Healthy food expensive

dovetail22uk

I eat very healthy - usually organic any chance I get. I probably spend about $5-7 a day on food. Which is probably what an average meal at Mc Donald's costs.

Healthy food is not that expensive. You just have to learn how to shop & cook without using a microwave.

Cook without using a microwave? How does that make your food more expensive?

farway

Healthy food is not that expensive. You just have to learn how to shop & cook without using a microwave.

I agree, but this is one of the "depends where you live" threads, and you do have to eat the season & weather, strawberries in December in Chistchurch UK will always be more expensive, and I bet less tasty, than December strawberries in Christchurch New Zealand

shaunap3

On the topic of gardening at home. Here is a website I found on Pinterest that I thought was a REALLY good idea. You put in your location and the area you would like to plant and the websites tells you where, how, and when to do it all. Very easy to understand for beginners!

http://www.smartgardener.com/

farway

Healthy food is not that expensive. You just have to learn how to shop & cook without using a microwave.

Cook without using a microwave? How does that make your food more expensive?

I think you have mis understood the quote, the meaning was cook without a micro wave, ie, cook from basics & not buy packets to just zap in a microwave

Shadowknight137

I'm coeliac, and my solution is simple: stay away from the gluten-free crap. Most of it tastes like rubbish, it's over-priced, and you're better off making your own.

Cheap healthy foods? Easy. Eggs. Potatoes. Bananas. Offal meat (hearts/liver/kidneys/etc). A bag of mesclun salad is about $2.

tndejong

i know what you mean. i dont have to go as far as gluten free. but just the change over to healthier foods in the us is very hard. i have to shop lots of sales and discount stores. i have to try and keep my bill under 100 for two people every week. i can get burgers for a dollar and pizzas for 5 dollars here. no wonder i was fat! but even just lean cuts of meat and fish can add up. all the processed foods are cheaper. i still have to add some to my meals. but better then them being the main dishes. i have to go to 3 different stores for my meals sometimes. i have learned one of our stores sells discounted fruits and veggies. but even apples can be almost 2 dollars a pound. even just normal things like milk can be 4 dollars a gallon. i can get by. but this is the very reason people do not want to get healthy. is expensive. time consuming. and limited selection. i will not give up. but for those who try and say its not expensive. for some of us it is. then on top of the food bill. gym membership. vitamins. and my fiance is using protein powders. so yes it does add up when unemployment is very high in our city and only one of us is working.

karensdream

I have found the best thing that works for me is to buy in season, as many have said. I love to shop the farmer's markets in the warmer weather. I also spend a fair amount of time scouring the papers and ads for who has what on sale. That helps a bit. I have also found that, surprisingly, ALDI has a pretty decent produce selection.It's always fresh and well presented, even if they don't have a huge variety, they always have the basics. It's worth checking out if you haven't before. I guess what I am saying is that is is possible to do fresh fruits and veggies on a budget, you just have to put a little effort into it. And for what it's worth, buying in season and freezing and/or canning is also a viable option. The nutritional value is the same.

tndejong

i love ALDI! but like you said, they dont have much of a variety. but the best place for your basic chicken, turkey, and fish. i get a lot of great rices and pastas. they also have good low cal yogurt too. the fit and active brand they carry also has good tasting protein bars i eat regularly.

silverainn

I live in the Arctic, and healthy food is extremely expensive, especially on a student budget. Potatoes and turnips make up the bulk of "in season" vegetables, and nothing is in season for at least 6 months of the year. Non-local foods have high import duties, and mostly only meat (which I don't eat) and dairy are local. The fresh produce that is available is limited in variety and often low quality, while options like frozen pizza and dried meat sauces and junk food are cheap and widely available. Most boxed/canned/frozen foods are very high in sodium, and there are few or no healthy alternatives. My boyfriend and I make an effort to eat healthily anyway, but we spend a huge amount on it (the equivalent of $1100 USD/month) and live off mostly curries, soup, and fish he catches wild. We grow a few vegetables indoors, but yields tend to be low.

farway

i know what you mean. i dont have to go as far as gluten free. but just the change over to healthier foods in the us is very hard. i have to shop lots of sales and discount stores. i have to try and keep my bill under 100 for two people every week. i can get burgers for a dollar and pizzas for 5 dollars here. no wonder i was fat! but even just lean cuts of meat and fish can add up. all the processed foods are cheaper. i still have to add some to my meals. but better then them being the main dishes. i have to go to 3 different stores for my meals sometimes. i have learned one of our stores sells discounted fruits and veggies. but even apples can be almost 2 dollars a pound. even just normal things like milk can be 4 dollars a gallon. i can get by. but this is the very reason people do not want to get healthy. is expensive. time consuming. and limited selection. i will not give up. but for those who try and say its not expensive. for some of us it is. then on top of the food bill. gym membership. vitamins. and my fiance is using protein powders. so yes it does add up when unemployment is very high in our city and only one of us is working.

