WHY IS EATING HEALTHY SO EXPENSIVE?!?!?!111
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It takes work to find the cheaper options. I can eat an unhealthy fast food meal for $5-$7 a day and stay full longer. If I just go to the store and load up on only healthy foods I can spend nearly $70 but I feel hungry more often. When I take the time to look online for sales and to plan out meals for the week then it can be cheaper to eat at home but like most people I don't do this. Just set a daily budget for food and drinks and stick to that. Take a bagged lunch 3 times a week and eat out twice a week. Doing this saves me time and money.0
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Ready2Rock206 wrote: »Those people who claim they can't eat healthy because it is too expensive are usually just looking for an excuse to not lose weight. Stop eating out and be a little creative and it's really not bad at all. Of course I am a terrible shopper and I like to eat out so I always spend too much money but that's a whole other issue...
Unless, of course, they live in a place where it is difficult to access those types of foods. Not everyone has a car to go shopping in another neighborhood if there is no good grocery store near where they live. If you have no car, and inexpensive forms of better quality, nutritious foods take hours of public transportation to get to, and you are already exhausted from work plus caring for your family, you are going to take what you can get at the corner store or fast food dollar menus. The segment of the population most likely to have physically active jobs is also the segment of the population most likely suffer from obesity. Laziness and making excuses - are they really doing that, or are others simply making assumptions? Being able to look down on others without having a clue what their lives are like is a precious, precious privilege. Guard it carefully.6 -
It's not expensive. It's a lot cheaper if you don't eat out and bring your own lunch or eat at home. I get staples at the dollar store even to save money. It's doable.0
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WindSparrow wrote: »Ready2Rock206 wrote: »Those people who claim they can't eat healthy because it is too expensive are usually just looking for an excuse to not lose weight. Stop eating out and be a little creative and it's really not bad at all. Of course I am a terrible shopper and I like to eat out so I always spend too much money but that's a whole other issue...
Unless, of course, they live in a place where it is difficult to access those types of foods. Not everyone has a car to go shopping in another neighborhood if there is no good grocery store near where they live. If you have no car, and inexpensive forms of better quality, nutritious foods take hours of public transportation to get to, and you are already exhausted from work plus caring for your family, you are going to take what you can get at the corner store or fast food dollar menus. The segment of the population most likely to have physically active jobs is also the segment of the population most likely suffer from obesity. Laziness and making excuses - are they really doing that, or are others simply making assumptions? Being able to look down on others without having a clue what their lives are like is a precious, precious privilege. Guard it carefully.
Food is more expensive at the corner stores, and not much fresh food available. So it is not an option if you are trying to eat better, less expensively. Plan your shopping expeditions for days you don't have to work, and prep and prepare for the coming week Feeding a family of 4 even off the dollar menu, adds up very quickly, and I am pretty sure that if you really wanted to, you could come up with a much better option, for less than it takes to eat fast food off the dollar menu. It is an excuse. If you want it bad enough, you will find a way, not make excuses for why you can not do it. What is best for your family? One thing we have to remember is portion sizes as well. Shopping sales and buying bulk items really works.
I work very long hours (11-12 hour days M-F), and a 45 minute commute one way to work. I manage to do it, plus get up very early and go to the gym before work. It is a very long day for me. I will give you it is more difficult with a young family, but what you make a priority will benefit all of the family, and aren't you and your family worth the effort?
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I'm kind of torn on whether healthy eating is cheaper or more expensive.....but I do agree on avoiding eating out in restaurants. My husband and I rarely do, unless it's to friends' homes or potluck.
I used to love to eat out when I ate to live. The choice! The portion size! I grew up in an era of 'clean your plate' mentality. Now I realize that was part of my fat problem. I won't eat something now just to eat....I have to like and want it. (Drives my husband crazy because he has to finish all the leftovers and cringes at the thought of wasting anything. Me? Now, my reaction is: not savouring this? Not eating eating it!)
I needed to take control of my appetite. Luckily my husband has never liked eating out. He prefers my cooking. Sometimes it's simple and cheaply made, sometimes a splurge that turns out as expensive as a restaurant meal.
