STOP saying healthy food is more expensive

SteviMcEwan

I honestly just bought $30 worth of fresh veggies, whole grain bread, meats, milk and cheese. I know it will last my hubby and I at least an entire week....

I calculated how much it would cost to get mac and cheese and chips and soda and crappy foods, I could get about the same amount of food, but a bag of chips goes so fast and it's not filling and makes you feel uber icky. I know that if I bought $30 of junk food, fast food, quick meals - I would not be able to sustain more than a few days between two people.

So, please stop with the excuses that eating healthy is too expensive. Grow a garden, pack some carrots, stay up an extra 10 mins to prepare a meal for the next day. Jeepers Creepers, quit complaining and research what groceries you have locally and what seasons good food comes in season/what freezes for winter when fruits and veggies go up in price.

I've written out 3 replies to this and deleted all 3 because I can't be even reasonably civil in the face of this degree of blatant ignorance, condescension, and stupidity. The long and short comes to: 1) You've quite obviously never been significantly poor enough to have real food choices to make, yet you want to talk about their food choices like you have some idea of what you speak of. 2) You obviously have never fed a significant number of people or children and have no real concept of what is important in food choices first and foremost when on a limited budget 3) Gardens are a luxury. Deep freezers are a luxury. Time to do the **** you're talking about is a luxury. A huge number of people don't have those luxuries.

Frankly, your false moral superiority, condescending attitude, and desire to look down upon others based on objective food choices without any knowledge of their situation is sickening and deserves nothing but scorn and ridicule.

^^^^THIS^^^^ TOTALLY AGREE!!!!!!!!

You have NO IDEA what being broke and having a family to feed is like... Cheap junk food is more affordable than healthy food.. unfortunately...

^^ AGREE!

jess7386

lol its so weird how people are trying to make excuses for filling their body with toxic garbage. i spend about $120 +/- on groceries per month so yeah i guess that's $30 a week. mainly fresh fruits and vegetables, eggs, and dried beans, and rice. i shop at asian markets, farmers markets, and grocery stores. i would rather eat a giant delicious healthy meal and feel awesome later than eat some ****ty salty candy ultra processed fast food and feel awful. it takes more time and initially costs more (to stock a pantry), but once you get used to cooking for yourself you will never want to go back to eating garbage.

lol @ food other than fruits and veggies, eggs, dried beans & rice being "toxic garbage".

also, i wish I had time to go to 3 grocery stores.

lol wut? i didnt say other food than that was garbage! filling your body with processed food makes you sick! and is expensive. its just a fact.

ANYWAYS what are you doing at the store that takes so long? i BIKE to the store, pick out what i want, bike home in under 30 minutes. everyone making excuses here is just lazy and wasteful.

I'd like to know where you get the "fact" that processed food makes you sick. Please feel free to cite me peer-reviewed journals and I'll recant my position.

And futhermore, is all processed food garbage that makes you sick? Do you honestly not think your Ruths Chris steak sandwich that is such a great deal you talked about earlier in this very thread is processed????

In terms of going to the store, having a full time job, owning a home, and working out 6 days a week precludes me from getting to 3 different stores. I spend about 1.5 hours grocery shopping at one store and get everything I need.

Additionally, your post reeks of entitlement & condescension in your blatant lack of understanding of the fact that people's different economic circumstances likely prevent them from eating exactly the way you do. Please go volunteer at a soup kitchen or something before my head explodes.

JDySart777

I like turtles.

:laugh: :drinker:

GetSoda

Look, your body processes food. The only way to stop eating processed food is to stop eating with your mouth.

shadus

B. Why compare McDonalds (an example of expensive 'unhealthy' food) to cheap store bought food? Why not compare hamburger helper to the other stuff?

Because they can't make their point without skewing the numbers because the point doesn't reflect reality.

LydiaShackelford

Show us your grocery list! Put up or shut up.

StaticNomad

I honestly just bought $30 worth of fresh veggies, whole grain bread, meats, milk and cheese. I know it will last my hubby and I at least an entire week....

I calculated how much it would cost to get mac and cheese and chips and soda and crappy foods, I could get about the same amount of food, but a bag of chips goes so fast and it's not filling and makes you feel uber icky. I know that if I bought $30 of junk food, fast food, quick meals - I would not be able to sustain more than a few days between two people.

So, please stop with the excuses that eating healthy is too expensive. Grow a garden, pack some carrots, stay up an extra 10 mins to prepare a meal for the next day. Jeepers Creepers, quit complaining and research what groceries you have locally and what seasons good food comes in season/what freezes for winter when fruits and veggies go up in price.