I can only repeat. it depends where you live, and your personal choices. Compare your experiences to Silverainn post, who lives in Arctic Norway, bet your healthy food bills are less than hers

And of course some choices are optional, gym membership, protein powders & vitamin pills for instance

cazzer69

Going back to the original Gluten Free question, thats simply market forces. Supply and demand.
If I'm a baker making "normal" bread I can sell as much as I can make.
But If I'm a baker only making XXXXXfree bread, then I have a limited market and therefore need to charge a premium to make it worth my while not to just make crusty white bloomers.

BamBam125

Why is this? I have a gluten intolerance, so I notice when I buy gluten free stuff, it's always more expensive than the normal kind. Also you can buy ramen noodles for less that a $1, but fresh fruits & veggies, not so much.
I went to whole food today for the first time and everyone warned me it was going to be expensive and boy were they right. It seemed the healthier the food was, the more expensive it was. And, once again, if it was gluten free, you could almost bet it was gonna be higher than everything else. It's pretty ridiculous. I mean, I had the money to buy it. But what about people on a budget who want to be healthier? That's really not right. It's like they want people to be unhealthy, making all that stuff so affordable. Ok, rant over lol

Actually I just got a whole BAG of fresh, ripe, Florida grapefruits for 99 cents.

They were on sale at Publix for $2.99, but publix was also giving out coupons from the producer for $2 off. End result: a big bag of grapefruits for 99 cents. I've been having at least one a day all week. I have one coupon left and heard they'll be on sale for at least another week, so I'll go back for more in a couple days.

As for Whole Foods, I hardly ever shop there. The only thing I've every gotten there was ground anise when all the other grocery stores in my area were out and I needed it for a recipe. Are there any other cheaper grocery stores in your area you could comparison shop at?

Mjhnbgff

Healthy food is more expensive. I never really thought about it because I have never been a fast food/junk food junkie, but I see now just how much more fresh fruits and vegetables cost, let alone gluten-free and organic.

I paid $4 for a whole pineapple, $6 for a tub of baby spinach and $4 for organic soba noodles at Whole Foods the other day. While $14 isn't much, you can feed yourself and a few kids off the Dollar Menu at McDonald's for $10 and here I only have pineapple, spinach, and soba noodles.

This is also something I wonder about. Exactly how are poor people suppose to afford healthy food?

farway

Healthy food is more expensive. I never really thought about it because I have never been a fast food/junk food junkie, but I see now just how much more fresh fruits and vegetables cost, let alone gluten-free and organic.

I paid $4 for a whole pineapple, $6 for a tub of baby spinach and $4 for organic soba noodles at Whole Foods the other day. While $14 isn't much, you can feed yourself and a few kids off the Dollar Menu at McDonald's for $10 and here I only have pineapple, spinach, and soba noodles.

This is also something I wonder about. Exactly how are poor people suppose to afford healthy food?

Buy fresh, depends, again, where you live, 99p for a fresh, whole, pineapple here in UK, 350 g baby spinach £1.50, no idea what soba noodles are so cannot compare

We do not all live in US, so do not lump us all in the same boat

There is a problem however with "poor" people having lower values and aspirations, so do tend to buy convenience food, this is not a good subject to get involved in unless you are of trollish persuasion

Mokey41

Healthy food is more expensive. I never really thought about it because I have never been a fast food/junk food junkie, but I see now just how much more fresh fruits and vegetables cost, let alone gluten-free and organic.

I paid $4 for a whole pineapple, $6 for a tub of baby spinach and $4 for organic soba noodles at Whole Foods the other day. While $14 isn't much, you can feed yourself and a few kids off the Dollar Menu at McDonald's for $10 and here I only have pineapple, spinach, and soba noodles.

This is also something I wonder about. Exactly how are poor people suppose to afford healthy food?

Quit buying organic, quit buying baby spinach, don't buy a whole pineapple. Shop for frozen fruits and veggies, they're just as nutritious and much cheaper. Buy regular whole foods. Eating healthy isn't spending a fortune on veggies raised by Tibetan monks and hand picked on the full moon. It's making better choices with what you can afford.

Mokey41

I'm coeliac, and my solution is simple: stay away from the gluten-free crap. Most of it tastes like rubbish, it's over-priced, and you're better off making your own.

Cheap healthy foods? Easy. Eggs. Potatoes. Bananas. Offal meat (hearts/liver/kidneys/etc). A bag of mesclun salad is about $2.

^^^ This. My husband has a wheat allergy and my granddaughter is celiac. We don't buy gluten free anything, it's expensive and it's highly processed crap food. I can't think of one thing that we're missing by not buying it. It means changing the way you eat a bit but you can totally live without substituting one kind of processed food for another.

