Is eating healthy really more expensive?

Rayman79

oh and LOL to the 1/2 chicken breast per serve - I wish I could eat that cheaply! Some nights I'll have half a chicken to myself (and that's while cutting) :laugh:

GCAsMom

This has come up in our household. We're a single income family and my husband expressed some concern about my buying fresh fruit/veggies and fresh meat. I told him that the savings from not buying four cases of pop, bags of chips, and a sack full of cookies/snack cakes every week sort of balances it out, if not saves us money.

bigjax1

good subject..... can i come to where fruit and veg are cheap?
I truthfully think it is cheaper to eat healthily (if you know how to cook) but the numbers out there that dont have a clue are startling, I have recently helped a friend with this .. she was a out of the freezer/fastfood type of eater nuggets burgers ready made pies etc.. her mum was the queen of TV dinnners so my friend did what she knew.... I know she has shared this recipe with others because someone asked for another recipe

I showed her how to make a pauper shepherds pie and her family loved it... for half the cost of a brought one...

I wish these TV shefs would stop doing budget dinners.... neck of lamb was a throwaway meat and really cheap but now a celeb chef has begun using it its now mega expensive... 2 years ago could get a neck for 60-90 pence noe it cost £4.50 -£6 thats not inflation

dtto shin of beef, pigs trooters, gammon hocks, haddock, stewing beef, the list goes on...but now they are fashionable and expensive

we have to get more and more inventive with our foods..... I dont buy spinich anymore thats got priced out of my range so I use nettles... rubbergloves to strip off the leaves wash and blanch and lovely.....

Ejwelton

The other thing I do is buy frozen veg and also fish porions. I eat more variety than my husband and buying fresh means that stuff would go off before I had chance to eat it.
Buying frozen means I can add a portion of whatever to meals and not have to worry about finishing it before it needs binning.

We also often bulk cook and freeze portions so we have quick meals ready.

123Allyxox

It depends where you shop and what you consider to be healthy too. If your going like all organic from somewhere like Whole Foods its way more expensive than junk food from walmart. And some things are more expensive like white VS wheat bread. And if your buying fresh fruit and such it goes bad if you don't eat it. But I agree, its too expensive is a bad excuse. Your health insurance is whats too expensive when you don't take care of yourself, in the long run at least.

shmunster

This may have been said already but I dont think eating healthy is more expensive, but often eating out on the run it is more expensive to be healthy

Lusadi

I agree with a lot of what is being said, but it really depends on your region. To eat healthy where I am, for a family of four (one of whom is under 5) my grocery bill is close to 1000.00 a month. That is for mostly non-organic produce. Fresh fruits and veggies are freakishly expensive compared to what they were when I lived in the mid-west. A gallon of milk is around 4.50 for non-organic and more if you want an organic variety. Is it cheaper than eating out? Absolutely, but it is not necessarily cheaper than buying processed foods. I know I could stretch my budget a lot farther if I wanted to include a lot of processed carbs in it.

Spokez70

Cooking healthy at home is not really any more expensive in my opinion- just more time consuming. Lately in my life the balancing act has been finding the time to both cook and exercise- seems like I only have time to one or the other the right way.

almostatgoalweight

I think that if you're losing weight, and having a lot of protein, it can be expensive.

Flab2fitfi

When we are shopping it looks more but then I realise that we wont be eating/ having takeaway and so it does work out cheaper.

flabbytofabby

No i don't think it is more expensive, unless you go organic etc. But still non organic healthy stuff is still much better than packaged proccessed junk food.

helenwilliams78

I think it can be cheaper if you shop carefully. I have a fruit and veg market walking distance to my house which is dirt cheap but will go off after a few days so I stock up and cook big batches of soups and stews for the freezer.

I think meat can be expensive. I'm not a vegetarian but I'll have a few meat free days a week to keep the price down. Pulses and beans are very inexpensive and have lots of protein.

krikit_lo

I can only speak for myself but eating "healthy" has definitely been cheaper for me. Mainly because I rarely eat out any more. I also do a big cook on the weekend and portion it out for my lunches and sometimes even my dinners. and I don't waste money on junk food binges.

I also don't think i have to buy organic (15$ for a chicken, come on!!!!) to eat healthy. my version of healthy food is basically: if my grandmother would not recognize it as food (she was born in 1901 and died 1991) then it's probably junk (likely delicious! but junk)

DonttrythatwithME

I disagree with everyone who disagrees that eating healthfully is cheaper.

At least where I'm from, if I try to buy "healthy" food for a few days, like fruit, meat, vegetables, whole grains, my budget is gone before I know it. This isn't from Lean Cuisine, Weight Watchers, etc. It's from buying whole foods to cook and prepare at home (which also costs a lot--in time, and in money to buy the equipment, not to mention the gas and electricity to cook). Unhealthy stuff is so much cheaper, and there's a simple reason: because our government subsides corn, wheat, and soy, while fruits and vegetables are considered specialty items that cost a lot more to grow, and then to buy.

It's not a myth that junk food is exponentially cheaper--it's a fact.

Rubbish i simply cant stomach that statement (see what i did) , here in the UK i spend £20 on food a week this supports me for 5 meals a day 7 days a week if i was to do this on 'junk food' / takeaways 5 meals 7 days a week id blow that £20 in a day if that...

I would also feel like s***t for putting that rubbish in my body I prepare my food for the week and it probably takes longer for someone standing in the queue at a fast food chain day by day than it does for me to cook the fresh healthier food.

This time debate is null in my mind my days are as busy as the next person its a case of wanting to change your life there a choices to be made yes you can eat cheap and unhealthy, but why would you want t when you can eat cheap and healthy?

