Why is healthy food more expensive?!

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  • HollisGrant
    HollisGrant Posts: 2,022 Member
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    Why is healthy food more expensive?! :mad: ...Yet you always hear/see on the internet, TV, adverts, schools etc. to get healthy, When they don't make it easy for us... This just bugged me! So I thought I'd see what peoples views on it are...
    I noticed when I go to the fruit isles etc at the start of the isle there is ALWAYS a bargain on chocolate bars, crisps etc!
    This annoys me because it DOES tempt me, I won't lie, that's the truth though.. especially when your on a budget :frown:
    Peoples views? Thanks for reading! :flowerforyou:

    I eat a simple, healthy diet, mostly brown rice, lentils, and a lot of fresh vegetables. My food bill is about $100 a month, very low in comparison to my diet before MFP. I meet all my protein requirements, have lost about 30 pounds since April, and feel great.

    One thing I don't do: buy expensive processed food advertised as healthy.
  • mspoopoo
    mspoopoo Posts: 500 Member
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    I find it heaps cheaper.

    Grow your own vegetables or go to a farmer's market. I can get a huge bag of fruits and veg for less than 10.

    Bake your own bread.

    Buy a freezer and get a 1/4 cow or hog.

    Much cheaper than lunches out and $5 cup of starbucks each morning.

    We take the boat out and catch some fish too.
  • SJVZEE
    SJVZEE Posts: 451 Member
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    Just my own experience,but I'm no longer buying most junk food,so that is saving right there.Good bread is $$,so half goes in the freezer.My limit is 2 slices a day.No longer buying lots of cheese or meat.The only thing we drink is cold water & iced tea,no sugar drinks.
    The list goes on,but it mainly comes down to eating/ buying less food,eating healthier.Most of my money goes on fresh fruit & veggies.Wish they were lower cost,but it is what it is.

    PS..MFP is free & I'm not paying for a diet service. We have to take our savings where we find them .:flowerforyou:

    So true about MFP! My sister pays for WW every month online, even though she's now been in maintenance for years. I've asked her why and she says she needs the accountability, but she can get that free here, or several other online places :huh: I've tried telling her how awesome MFP is, but she's stuck on the thought that she HAS to pay for WW. Crazy girl lol.
  • JeffersJJ
    JeffersJJ Posts: 58 Member
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    Food prices should be directly proportional to their caloric values.
  • xnancyelizabeth
    xnancyelizabeth Posts: 22 Member
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    Or how about £1.00 (or 5 for £4.00) for a low cal/fat microwavable meal.. when a bag of fruit/veggies is more expensive most of the time where I live. I'd like to stick to fresh veggies & fruits but this is exactly what happened with my old diet (determined not to make the same mistake this time though!) ...doesn't make sense lol :noway:
  • BEEUK
    BEEUK Posts: 113
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    Food prices should be directly proportional to their caloric values.

    Some of the most 'unhealthy' foods are low calories, take sweeteners and anything with caffeine.
  • Alderaic
    Alderaic Posts: 294 Member
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    to answer OP's question,
    non healthy food took decades of trying to find the cheapest possible way to get food on the market and people to buy it for maximum profit. All the crappy thing you cannot read on a label are to increase the taste of something that does not have any taste. keep it longer on the shelves to reduce the loss or to decrease the cost of the product (corn starch for example)

    So the answer is more like this, it's not healthy food that is more expansive, it's processed food that was made cheaper
  • Coffeeholic8
    Coffeeholic8 Posts: 271 Member
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    Food prices should be directly proportional to their caloric values.
    There is far more to consider than just the calories.

    I find that eating healthy since I started this journey 17 months ago has resulted in my food bills dropping dramatically. Fresh fruit and veg isn't that expensive, especially if you buy seasonal and you avoid the stuff that has been peeled, chopped, sliced or diced for you. Do it yourself and save the cost of having someone do it for you.
  • grrrlface
    grrrlface Posts: 1,204 Member
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    Or how about £1.00 (or 5 for £4.00) for a low cal/fat microwavable meal.. when a bag of fruit/veggies is more expensive most of the time where I live. I'd like to stick to fresh veggies & fruits but this is exactly what happened with my old diet (determined not to make the same mistake this time though!) ...doesn't make sense lol :noway:

    But you can make your own 'frozen' meals with fresh ingredients. I make a curry sauce (enough for 4 meals for 5 people) which work out SO much cheaper than buying everyone their own ready meal. I can make the sauce for less than £3.00 then all I add is spices (which can be ezpensive when you buy them but they last forever!) a 450g pack of mince turkey, 450g of potatoes, 100g of frozen peas (which is 1/10th of a 1kg bag of frozen peas.) Those ingredients added to one serving of sauce costs about £6 for 5 people. You've got a good meal and you've got extra sauce for another meal, don't have to add the same stuff...!

    ETA: you can freeze the whole curry, just divide into servings and freeze. Healthy frozen meal that didn't cost an arm and a leg.
  • LorinaLynn
    LorinaLynn Posts: 13,247 Member
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    Or how about £1.00 (or 5 for £4.00) for a low cal/fat microwavable meal.. when a bag of fruit/veggies is more expensive most of the time where I live. I'd like to stick to fresh veggies & fruits but this is exactly what happened with my old diet (determined not to make the same mistake this time though!) ...doesn't make sense lol :noway:

    But you can make your own 'frozen' meals with fresh ingredients. I make a curry sauce (enough for 4 meals for 5 people) which work out SO much cheaper than buying everyone their own ready meal. I can make the sauce for less than £3.00 then all I add is spices (which can be ezpensive when you buy them but they last forever!) a 450g pack of mince turkey, 450g of potatoes, 100g of frozen peas (which is 1/10th of a 1kg bag of frozen peas.) Those ingredients added to one serving of sauce costs about £6 for 5 people. You've got a good meal and you've got extra sauce for another meal, don't have to add the same stuff...!

