation to get to, and you are already exhausted from work plus caring for your family, you are going to take what you can get at the corner store or fast food dollar menus. The segment of the population most likely to have physically active jobs is also the segment of the population most likely suffer from obesity. Laziness and making excuses - are they really doing that, or are others simply making assumptions? Being able to look down on others without having a clue what their lives are like is a precious, precious privilege. Guard it carefully.

You do know one can lose weight by eating McDonald's, right?

What's that got to do with the price of eggs in China?

You do know that losing weight and eating healthy are not necessarily synonymous, right? You do know that a diet of Twinkies carefully planned and measured such that it causes weight loss is still extremely poor nutrition and therefore unhealthy, right? You do know that the food choices at McDonald's which are most nutrient-dense while being least kcal. dense are not on the inexpensive side, right? I refuse categorically to accept that the only valid measure of "healthy eating" is body weight.

People at a healthy weight tend to be able to keep their bodies regulated. On the Twinkie diet, that person's blood pressure came down, as well as serum triglycerides... So, that person got healthier. On Twinkies.

You can declare that a thin person is healthy because they are thin and a fat person is unhealthy because they are fat (you CAN, but I WON'T); but if you try declare that a thin person eating so much candy all day that they have no appetite for a well-balanced meal is engaging in healthy eating while a fat person who takes in a variety of vegetables, fruits, whole grains, and lean protein sources throughout the day must necessarily be engaging in unhealthy eating, you may be declared to be talking through your hat.

Of course. Thin doesn't always mean totally healthy. Lots of thin people with cancer, or measles, or whatever. However, being overweight, by definition is unhealthy.

coreyreichle

chunky_pinup wrote: »

Ready2Rock206 wrote: »

Those people who claim they can't eat healthy because it is too expensive are usually just looking for an excuse to not lose weight. Stop eating out and be a little creative and it's really not bad at all. Of course I am a terrible shopper and I like to eat out so I always spend too much money but that's a whole other issue...

You've clearly never lived in a food desert.

I live in a food desert. I eat healthy. And, it's cheaper than not eating healthy.

fishshark

oh man not another this is cheaper vs this is cheaper debate.. the food desert has already been brought up too this will escalate quickly lol.

healthy is subjective and CHEAP is subjective to ones income and spending budget. I can easily spend waaaay more at whole foods then going out to eat My dinners often have a *kitten* ton of ingredients. Yesterday I made chicken spring rolls with a spicy peanut and a sweet chili sauce. It cost more to make everything then if i went to a restaurant to order it. If i ate rice broccoli and chicken for every meal yea maybe it would cheaper. Sometimes it is sometimes it isnt. We dont eat boring and i cook 3 meals a day and its not cheap and we choose to shop at whole foods.. but that is OUR budget and OUR choice.... as i said healthy and cheap and better are all subjective.

Xchubby

i save a lot of Money by cooking from scratch, looking for sales and meal planning.

chunky_pinup

coreyreichle wrote: »

chunky_pinup wrote: »

Ready2Rock206 wrote: »

Those people who claim they can't eat healthy because it is too expensive are usually just looking for an excuse to not lose weight. Stop eating out and be a little creative and it's really not bad at all. Of course I am a terrible shopper and I like to eat out so I always spend too much money but that's a whole other issue...

You've clearly never lived in a food desert.

I live in a food desert. I eat healthy. And, it's cheaper than not eating healthy.

Then I doubt you actually live in a food desert. I lived in a rural area almost 40 miles to a tiny grocery store where you could pay upwards of $6 for a cucumber that was already wilting. But I could pay 1.99 for a bag of chips. If I wanted "healthy" food, I'd have to add on about 30 minutes of driving. When you can hardly afford the gas to go the first 40 miles, much less tacking on about 20 more miles, then THAT is a food desert.
http://www.ers.usda.gov/datafiles/Food_Access_Research_Atlas/Download_the_Data/Archived_Version/archived_documentation.pdf

coreyreichle

chunky_pinup wrote: »

coreyreichle wrote: »

chunky_pinup wrote: »

Ready2Rock206 wrote: »

Those people who claim they can't eat healthy because it is too expensive are usually just looking for an excuse to not lose weight. Stop eating out and be a little creative and it's really not bad at all. Of course I am a terrible shopper and I like to eat out so I always spend too much money but that's a whole other issue...

You've clearly never lived in a food desert.

I live in a food desert. I eat healthy. And, it's cheaper than not eating healthy.

Then I doubt you actually live in a food desert. I lived in a rural area almost 40 miles to a tiny grocery store where you could pay upwards of $6 for a cucumber that was already wilting. But I could pay 1.99 for a bag of chips. If I wanted "healthy" food, I'd have to add on about 30 minutes of driving. When you can hardly afford the gas to go the first 40 miles, much less tacking on about 20 more miles, then THAT is a food desert.
http://www.ers.usda.gov/datafiles/Food_Access_Research_Atlas/Download_the_Data/Archived_Version/archived_documentation.pdf

According to the maps passed around by the USDA, I live in a food desert. Although, I have two grocery stores within 2 miles.

As for being 40 miles from a grocery store... Well, when you choose to live remotely from civilization, well, you don't get the amenities of civilization. Sorry, but that's life. Want to be closer to civilization, then move closer to civilization.

If, however, you're 40 miles from a grocery store, you damned well have access to land, and have zero reason to not be growing food yourself. I live in an urban area, and grow my own food on balconies, my porch, my yard, and in my house. Get to growing.