Think it's too expensive to eat healthy?

stylistchik

i dont care what anybody says. IT IS MORE EXPENSIVE TO EAT HEALTHY.
When can you just buy 4 pieces of bread for .75? and 4 baking potatoes for 2.98? I dont think so.
This is misleading.

Don't you think they took the cost of the package and divided it up? Even then, .75 is steep for 4 slices of bread when even a "nice" loaf is at most $4 and the baking potatoes probably came from a 5 lb sack. My friends tried to argue this point with me earlier but to this day we only get "treat" food (meaning convenience foods from trader joe's) when we have extra money for it. You can make it better and cheaper yourself.

iiiEllie

Where do you live and shop?!?!? That's ridiculous!

That's normal here. I'm on an Island in the east coast of Canada.
A 10 pound bag of potatoes here, and we grow potatoes, is 10-15$ depending on the potatoes.

gemiwing

i dont care what anybody says. IT IS MORE EXPENSIVE TO EAT HEALTHY.
When can you just buy 4 pieces of bread for .75? and 4 baking potatoes for 2.98? I dont think so.
This is misleading.

This.

You can't buy 55 cents worth of salt and pepper. Try buying four slices of bread too- see how the grocery store likes that.

Cindym82

Think again:

This must be an old picture or not from the northeast coast. Milk cost $3.50 a gallon here, bacon when on sale is $6 a package, romaine lettece is $3.99 a bag (3 heads in it)....i could go on. While I could go to mcdonalds and get the dollar menu, I don't but eating healthy is extremely expensive

Dethea

iiiEllie-
Food is going to be more expensive if you have to import it all from somewhere else. So.. it makes sense that it would be more expensive.

Erihppas

You could probably shave those 5 cents off the healthy meal by stealing salt and pepper packets from work.... just sayin

wrecktechno

The thing is that if you bought a chicken, a lettuce, a bottle of milk, potatoes, bread, oil etc, you wouldn't have food just for one meal. You'd have food for 2 family meals. Of course, Australia is ***** expensive for groceries but so is take away food.

GoodMorningGirl

When our family used to eat at McDonald's, it was usually around $20 for 3 of us (and two were children), so I don't think $27 is out of line for a family of four. We weren't ordering anything extravagent either.

However, I think the real point is that we can't even begin to calculate the costs, both monetary and otherwise, that our rising rates of obesity have on our families and our country as a whole. In our family, I spend about the same amount eating healthfully as we did eating junky, but we don't have to pay for prescriptions, doctors' visits, time lost from work, etc. We all feel healthier and more energetic.

I saw a very overweight man at the grocery store joking with the checkout clerk about how bad his diet was, and saying it didn't matter how unhealthy he was because he didn't have a wife or kids. And I would never say it to him, but I thought that his carelessness contributes to health insurance rates skyrocketing of all of us. (Sorry if that sounds judgmental.)

ElizabethRoad

You can't buy 55 cents worth of salt and pepper. Try buying four slices of bread too- see how the grocery store likes that.

Lol I don't think you understand how this works...

dkoroschetz

i dont care what anybody says. IT IS MORE EXPENSIVE TO EAT HEALTHY.
When can you just buy 4 pieces of bread for .75? and 4 baking potatoes for 2.98? I dont think so.
This is misleading.

I know prices are different in different places, but I can buy an entire loaf of bread for $1-1.39 depending on the sale that week and I can get a whole bag of potatoes for $3.00 (which will last me for weeks).

What's most expensive is the meat! I can not use the kind of meat that is pictured, strange, but I can't stand the bones. If I have to tear it apart, I won't even be able to cook it!

So I'm spending $7.50-8.50 on 1.5-2lbs of chicken breasts and we go through at least 4 packs of this a week. I'm on a very high protein diet right now and eating meat three times per day where before I would maybe eat meat once a day. I'm also spending a similar amount on ground white turkey and using a few packages of that each week too.

When I changed to eating this way (more meat, more veggies, liquid egg whites, etc), my grocery bill did increase well over $75 for the month. With that said, we are not eating out as much and we are still spending less money over all! And it's an investment in our health!!!

NNAhuja

It can be expensive to eat out "healthy". Places in Chicago like to charge extra for turkey sausage and egg whites.

skoshness

that's not much of a salad to go with the chicken

Zichu

That's the problem with our family though, my dad eats for two lol. He isn't massive or anything and burns a lot of it off working from 7 to 5, 5 days a week.

There are also five of us all together and me and my Mom are the only ones that are bothered to eat healthy. My brother lives off of Super Noodles, Microwaveable rice, and junk food. He will eat the roast dinners which we usually have twice a week, but that's pretty much it. If everyone were to eat the same meals everyday then yes it wouldn't cost so much, but I don't think the majority of families have the same meals as each other.

Throughout the week I usually get through a whole Broccoli (not sure what you call a whole Broccoli lol), half a Cauliflower. 1/4 of a bag of Carrots, 500g of lean or extra lean mince, 8 turkey sausages, 21 eggs, 250g of mushrooms, 2 Bell Peppers, 2 or 3 Onions, probably 10 to 12 slices of ham, 500g+ of chicken, about 10 slices of bread, 1/4 tub of mayo, 4 or 5 potatoes, 2 tins of backed beans, a whole lettuce, 4 + bananas, 200g+ grapes, 100g+ pineapple, a tube of cottage cheese, and other stuff that is usually bought that lasts for a few weeks or so like rice.