I made a commitment to myself that I wouldn't allow food to monopolize my life and social interaction, although this is difficult since culture is tied so closely to eating IMO.
P.S. So sorry to hijack this thread and ramble, but you all really made me think!
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It's not just healthy eating out that's expensive. Healthy eating in is as well. It's like being rewarded for eating crap. Should be the other way round!!0
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It's not just healthy eating out that's expensive. Healthy eating in is as well. It's like being rewarded for eating crap. Should be the other way round!!
In those areas where fresh vegetables and fruit is more expensive it's generally due to higher shipping costs (refrigerated containers aren't cheap to purchase or lease and operate) and the higher cost of farmland. Tariffs also play a role. Some countries have incredibly high protective tariffs on food imports.
Fresh food is pretty inexpensive throughout the U.S. I know it's not in some other countries.0 -
Fruit and veggie prices tend to fluctuate around which items are in season at the time. Like right now. watermelon is fairly cheap as the growing season for it is ending and there's a rush to get rid of the surplus before it goes bad.
It's not really expensive to eat healthy, as long as you look for deals and base your meals around them. One meal I like to make is chicken fried rice, which ends up being $5 altogether for one batch [one batch makes 4 servings, so $1.25/serving]. I know "fried" doesn't sound healthy, but I use a wok, which reduces the amount of oil required substantially.0 -
Why is your caption "eating healthy Is so damn expensive" yet your actual thread is about how inexpensive it truly is?1
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I live a block from Whole Foods one way and a half mile from Safeway the other. We also have a Bargain Market about a ten minute drive from home, and Trader Joe's when I go home from the gym.
I figure out where the specials are and go there-usually Safeway for some items and Trader Joe's for other. Whole Foods is for specialty items only (example, my pint container of Green Valley lactose free yogurt). However, I hav recently started shopping at the Bargain Market where, yesterday, I got some great deals on frozen veggies and fresh veggies, and chicken. Veggies and fruit at the Farmer's Markets are big deals for me.
I spend too much on food because I love fresh fruits and veggies, but I am discovering that frozen taste just as fresh and are cheaper. We can eat the foods we love within our own perception of healthy at a reasonable price. I love @JoshD8705's demonstration of that. Even with beverages added on to that food list, it seems pretty reasonably priced to me. 0 -
It can be as cheap or as expensive as you make it, to be honest. Fresh veggies out of season vs frozen... Regular chicken on sale vs organic chicken...
As I said, I typically spend $150 a week for 4 of us, but I shop around for sales, don't buy expensive protein, and we eat frozen veggies (on sale) more often than fresh (we have a garden in the Summer but it performed badly this year). I make my own bread also. The only semi expensive stuff I splurge on are Greek yogurts (the $1 a cup kind) and pink lady apples.0 -
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WindSparrow wrote: »Ready2Rock206 wrote: »Those people who claim they can't eat healthy because it is too expensive are usually just looking for an excuse to not lose weight. Stop eating out and be a little creative and it's really not bad at all. Of course I am a terrible shopper and I like to eat out so I always spend too much money but that's a whole other issue...
Unless, of course, they live in a place where it is difficult to access those types of foods. Not everyone has a car to go shopping in another neighborhood if there is no good grocery store near where they live. If you have no car, and inexpensive forms of better quality, nutritious foods take hours of public transportation to get to, and you are already exhausted from work plus caring for your family, you are going to take what you can get at the corner store or fast food dollar menus. The segment of the population most likely to have physically active jobs is also the segment of the population most likely suffer from obesity. Laziness and making excuses - are they really doing that, or are others simply making assumptions? Being able to look down on others without having a clue what their lives are like is a precious, precious privilege. Guard it carefully.
I seriously doubt there is any city that has public transportation where it would take "hours" to get to a grocery store in another neighborhood if there was not one near where they lived.0 -
Packerjohn wrote: »WindSparrow wrote: »Ready2Rock206 wrote: »Those people who claim they can't eat healthy because it is too expensive are usually just looking for an excuse to not lose weight. Stop eating out and be a little creative and it's really not bad at all. Of course I am a terrible shopper and I like to eat out so I always spend too much money but that's a whole other issue...
