Is it more expensive to eat healthy?

Sw33tKnees

Yes, I believe eating healthy is more expensive. (which doesn't make sense) But, I find it worth spending the extra money knowing I am eating healthier and will live a longer healthier life

This!!

sally_jeffswife

I think for some stuff it is alot more expensive. Healthier breads for instance cost more and greek yogurt is a bit more than regular and if you drink protein shakes they are a bit more than soda pop. Mio water is like $2-4 at most places and you can usually get a case of pop for $4.50. Some things like beverage wise or if you get desserts like skinny cow costs more than regular ice cream treats sometimes. but if you make meals that make alot like hotidishes or soups than it prob is actually a bit cheaper cuz that will last you awhile. Just depends on if you make alot of separate meals or if you make meals that make alot like hotdishes and soups.

rosah2

My husband and I rarely go out to eat. My grocery bill has gone up a lot since I started eating healthy. I shop for groceries and have to buy all the unhealthy foods I bought before because my husband doesn't choose to eat this way. Then I buy the healthy food for me. So yeah, it costs a lot more. But I am going to keep doing it. I have only lost 6 or 7 pounds so far but I'm liking this healthy way of eating. By this time next year, I hope to tell you about the 100 pounds I lost.

jonswife0206

I think it depends on what you want to spend for what you want to get. I find eating better is less expensive. For what I would pay for a fast food meal for just me, I can make something at home for my husband and myself that's way healthier. Many of my vegetables, when not on sale, are frozen. This is a very inexpensive and nutritional way to get your vegetable servings. I buy larger bags, not the small one portions as they are less money per serving. You also cannot beat the variety. I also can or freeze vegetables from my garden and look for farmers markets in the area during the warmer seasons. Fruit I sometimes buy frozen but for fresh I watch for sales and buy apples and oranges in bags and not by the piece, much less expensive. I also watch for sales and freeze meats when the price is right. I think it's all on how you plan. Yes, I can live on ramen and it would be less expensive but I would rather eat something better for me for not much more in cost.

ellasanvictores

healthy food is a lifelong investment. it's like preventive medicine to the body. it will cost more initially but the long-term benefits are priceless: less sick days off work, less depression, more energy, less hospital bills, less medicine bills, less eating out, less cravings...the list can go on and on. since i've started going 70-80% raw vegan. looked up the benefits - found these:

your natural, ideal body weight - without counting a single calorie!
more energy - something that most people could do with,
a clear head, with sharper, quicker reactions,
great looking, shiny skin - glowing from the inside out,
pain-free periods - menstruation can go almost un-noticed
less illness, and need for pharmaceutical intervention

another source:

Healthy skin and hair
Increased energy
Weight loss
Lower body mass index
Lower cholesterol levels
Overall heart health

Symptoms of fibromyalgia and rheumatoid arthritis improve significantly
The progression of prostate cancer can be halted and in some cases even reversed
Bacterial enzymes and toxins linked to colon cancer may decrease
Risk of heart disease and Type 2 diabetes is reduced
High blood pressure is lowered

peckish_pomegranate

Points to consider...

- Food accessibility: Poorer areas often don't have as many places to buy fresh, healthy foods. Some don't have any. There are also more fast food restaurants in poor areas.

- Prep/cook time: Frozen or canned meals are quick, but loaded with sodium. Eating out at fast food places is unhealthy, but cheap. Cooking takes time and energy that busy people may not be able to allot to food.

- Transit accessibility; people who have less money rely on public transit more, which only runs on certain routes and times. it's much easier to take the bus to get McDonalds than cart home a week of fresh produce.

- Trips to the store: Eating fresh produce and other foods without preservatives is good for you, but it doesn't last long and you must eat it fast. You will have to make more trips to the store the faster you must eat your foods.

- Bulk: Unhealthy foods are cheaper to buy in bulk, while produce and many other healthy foods can't be easily used in bulk as they go bad quickly.

ElizIvory

I think I am a minority here. I am young, pretty much poor and living in a house with 4 other adults. I work a lot as does everyone else. I can tell you that the cost to buy and prepare all of our meals (Lunches/breakfast/Dinner) Is a lot more expensive with healthy food.

Buying lettuce/fresh veggies for a salad plus eggs or other protein to put in it for a lunch is a lot more expensive than packing a can of ravioli (knock off brand) or a pack of ramen.