Now were lucky because my Mom is able to get the majority of the chicken for free from work and other veggies, but other times she's unable to and it all adds up, including what everyone else has. A lot of microwaveable meals are in our house, I might have 1 or 2, but I try to stick to Quorn which I hardly have. Then we got Pizza's, crisps, noodles, enchillada kits, quesadilla kits, cereal, milk, teabags, butter, cheese, salad, spaghetti, pasta, other types of bread.

Not everyone in our house likes the same stuff. My dad prefers to have food that he enjoys, so it's going to be bad for anyone. My brother like I said lives off junk. My sister eats whatever is there. My mom does eat healthy foods, but also eats microwaveable meals. So that's 5 people in our family that eats completely different meals like 5 out of 7 days.


I'm not trying to say you are wrong because I know if everybody ate the same food as you than it would come out cheaper than if everyone had something different. It would be cheaper if you were living on your own and buying foods just for you. I know if I were grocery shopping I would skip most of the crap that is bought and probably save quite a lot. I would buy stuff that I know I am going to eat and I probably would go shopping every couple of days instead of once a week.

Mom0fTwo

Uhhhh

2 Big Macs = 3
1 Cheeseburger = 1
1 6pc nugget = 2.50
2 medium fries = 3
2 small fries = 2
2 medium cokes = 2
2 small cokes = 2

Total cost: $15.50

What, did they leave a $12.39 tip for the guy in the drive through?

maybe it is Canadian?
2 big mac meals = about 15
and chicken nugget happy meal = 5. 25ish
cheeseburger happy meal = 4.50ish
24.75, could be more with taxes??

MissTattoo

I guess it depends on where you live and where you shop. A Big Mac Meal here is about $6 to $7 depending on which side of the city you are on. Also, if you shop at a big chain grocery store, it's going to be more expensive than some places like Bottom Dollar.

I've gotten a 5 pound bag of potatoes for less than $5 and that's a lot of potatoes! You can buy frozen chicken for less than $7 a bag that has about 5 or 6 pieces of chicken.

You just have to know how and where to shop. One spice may be expensive, but at least you have it and it will last a long time. Building up my spice rack was expensive, but I haven't had to buy spices in about a year.

Also, I think people use the excuse that they are so busy but don't mind sitting down in front of the TV for two hours to watch their favorite TV show or movie. I don't have cable anymore and while it sucked when I first cancelled it, I've become so much more productive!

tomhancock

Where do you live and shop?!?!? That's ridiculous!

That's normal here. I'm on an Island in the east coast of Canada.
A 10 pound bag of potatoes here, and we grow potatoes, is 10-15$ depending on the potatoes.

A ten pound bag of potatos here is less than $3 american. $800 in groceries would last me and my wife around eight months. The fact that you spend it in one month is insane, you must have a great job!

It is cheaper to eat healthy IF you are willing to put in some work and cook your food, and you don't live on an island where most of the food is imported...

Problem is if you are too lazy to make the food yourself, McDonald's is cheaper, and many people are too lazy to cook for themselves.

tomhancock

One more thing - with health care costs being what they are in America, its too expensive to be fat!

lil_pulp

i dont care what anybody says. IT IS MORE EXPENSIVE TO EAT HEALTHY.
When can you just buy 4 pieces of bread for .75? and 4 baking potatoes for 2.98? I dont think so.
This is misleading.

I agree. They have BOGOS all the time on ice cream and chips, but I've never seen a BOGO deal on any type of fresh produce or even on lean meat. (Eating healthy foods is still worth the long-term investment in our health, but it is not cheaper for my family.)

CM9178

First of all, let me say that I've never fed my entire family at McDonald's, nor would I ever.

However, I do think that eating healthy is DEFINITELY more expensive than not.
Before my husband and I started dieting, we were spending at LEAST half of what we're spending now, each week at the grocery store.
We weren't eating fast food before either, I just wasn't make as healthy meals as I am now. I always cooked a meal every night, so that isn't the change in cost.
Healthy food just costs more than non-healthy/more convenient food - not neccessarily fast food.
Eating out "healthy" is also more expsensive - the restaurants always charge extra for egg whites, egg beaters, turkey sausage, etc. but you can get the full fat stuff for cheap.

As for the McDonald's prices, where I live, they are MUCH higher than what is listed in that photo. You can't get a combo meal here for under $7.
The prices of the "healthy" food seem about right, I understand that those larger packages are supposed to last a longer time, but not when you are eating healthy every single day, for every single meal. If I buy a "family pack" of chicken breast for $1.99/lb on sale, that pack will be enough for the two of us for 2 meals. If we wanted to eat chicken breast every night, I'd have to buy 3 to 4 packs, which would be a lot of money! If I bought a whole chicken, that is one meal for us, with maybe a little bit left over. But I know from how much money is left in my bank account every week that it is MUCH more expensive to buy healthy foods every week - enough of them to cook a healthy meal every single day. And no, we're not going to live on rice and beans either, just because it is "cheap".

bm99

When we get fast food it's around $18 for 4 of us. I can feed all of us for three full days on that if I bought regular groceries.

Those who complain about healthy food being expensive... shopping for a family is a skill like any other and it must be LEARNED. Cook from scratch and purchase ingredients instead of premade meals, buy in bulk... it'll stretch your dollar farther than you thought possible.

And I live in the middle of the desert. EVERYTHING has to be shipped here.