I've written out 3 replies to this and deleted all 3 because I can't be even reasonably civil in the face of this degree of blatant ignorance, condescension, and stupidity. The long and short comes to: 1) You've quite obviously never been significantly poor enough to have real food choices to make, yet you want to talk about their food choices like you have some idea of what you speak of. 2) You obviously have never fed a significant number of people or children and have no real concept of what is important in food choices first and foremost when on a limited budget 3) Gardens are a luxury. Deep freezers are a luxury. Time to do the **** you're talking about is a luxury. A huge number of people don't have those luxuries.

Frankly, your false moral superiority, condescending attitude, and desire to look down upon others based on your subjectively better food choices without any knowledge of their situation is sickening and deserves nothing but scorn and ridicule.

First of all, HIGH FIVE, and secondly *hugs* AMEN!!!

You just said everything I was thinking of! I have FOUR kids - one is grown, married, and has a baby of her own (granted she is my step-daughter, but I put food in her belly and helped care for her, so she counts as one of my own), one 17 yr old who lives full time with his father but does come here to snack at my place too, and two more teens who are here with me full time and eat five or more times a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year. I feed them. Not welfare, and even IF welfare was involved, I can confidently say that the funds I'd even get from that wouldn't be enough to cover the HEALTHY choices I'd have to make to provide these mouths (excluding my husband or even myself) with. I mean... seriously.... this is a child (I don't care if she is 23 or not... her remarks reflect that of a childish thought process) thinks she is talking to? A bunch of "one size fits all" people?

workout_ninja

I've written out 3 replies to this and deleted all 3 because I can't be even reasonably civil in the face of this degree of blatant ignorance, condescension, and stupidity. The long and short comes to: 1) You've quite obviously never been significantly poor enough to have real food choices to make, yet you want to talk about their food choices like you have some idea of what you speak of. 2) You obviously have never fed a significant number of people or children and have no real concept of what is important in food choices first and foremost when on a limited budget 3) Gardens are a luxury. Deep freezers are a luxury. Time to do the **** you're talking about is a luxury. A huge number of people don't have those luxuries.

Frankly, your false moral superiority, condescending attitude, and desire to look down upon others based on your subjectively better food choices without any knowledge of their situation is sickening and deserves nothing but scorn and ridicule.

BURN!!!!

shadus

Please go volunteer at a soup kitchen or something before my head explodes.

QFT.

Seriously, I lived on rice and ramen for six months and was thrilled out of my mind to be able to get a pack of american cheese just to make them taste differently... and comparative to some people that wasn't such a bad way to eat for a few months.

proudandprejudiced

.

Deleted

ninerbuff

$30 for 2 for a week? You guys either eat very little or I'm shopping at the wrong grocery store. I'm pretty frugal and my bill each week from Safeway is about $90 for 3.

A.C.E. Certified Personal/Group FitnessTrainer
IDEA Fitness member
Kickboxing Certified Instructor
Been in fitness for 30 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition

crosstrich

ANYWAYS what are you doing at the store that takes so long? i BIKE to the store, pick out what i want, bike home in under 30 minutes. everyone making excuses here is just lazy and wasteful.

Lazy and wasteful? Can I ask where you live? I don't need the precise area just the country will do. Cause here in the UK some of us really don't have the time to be doing all of that. We are all on this site to try and lose weight and are doing the best we can. Posts like this original topic and some of the comments on here aren't helpful in the slightest. All they do is make people feel bad because they don't have the same luxury of time or the same options for shopping as you seem to.

i live in the midwest usa. i work 2 jobs 65-70 hours a week and do not own a car. i bike /walk / bus. i am also involved in numerous other activities. one thing that is super helpful is preparing a larger quantity of food and freezing or eating the same meal a few days in a row. another thing is cutting up fruits and veggies for snacks. hm what else i dunno. just make smart food choices. im totally guilty of being lazy and ordering pizza, but i'm not trying to justify it by saying that it's because im on a budget.

lausa22

I don't even have that much spare a week :') plus also its just me who eats this healthy food, my boyfriend hates most vegetables and fruit, so if I buy a box of strawberries they go to waste

jivitasa

This is a non-issue for me. Food is something I'm willing to spend money on. I'll make sacrifices in other areas if I have to, but I've invested too much time and money in my education and my career to say that I can't afford to eat what I want. I'll get rid of cable, Internet, phone, trips, etc., before I cut back on groceries. I do try not to be wasteful with the food I buy because wasting food is just dumb, but that's about as financially concerned as I'm going to get on the subject.

^^ This. I won't sacrifice here, it is at the top of my priorities. Anything else can be cut.

saxmaniac

ANYWAYS what are you doing at the store that takes so long? i BIKE to the store, pick out what i want, bike home in under 30 minutes. everyone making excuses here is just lazy and wasteful.

You do understand people live in different places, have different incomes, jobs, and family situations?

Take me.

The grocery store with the best prices is 20 minutes by *car* from me, and I live in a reasonably suburban area, let alone rural. Plus, and I live in New England, where it rains and snows and for a few months out of the year. Not to mention Boston drivers who kill cyclists for sport.