I am trying to buy healthy food, but it is breaking our bank.

peckish_pomegranate

healthy food is a lifelong investment. it's like preventive medicine to the body. it will cost more initially but the long-term benefits are priceless: less sick days off work, less depression, more energy, less hospital bills, less medicine bills, less eating out, less cravings...the list can go on and on. since i've started going 70-80% raw vegan. looked up the benefits - found these:

your natural, ideal body weight - without counting a single calorie!
more energy - something that most people could do with,
a clear head, with sharper, quicker reactions,
great looking, shiny skin - glowing from the inside out,
pain-free periods - menstruation can go almost un-noticed
less illness, and need for pharmaceutical intervention

another source:

Healthy skin and hair
Increased energy
Weight loss
Lower body mass index
Lower cholesterol levels
Overall heart health

Symptoms of fibromyalgia and rheumatoid arthritis improve significantly
The progression of prostate cancer can be halted and in some cases even reversed
Bacterial enzymes and toxins linked to colon cancer may decrease
Risk of heart disease and Type 2 diabetes is reduced
High blood pressure is lowered

The question isn't "should you eat healthy even if it's more expensive." We all would like to eat healthier, but not everyone has money to spare for the higher food bills. It's not always a matter of just moving some around. When your rent is $800 and your light, gas, and water is $100, and you make $950 as a household, you're not going to able to just move some things around.

peckish_pomegranate

Didn't read the other responses, but just a thought to ponder-
Lean protein is expensive.
Fresh Produce is expensive.
Healthy fat is expensive.
Whole grains, not too bad.

Cheesecake is REALLY expensive.
Ribeye steak and filet mignon are expensive.
Booze is expensive.

IMHO-it's all about perspective.

Barb

Do you really believe poor people are eating cheesecake and filet mignon. Use your brain here.

ElizIvory

I know I'm definately not eating cheesecake!
I wish!
Or even steak in general, not even filet mignon.


I hate hearing "well if you just bought this fish, and this lean meat and all these veggies you could eat so much better." I dont think they understand that the grocery bill can't go from $100 a month to $200 a month that means I dont pay my electric.

AngelaKelly02

I think so, my grocery bill is now $500 a fortnight, previously it was $300-$400. The extra cost for me comes from buying meat, and I'm a bit fussy about having my turkery and chicken free range and that kind of thing. Before I changed my eating habits we were probably only eating meat once or twice a week.

michelle7673

I've seen both sides. If I go to Whole Foods (which in the US is a pricey specialty/organic grocer), and buy everything in sight, every veg I see, it's a fortune. I think I did it because I thought "I need a lot of options or I'll eat junk". And half of it went bad. What really fixed that was meal planning a week or more at a time, and planning for leftovers. I do shop farmers markets, and while I'm not sure, honestly, that it's cheaper than the supermarket, but I like it better in numerous ways. The other thing that lowered the cost a LOT for us is not buying soda.

kylTKe

Well, don't forget that eating a crummy diet comes with the added medical expenses later on in life. Plus(I'm going for it) your health and happiness are priceless, right?

Seriously though eating healthy food is super cheap in a lot of cases (eggs, chicken, veggies, fruit, etc...). It'll only be more expensive if you make it more expensive.

BearHugger78

So much depends on what you were eating before and what you're eating now (including the quality you're looking for, whether it's organic or not, and so on), who else you're feeding, as well as your daily calorie needs.

I rarely ate out much anyway, so I escaped a lot of overpriced meals even when I was eating poorly. Several days a week I was eating (a whole ... or more) frozen pizza, which can be a very cheap 1500 calories. When Tombstones would go on sale "4 for $10" I'd buy as many as I could fit in the freezer. 600 calories per dollar ... there's nothing currently in my house with anything near that kind of, er, "value".

Overall I estimate I spend two to four times as much per day now than I did before I decided to eat healthier. On top of that, things such as gas money -- I make more frequent trips to more stores -- and the time spent preparing food and cleaning up add additional costs of one form or another.

I wouldn't do it if I didn't think the investment in my health wasn't worth it, but it has undeniably been more expensive for me.

KayteeBear

Sort of, yes. Brown rice, 7 or 12 grain breads, whole wheat pasta, greek yogurt are all more expensive. Even milk is beginning to get expensive (I buy twice as much because I make my own yogurt). Buying vegetables and fruits in season isn't always an option when it's winter half the year here and nothing is in season then. A small bag of spinach is like $4 (I could make about one smoothie with the contents of that, maybe two).

It also depends where you live. I live in a small town with ONE grocery store (which surprisingly has a pretty good selection) and that means stuff is more expensive and I can't shop around for the best price.

However, you can work around it but still isn't always the best. I would love to buy more broccoli and cauliflower but it's expensive. I usually only buy cabbage, carrots, onions and potatoes for vegetables because that's the cheapest and they last the longest. Fruits, even when in season, can be pretty pricey (and frozen fruit is really expensive which sucks because I like making a lot of smoothies). I usually buy apples and bananas but during the summer strawberries go on sale so I'll buy a bunch to freeze for smoothies. Same with other fruits when they go on sale.

