STOP saying healthy food is more expensive

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  • neanderthin
    neanderthin Posts: 10,018 Member
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    Healthy food is more expensive. :happy: On a calorie for calorie basis, processed and fast food is cheaper.
  • neandermagnon
    neandermagnon Posts: 7,436 Member
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    I think it depends on where you live.


    ^ this times a hundred million.....!!!


    of course it depends on where you live. I have an Algerian friend who's from an extremely rural part of Algeria, so rural it doesn't even have a McDonalds and no supermarkets either, and most of the brand names you get here, you can't get there. But if you want to buy a chicken, it comes live with feathers on, and they have farmers markets, lots of farmers markets where you can buy all kinds of locally produced, fresh, traditionally farmed (probably organic in most cases) fruit, vegetables and animal products all for extremely crazy cheap prices.

    But if you don't happen to live in that part of Algeria, this information isn't really much use to you.

    Every place has a different local economy, and the question of whether healthy food is cheaper or more expensive is different in every place. Yes some places it really is more expensive to eat healthy. In other places it's cheaper to eat healthy. The internet is a global medium, it's about time people learned to understand that the whole world isn't like their neighbourhood.
  • MsBluelipstick
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    There is no wrong or right answer here.

    Shopping is dependent on individual store prices and food availability/popularity in a region. Unless we all live in the same place and have the same allergies/food intolerances/preferences/family format... Who are we to cast this dumb generalization either way.


    Exactly! Someone posted how they get chicken breast at 1.39 a pound. I could never get that here.An average pack of 5 cost me about $20. You live in a small rural town, unless you get fresh local you can be screwed.

    Just from province to province I have lived in I have noticed huge differences in prices..In the Martimes I have access to lots of fresh fish at amazing prices.. when I lived out west beef and dairy were much cheaper. This debate is old and over done.
  • tigerblood78
    tigerblood78 Posts: 417 Member
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    I dont really think shopping healthy is expensive at all.
    My usual grocery basket can last me a week, and costs me around 30$

    Brown Rice
    2 Bags of Kale
    Swiss chard
    Fresh Collard Greens
    Variety of peppers/onions/ fruit
    one bag of lentils
    one bag of red beans
    3 cans of black beans
    variety of squashes
    cauliflower/broccoli frozen
    and two of three different types of protein
    there might be a few other things thrown in there...but for the most part I never go over 40$ when I go to the grocery store.
    That's all your groceries for the week? I'd be hating life after a few days. But I'm sure I'd have healthy bowel movements.
  • kaned_ferret
    kaned_ferret Posts: 618 Member
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    I think my eating costs have reduced since eating healthily - and I use a combination of cheapy stuff from the supermarket when I can bothered to go, but mostly get fresh stuff from my greengrocer. For example, I bought 2 bags of fresh veg the other week, and yes I spent £6 on it all, including a cabbage, a pepper, a leek, an onion, cauliflower, sweet potato and squash. I then used most of these to make a pot of soup. Expensive soup I hear you say, when it contains £6 worth of veg.. but that pot of soup was monumentally huge, and gave at least 6 large servings. I freeze it individually in tubs once made, and suddenly my very healthy meal has actually cost me less than £1. Way cheaper than getting similar from a store, or any other alternative lunch meal.

    Las week I got a 1kg pack of stir fry veg from tesco, it cost a quid. So far it's done me 4 meals and there's still some left, even with adding in some cheap meat again it comes to a pound a meal. Being able to cook IS a big factor for sure, but I love cooking.
  • Francl27
    Francl27 Posts: 26,371 Member
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    There is no wrong or right answer here.

    Shopping is dependent on individual store prices and food availability/popularity in a region. Unless we all live in the same place and have the same allergies/food intolerances/preferences/family format... Who are we to cast this dumb generalization either way.

    This.

    /thread
  • darkangel45422
    darkangel45422 Posts: 234 Member
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    I definitely think that you can't say 100% that it's more expensive or cheaper for everyone on the planet, because as has been said a thousand times before, everyone's locale has different prices, and some unfortunately live in the more expensive ones. I do think however that it also depends on what you ate before. If your only change in grocery shopping is to now buy organic, obviously it's more expensive - if however you're going from buying basically nothing but frozen pre-made meals, chips, soda, chocolates, etc. it's probably cheaper to buy all natural healthy foods. Maybe not calorie for calorie, but there's a big difference between eating 1000 calories of chips and 1000 calories of celery when you're talking satiety; I could easily eat the whole bag of chips in 1 sitting (over 1000 calories), but eating 1000 calories of celery? Not likely to happen in a day even.

    I can honestly say my grocery bill has gone done since cutting out the junk food, but that's because I now buy natural or whole foods rather than processed "health" foods, which are also expensive. Replacing the $10 cheesecake desserts with some apples is both healthier and cheaper for me, and I don't live in a place that's all that cheap for food either (definitely not finding my meat for $1.39 a pound - try $4 a pound being a great deal)
  • kimad
    kimad Posts: 3,010 Member
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    I personally don't believe that healthy food is more expensive. Maybe if you buy organic, but to me lettuce is lettuce is lettuce.

    I think eating crap and fast food costs WAY more money. For the price of Mcdonalds for a family of 4 I can easily get 2-3 meals depending what I make.

    I spend way less now at the grocery store stocking up on fruits/veggies, than I ever did stocking up on chips and pop.
  • PeaceHappinessBalance
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    It depends also on what you consider "healthy". To me real healthy foods are organic/grass fed, no gmo etc. and yes those are more expensive than non organic, etc.

    Also, if you are really in a tough financial situation and literally only have $5 to feed a family of four for the day and no one has eaten the whole day and everyone is starving for dinner then a $5 Little Caesar's pizza goes farther than 2 apples and a piece of chicken.

    I'm so happy Kroger is starting to sell organic/grass fed meats and products at a reasonable price. It is still a little more expensive than conventional foods. Healthy food is more expensive IMO, but it is definitely worth it if you can make it work.
  • thankyou4thevenom
    thankyou4thevenom Posts: 1,581 Member
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    There is no wrong or right answer here.

    Shopping is dependent on individual store prices and food availability/popularity in a region. Unless we all live in the same place and have the same allergies/food intolerances/preferences/family format... Who are we to cast this dumb generalization either way.

    Agreed.
  • BrainyBurro
    BrainyBurro Posts: 6,129 Member
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    i don't know what you mean by healthy food. i don't believe there is such a thing as healthy food. i also don't think there is such a thing as unhealthy food. likewise for good foods or bad foods. food is just fuel. you can be very "healthy" eating so-called unhealthy foods and vice-versa.

    what matters is the nutritional content of each food choice in combination with all of your other food choices on a given day.

    i know this is much too rational a way of seeing things than many people are prepared to accept, but i'm willing to keep pushing this boulder up the hill on the off chance that a few people will suddenly have epiphanies while reading my remarks.
  • xLexa
    xLexa Posts: 482 Member
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    I agree that there is no "winner" in this debate. I can only compare between what I used to do and what I do now and definitely, for me , in this area, buying healthy is more expensive. I also agree that I do save on the eating out part so in the end I am saving that money. I do have to say that I have now found Aldi and the fruit and vegetables section is awesome! Really if you have on you can save a fortune.