On top of that, try hauling food about 20 heavy bags of milk, eggs, canned good... food for five, for that distance, on a bike. The food fills the entire trunk of my car for a week.

shadus

I mean... seriously.... this is a child (I don't care if she is 23 or not... her remarks reflect that of a childish thought process) thinks she is talking to? A bunch of "one size fits all" people?

She speaks like your typical middle class suburbanite who has never experienced any real hardship in life. For a lot of people that is simple reality, they could eat better if they felt like it, hell I'm in that boat. I have a garden, I have a big deep chest freezer, I can and freeze things and put them away for the winter, but I've also been down in the dredges, I paid nothing in rent (from my mother), I was going to school full time, had a job full time, and after my bills were paid I had about $50/month to eat on... and honestly, I had it good compared to a ton of people out there. I had it better than a lot of my friends. We have 5 kids all under the age of 18... but even with the garden (nearly 5000 sq ft) our monthly food cost is staggering... and that doesn't even begin to get into the food to feed friends of friends, daycare kids (we have an in home daycare), etc.. We eat a mix of healthy and unhealthy foods. There really is no other functional way to do it, to eat "all healthy" would make our food costs be 2-3x what they currently are and that isn't reasonable since we're spending huge amounts of money already.

This level of entitlement and condescension makes me boil. That child needs to spend some real time with some actually poor people are re-think their outlook on life a bit. They're obviously unable to see anyone as having a situation outside of what they personally experience... and that's just not the way reality works.

SteviMcEwan

Sometimes there is just no arguing with an irrational mind. I'm not going to engage anymore cause I may just say something cheeky. Anyone who wants to add me... feel free.

crosstrich

lol its so weird how people are trying to make excuses for filling their body with toxic garbage. i spend about $120 +/- on groceries per month so yeah i guess that's $30 a week. mainly fresh fruits and vegetables, eggs, and dried beans, and rice. i shop at asian markets, farmers markets, and grocery stores. i would rather eat a giant delicious healthy meal and feel awesome later than eat some ****ty salty candy ultra processed fast food and feel awful. it takes more time and initially costs more (to stock a pantry), but once you get used to cooking for yourself you will never want to go back to eating garbage.

lol @ food other than fruits and veggies, eggs, dried beans & rice being "toxic garbage".

also, i wish I had time to go to 3 grocery stores.

lol wut? i didnt say other food than that was garbage! filling your body with processed food makes you sick! and is expensive. its just a fact.

ANYWAYS what are you doing at the store that takes so long? i BIKE to the store, pick out what i want, bike home in under 30 minutes. everyone making excuses here is just lazy and wasteful.

I'd like to know where you get the "fact" that processed food makes you sick. Please feel free to cite me peer-reviewed journals and I'll recant my position.

And futhermore, is all processed food garbage that makes you sick? Do you honestly not think your Ruths Chris steak sandwich that is such a great deal you talked about earlier in this very thread is processed????

In terms of going to the store, having a full time job, owning a home, and working out 6 days a week precludes me from getting to 3 different stores. I spend about 1.5 hours grocery shopping at one store and get everything I need.

Additionally, your post reeks of entitlement & condescension in your blatant lack of understanding of the fact that people's different economic circumstances likely prevent them from eating exactly the way you do. Please go volunteer at a soup kitchen or something before my head explodes.

haha whatever you say. my current position is managing a soup kitchen. i feel hundreds of people a month for peanuts. read about the chemicals in your food. or really just take a middle school biology class. ruths chris steak sandwich is delicious. dont knock that sandwich.

3 years ago i was unemployed and living off food stamps and plasma center donations. i sure as hell didnt spend my food stamps on potato chips.

futuresize8

I don't mind splurging for fresh and quality.

BUT

It is unfortunately not always cheaper to eat fresh. Totally depends on where you live.

There is a chain of grocery stores here in Ohio called Kroger. The Arizona equivalent is Frey's, I believe. We go to AZ annually to visit family, and I cook for everyone because they dig my cooking.

Red pepper at Krogers? $2.50. It's small and I can't tell you how many times I've cut one open to find mold.

Red pepper at Frey's? 99 cents, big fat and juicy. No mold.

All the produce I've encountered is big and bountiful and affordable.

HOWEVER, I understand the average income is substantially lower there. So...maybe it all evens out somehow?

At any rate, I don't think the OP meant to come off as judgmental as some are taking it. Always dangerous to make broad statements/absolutes in the forums, though!

philodoxdreams

To the OP - perhaps instead of judging other people's food choices, you might have something more positive and constructive. Do you have healthy alternatives suggestions? Did you use coupons to cut the costs of your healthy choices? Maybe you should consider making a post that includes recipes using healthy low cost alternatives, where you found them and the price difference between the original ingredient and your healthy suggestion -that will feed at least a family of 4.

I think that would be far better received than your unrealistic assumptions of how other people are living their lives.