£20 = 32 USD in today's exchange rate.

chrishgt4

I think the problem is that people just don't know what healthy food is.

So when you talk about eating healthy they think of prepackaged weight-watchers stuff and low fat snacks etc which all cost extra and in some cases are worse for you than the 'junk' they are replacing.

It's such a minefield out there to know what we should be eating, I remember when I first started being totally overwhelmed and feeling I would never know what was good and what was bad. It's only because it's a subject that interests me that I've spent hours and hours and hours reading up on all the information I could get to make my own informed decisions.

If someone doesn't have that level of knowledge they are always going to struggle.

shantipenn

i found my biggest but wisest expence was my chest freezer. my family are all vegetarian so i dont have to buy dif foods for each person which makes it easier. dairy and nuts are probably the most expensive things. i've spent quite a bit of money bulk buying our dried foods but now i have a full cupboard of basic ingredients and only have to buy fresh veg and fruit as needed. i also cook each recipe in large quantities and freeze in indidual weighed portions. i usually spend 10 days on a cooking mission, cookin a new recipe each day and freezing the rest. then we have home cooked, healthy "ready meals" all set to go for roughly the following 3 months. doing this means we spend, on average, £10 per person per week including all household shopping (washing powders, toilet rolls, etc). eating healthily is as expensive or as cheap as u can afford. most people live by their means whether thats £10 or £100 per person.

tadpole242

The last time I was in the USA, my wife and I, went to Ralphs and spent just under $12 (£7.75) to by some French style bread, salad leaves, American cheddar ‘cheese’, on the bone ham, and a carton of pure Juice. That a midday meal for three.
We drove from Mission Bay to San Luis Obispo, stopped in a gas station and saw a double double cheese burger with extra large fries and a 64oz cola for $2.50(£1.61) (you could have a 6” corndog for an extra $1) It may not be expensive to eat healthily but when you have a family of five to feed, eating unhealthy is easier and cheaper.

EDesq

It really depends on what you choose to eat. I am not a big believer in "organic" so no problems there.
However, I eat lots of fresh fish ( wild caught salmon, flounder, cod and whatever is on special I may like) and fresh lean chicken and turkey breast. I also eat wheat and gluten free, produce is reasonable (veggies), fresh fruit is a different matter (but if you wait and buy/eat what is in season, then it is better/cheaper). So, let's say where I live My weekly grocery bill will avg. $50-60 per week for 1 person. Not to bad, UNLESS you are in the position to have a budget of $60-70 for 4 PEOPLE!

Also, see how "we" discuss budgets, portion size, shopping for the Best bargain, buying local/in-season... YOU know what that IS, It's called EDUCATION/KNOWLEDGE, ALSO ACCESS has a lot to do with Choices we all make. SO WHEN YOU make a BLANKET statement that it is CHEAPER to eat healthier, consider ALL! You see, even if you consider YOURSELF to have little means right now, YOUR knowledge base is Broader>>>EXAMPLE: I don't spend $20 the same way someone who just finished high school spends it; Each of us allocate and prioritize our finances BASED on Knowledge and Perceived Needs. So what I am saying and have been saying for YEARS along with Professionals in the field of Nutrition and Economics is that Education about Nutrition, Budgeting and ACCESS (to Markets) are keys to this obesity problem. Other things will factor in also, but for ANYONE to Naively say " It is just as cheap to eat Healthily" has a LONGGGG ways to go relatively to understanding the Human Condition. And I won't even get in to the "types" of food stuffs that are produced that reek havoc IN our Bodies...but are produced to sustain Farmers, the general economy and to keep foods cheaper for the general consumer.

Maybe if food was produced healthier and more costly, "we" would consume less, HOWEVER, others would starve.

Ejwelton

I disagree with everyone who disagrees that eating healthfully is cheaper.

At least where I'm from, if I try to buy "healthy" food for a few days, like fruit, meat, vegetables, whole grains, my budget is gone before I know it. This isn't from Lean Cuisine, Weight Watchers, etc. It's from buying whole foods to cook and prepare at home (which also costs a lot--in time, and in money to buy the equipment, not to mention the gas and electricity to cook). Unhealthy stuff is so much cheaper, and there's a simple reason: because our government subsides corn, wheat, and soy, while fruits and vegetables are considered specialty items that cost a lot more to grow, and then to buy.

It's not a myth that junk food is exponentially cheaper--it's a fact.

Rubbish i simply cant stomach that statement (see what i did) , here in the UK i spend £20 on food a week this supports me for 5 meals a day 7 days a week if i was to do this on 'junk food' / takeaways 5 meals 7 days a week id blow that £20 in a day if that...

I would also feel like s***t for putting that rubbish in my body I prepare my food for the week and it probably takes longer for someone standing in the queue at a fast food chain day by day than it does for me to cook the fresh healthier food.

This time debate is null in my mind my days are as busy as the next person its a case of wanting to change your life there a choices to be made yes you can eat cheap and unhealthy, but why would you want t when you can eat cheap and healthy?

£20 = 32 USD in today's exchange rate.

That's really cheap! I take it that's just for 1 person.
What kind of things are you buying and what do your meals look like for that?

flabbytofabby

£20 is really cheap...maybe its frozen fruit/veg etc which is still better than junk.. but remember junk isnt just mcdoalds, take outs etc its ready meals, tinned meals. etc which are usually very cheap.

I spend about double maybe abit more than that per week, but i only shop at butchers and farmers markets and only buy organic, (plus my nearest store is waitrose which really doesn't help the bank account)