    This. The actual amount of food in most frozen dinners is pathetic. A tiny portion of meat, a tiny portion of vegetables and a small amount of some kind of pasta or rice, with a sauce of some sort.
  • strongmindstrongbody
    strongmindstrongbody Posts: 315 Member
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    It does get more expensive sometimes. Went shopping yesterday and spent a little over $50 on produce alone. Most of it won't last more than a few days, so I'll have to make a mid-week trip to the store for more. But produce is an investment for our health, right? I'll keep scouting for sales and rein in the budget elsewhere.
  • 257_Lag
    257_Lag Posts: 1,249 Member
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    Calorie for calorie I think it is more expensive. Think about it. $6 can buy you 1500 calories at McDonalds. I think you will be hard pressed to find 1500 calories in healthy food for $6 (just making these numbers up)

    Processed food has gotten where it is from companies competing for years. We can sell it cheaper if we add filler X or chemical Y says company A. Company B says, hey, if we add MSG we can increase the shelf life of our product making it cheaper per unit. And so on...

    Where as an orchard owner or farmer can't really reduce his cost. Year in and year out it costs X number of cents to produce and apple or raise a chicken.

    Just my opinion.
  • RobTheGourmet
    RobTheGourmet Posts: 189 Member
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    Because they take longer to grow if organic maybe

    not true at all takes the same amount of time this idea is propaganda thrown out by big agri business
    its expensive more so because its true cost rather then hidden costs due to subsidization of corn and milk products by massive multi-nationals.

    just find products without Soy, Corn in them these 2 items are in nearly every prepared or processed food product in the US simply because the tax payer picks up the tab on these, so much so that in mexico it is cheaper to eat American corn then to grow it.

    so in a sense its simply the true cost of a product rather then a partial cost later taxed on you to finish the rest of the cost
  • HollisGrant
    HollisGrant Posts: 2,022 Member
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    Calorie for calorie I think it is more expensive. Think about it. $6 can buy you 1500 calories at McDonalds. I think you will be hard pressed to find 1500 calories in healthy food for $6 (just making these numbers up)

    Processed food has gotten where it is from companies competing for years. We can sell it cheaper if we add filler X or chemical Y says company A. Company B says, hey, if we add MSG we can increase the shelf life of our product making it cheaper per unit. And so on...

    Where as an orchard owner or farmer can't really reduce his cost. Year in and year out it costs X number of cents to produce and apple or raise a chicken.

    Just my opinion.

    For $6, I can buy a bag of brown rice and 4 bags of lentils (almost 5).

    1 cup of rice: 220 calories
    1 cup of lentils: 230 calories

    1 bag of rice = 5 cups cooked
    1 bag of lentils = 4 cups cooked (x 4 - 16 cups)

    With my $6, I can get over 10 meals if I eat 1/2 cup of rice with 1 cup of lentils, with more lentils left over.

    Of course, I will add some onion, steamed greens, a carrot, etc., to make it palatable. Those things are not expensive. Collard greens cost $1.29 a pound, onions are 99 cents a pound.

    I have been eating this way since April of this year and my weight loss proves it works. I spend about $100 a month on food and eat all fresh vegetables and fruit.
  • lyndausvi
    lyndausvi Posts: 156 Member
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    This issue can really be subjective.

    Our grocery bills are running about $80 per week for 2 people for mostly whole fruits, veggies, meats, yogurts. Our meats/fish are high quality and fresh (DH does not like frozen fish or meats) so that ups are bill and we are okay with that. I do not find fresh fruit and vegetables to be that expensive. Sure we could lower our bills buy eating more beans and other low cost bulk items, but fact is I'm not a bean or lentil fan (although I'm trying to acquire a taste). We live in a small apartment with an average size freezer. We can only cook so much in bulk to freeze. Another "problem" is DH is not a leftover fan and prefers to cook fresh meals daily. DH is not a fan of meal planning either (grr).


    Before starting this journey we ate out a lot. I would say we use to spend $150+ per week just on eating out. So while our grocery bill is higher our overall food budget is lower (as are our waists).

    We only started this journey a few months ago. It's a learning process. It takes a little while to figure out how to shop and eat more efficiently. One reason over the last few weeks our bills were higher was because Fage was on sale for $1. So we stocked up and have greek yogurt good until end of Aug. They also had chicken breasts on sale, so I bought extra to freeze for myself. In Aug our bills will go down because that's something we do not have to buy.

    Stick with it, you will figure it out.
  • Francl27
    Francl27 Posts: 26,371 Member
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    I spend about $200 a week for 4 of us, although it doesn't count lunches for my husband, but it includes paper products and whatnot. Saving a lot compared to when I was buying a lot of junk, honestly.
  • Stargrace2
    Stargrace2 Posts: 48 Member
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    Be sure to check out your local farmers markets! Fruits and veggies that are in season and locally grown are often MUCH cheaper than what you would find in your typical grocery store.

    I found that since eating better I have to go to 3-4 different smaller stores to get everything I want at a reasonable price but it's completely worth it rather than settling at one of the larger overpriced stores.

    Shopping in bulk for meat is great, though I don't have a lot of room. $25 for 10 chicken breasts at Costco, that lasts me two weeks right there. Of course your mileage may vary based on where you live, but don't be afraid to shop around.
  • Stephanieloseit
    Stephanieloseit Posts: 4 Member
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    Food prices should be directly proportional to their caloric values.

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