I eat fairly healthy on my budget, but I could eat really healthy if I could spend as much money as I want. Winter is definitely the hardest though. I'm hoping to put in a garden this summer so that should help a lot. Now it's only a matter of not killing everything I plant. lol

annbillingsley

It is WAY more expensive to eat healthy--that means no breads, rice, corn, potatoes and pasta fillers because they are junk! A head of lettuce is close to $4 and boneless skinless chicken breast is like $5 a lb! wayyyyyyyy cheaper to eat starchy fillers, and I usually cooked from scratch anyway. 3 or 4 oz of protein per meal leaves a helluva lot of calories you have to make up with healthy carbs and fats. I can easily go through a head of lettuce myself in a day, not including the other 3 in the family! and one crown of broccoli is $3 or more and that is basically one meal's worth for one person. NO WAY IN HELL is it cheaper to eat healthy!

quirkytizzy

My husband and I rarely go out to eat. My grocery bill has gone up a lot since I started eating healthy. I shop for groceries and have to buy all the unhealthy foods I bought before because my husband doesn't choose to eat this way. Then I buy the healthy food for me. So yeah, it costs a lot more. But I am going to keep doing it. I have only lost 6 or 7 pounds so far but I'm liking this healthy way of eating. By this time next year, I hope to tell you about the 100 pounds I lost.

This is where I find eating healthy expensive, too. My BF and I only have the money to buy one set of foods, and since he's the pickier eater, (and I'll eat anything - seriously, I'm nearly a human garbage disposal), we buy the foods he will eat. Which aren't terribly healthy. So I practice the hell out of portion control.

I'd like to buy myself healthier foods, but I just don't have the money to stretch like that.

littlelily613

Whoever thinks that eating at fast food places is cheaper than cooking healthy foods at home is either insane or has their head buried in the sand. Most of my weight came from fast food. An average meal around here would cost at least 10$ at a fast food joint. I mean, unless you get something like a kid's meal. I eat WAY cheaper now that I've stopped wasting my money on fast food. Perhaps if I was feeding a family, it might seem more expensive, but it is just me, and I don't buy any of the fancy health-food products out there, just regular items that are considered healthy.

jmadamczyk

I spend roughly 30 dollars a week on food for myself.

I've been waiting for a post like this one because I wanted to share how I do it. i buy fruits and veggies that are frozen.

Now I know this isn't as nice as fresh, but when you're poor (and cheap) I believe it really is the best alternative.

Breakfast-

I usually eat a cup of fruit for breakfast and toast. I buy a big frozen bag of berries from Kroger for 12 bucks and then usually a smaller one of strawberries for 3 bucks. Sometimes the fruit varies, but I try to keep it under fifteen bucks.

I buy a loaf of bread from Nature's Own, which is usually 3 buck (18 so far). I usually eat the toast with my fruit in the morning and a cup of coffee. (I buy Kuereg coffee, but it comes out to 30 cents a cup. So lets round up to 3 dollars a week). We're at 21 dollars.

Kroger does 10 for 10 on bags of veggies. I usually buy five bags (I always get the spinach, brussel sprouts and broccoli. Sometimes I get carrots, sometimes peas, sometimes beats, it just depends). and then I buy a box of the boil in a bag brown rice (also 10 for ten dollars) and cook them all together. I mix up the concoction and use various spices for flavor. We're at 26 bucks.

For dinner, I usually sautee some of my frozen veggies and use spices to make it taste good. Sometimes I buy veggies in a can and make my own soup. Sometimes I make veggie tortillas using corn tortillas (about 3 dollars for six). I suppose it's easier because I am trying to eat as vegan as I can without breaking the bank.

I am also extremely poor and 30 dollars is about all I can spend on myself. My husband costs about 50 and my son's formula costs almost 50 dollars a week. So i really have to spend as little as I can on myself. Where there is a will, there's a way.

annbillingsley

So much depends on what you were eating before and what you're eating now (including the quality you're looking for, whether it's organic or not, and so on), who else you're feeding, as well as your daily calorie needs.

I rarely ate out much anyway, so I escaped a lot of overpriced meals even when I was eating poorly. Several days a week I was eating (a whole ... or more) frozen pizza, which can be a very cheap 1500 calories. When Tombstones would go on sale "4 for $10" I'd buy as many as I could fit in the freezer. 600 calories per dollar ... there's nothing currently in my house with anything near that kind of, er, "value".

Overall I estimate I spend two to four times as much per day now than I did before I decided to eat healthier. On top of that, things such as gas money -- I make more frequent trips to more stores -- and the time spent preparing food and cleaning up add additional costs of one form or another.

I wouldn't do it if I didn't think the investment in my health wasn't worth it, but it has undeniably been more expensive for me.

^^^^THIS completely! I got the most caloric bang for my buck, so spending $12 for a bag of grapes that will last 3 days max in lunches versus $12 worth of knock-off brand junk that would last for a couple weeks in lunches plus snacks is obviously WAY more expensive!!!!