Confuzzled4ever

Quit buying organic, quit buying baby spinach, don't buy a whole pineapple. Shop for frozen fruits and veggies, they're just as nutritious and much cheaper. Buy regular whole foods. Eating healthy isn't spending a fortune on veggies raised by Tibetan monks and hand picked on the full moon. It's making better choices with what you can afford.

I also don't get the people who say eating healthy is so expensive, but here are a few tips anyway to keep the bills down:

1. Frozen vegetables are just as healthy as fresh, so buy lots of them on sale
2. Only buy produce while it's in season. The price will be lower due to the higher level of supply and the lower transportation cost.
3. Buy healthy bulk items. Beans, brown rice, wild rice, buckwheat, etc.
4. Meat can be frozen for several months, so buy it on sale, separate it into servings, and freeze.

Join a farm co-op. i spend 15 bucks on the basics and usually get enough for the week. even with adding in granola and bread and the "extra boxes" i dont' usually go over 45 a week.. and I have tons and it lasts longer than a week. ($20 bucks on 5 loaves of bread and 28 oz of granola.. not bad). I freeze the bread until i need it.

enough said

shellbatronic

Gluten Free stuff is expensive because it's trendy. Look into a CSA, for a monthly or yearly fee you can get locally grown fruit and veg delivered right to you in season.

cwolfman13

Healthy food is more expensive. I never really thought about it because I have never been a fast food/junk food junkie, but I see now just how much more fresh fruits and vegetables cost, let alone gluten-free and organic.

I paid $4 for a whole pineapple, $6 for a tub of baby spinach and $4 for organic soba noodles at Whole Foods the other day. While $14 isn't much, you can feed yourself and a few kids off the Dollar Menu at McDonald's for $10 and here I only have pineapple, spinach, and soba noodles.

This is also something I wonder about. Exactly how are poor people suppose to afford healthy food?

Quit buying organic, quit buying baby spinach, don't buy a whole pineapple. Shop for frozen fruits and veggies, they're just as nutritious and much cheaper. Buy regular whole foods. Eating healthy isn't spending a fortune on veggies raised by Tibetan monks and hand picked on the full moon. It's making better choices with what you can afford.

^^^This. Stop buying...literally "buying" into all of the marketing bull crap...that's what you're paying for, not the food. You don't have to buy "special" food or shop at a special "health food" store to get proper nutrition. Yeah, there are some things I prefer to buy organic, but otherwise I don't worry about it. Also, buy staple type of foods, including produce. I would consider pineapple to be a luxury item...as well as baby spinach. Just buy regular old spinach and get some apples, oranges, and bananas.

Also, nothing wrong with frozen veg and fruit...it's usually cheaper than fresh...you get more servings...and it actually has more nutritional value as the freezing stops the nutrition loss that occurs with fresh.

Get your staples...here are mine:

Brown Rice
Potatoes
Dried Pinto Beans
Dried Black Beans
Dried lentils/split peas
Onion
Spinach (or other leafy greens...forget the tubs, buy them whole and do the chopping and washing yourself...otherwise you're paying for someone else's work and packaging)
Broccoli (frozen)
Peas (frozen)
Carrots
Apples
Oranges
Bananas
Poultry
Pork
Eggs
Milk

A very typical meal for me is grilled chicken, potatoes, and veg...this usually runs me about $4 per adult, male serving...about $3 for my wife, and about $2 for my toddler and around $1 or less for my baby (we puree it all and make him baby food). A dinner like this would probably be the most expensive meal of the day...breakfast and lunch are usually a bit cheaper.

PaleoPath4Lyfe

You don't have to shop at Whole Foods to eat healthy.

And if your gluten free, why buy junk products that mimick the stuff you can't eat anyway. That makes no sense to me whatsoever.

We are gluten free in my household and I spend about $90.00 every 2 weeks on farm raised meats, vegetables and fruit.

My last shopping trip I got the following. I spent about $91.00 and the produce is for 2 weeks. The meat will last almost a month.

Meat Market - spent $50.88
2 chuck roasts (approximately 3 pounds each)
3 pounds of bratwursts
2 pounds of ground chuck
sirloin steak (just over a pound)
3 whole chickens cut up
1 pound of italian sausage
2 thick cut pork steaks
2 pounds of bacon
12 oz bag of coffee beans

Community Coop - $23.70 every 2 weeks and different items each delivery
Bananas
oranges
apples
tangerines
cherry tomatoes
huge 2 pound bag of spring leaf lettuce mix
yellow onions
2 egg plants
head of cabbage
head of cauliflower
2 brocolli crowns

Market Crate from Farmers Market - $20.35
red onion
zucchini
yellow squash
cherry tomatoes
huge head of romaine lettuce
cucumber
baby carrots
2 idaho baker potatoes
2 yukon gold baker potatoes
green and red bell peppers
strawberries.