Unless, of course, they live in a place where it is difficult to access those types of foods. Not everyone has a car to go shopping in another neighborhood if there is no good grocery store near where they live. If you have no car, and inexpensive forms of better quality, nutritious foods take hours of public transportation to get to, and you are already exhausted from work plus caring for your family, you are going to take what you can get at the corner store or fast food dollar menus. The segment of the population most likely to have physically active jobs is also the segment of the population most likely suffer from obesity. Laziness and making excuses - are they really doing that, or are others simply making assumptions? Being able to look down on others without having a clue what their lives are like is a precious, precious privilege. Guard it carefully.
I seriously doubt there is any city that has public transportation where it would take "hours" to get to a grocery store in another neighborhood if there was not one near where they lived.
Not everyone lives in a big city where there is good public transport, you can't apply what happens in your own small part of the world to the entire planet. Certainly in some rural towns in Australia you have very little choice of where to shop, fresh food is expensive because it has to be shipped in by road and there are almost no options to get to the next town or to the main city if you don't have a car and can't afford the airfare.
Eating healthy doesn't have to be expensive for most people - if you have the skills to menu plan, buy bargains and can get to a couple of different shops or have access to a farmer's market to buy produce in season then you can eat well for a pretty reasonable amount. Not everyone has those skills though or access to the range of produce that I have.
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Food is more expensive at the corner stores, and not much fresh food available. So it is not an option if you are trying to eat better, less expensively. Plan your shopping expeditions for days you don't have to work, and prep and prepare for the coming week Feeding a family of 4 even off the dollar menu, adds up very quickly, and I am pretty sure that if you really wanted to, you could come up with a much better option, for less than it takes to eat fast food off the dollar menu. It is an excuse. If you want it bad enough, you will find a way, not make excuses for why you can not do it. What is best for your family? One thing we have to remember is portion sizes as well. Shopping sales and buying bulk items really works.
I work very long hours (11-12 hour days M-F), and a 45 minute commute one way to work. I manage to do it, plus get up very early and go to the gym before work. It is a very long day for me. I will give you it is more difficult with a young family, but what you make a priority will benefit all of the family, and aren't you and your family worth the effort?
What is best for YOUR family might not be what is best for someone else's family. You have found a way to balance your life in a way you declare is healthy for you. That is excellent. I feel so blessed that I now live in a small town that is big enough to have not only several grocery stores but also a farmers' market plus assorted farm stands and orchards. But what if things were not so easy? Add in taking another job just to get by. Add in one of your children having problems at school, and needing a different after-care set-up. Add in developing a chronic health problem and not having resources to do anything about it. Add in getting evicted to make way for gentrification and getting your affordable housing possibilities pushed further and further away from your jobs. Add in a myriad of issues that sap away a person's ability to get everything done. These types of problems may be difficult for you to imagine, but pretending you know all there is to know about other people's lives does not mean those problems do not exist. These examples are not worst case scenarios that are few and far between, happening only rarely and therefore need not cause you consternation. Too many people live them every day, every week, every month, every year. When we pretend that these systemic problems are mere excuses for not magically overcoming the lack of advantages they have, we dehumanize the people laboring under them.3 -
Ready2Rock206 wrote: »Those people who claim they can't eat healthy because it is too expensive are usually just looking for an excuse to not lose weight. Stop eating out and be a little creative and it's really not bad at all. Of course I am a terrible shopper and I like to eat out so I always spend too much money but that's a whole other issue...
This is a sweeping generalization and not true for all people who say "eating healthy" is too expensive. Besides, what is considered healthy? It's all in the perception.
There is nothing wrong with eating out, but it can indeed get expensive.
"Eating healthy is too expensive" is also a generalization. Some things do cost more, but others cost less. And remember, "expensive" is relative. The people who have to live off of $800 to feed a family of 4 will eat pasta and hotdogs all day long because it is completely cheaper than anything else for the calories. Given, a lot of those people buy crap anyways, but even if you take away the situation, people can still be uneducated about relative prices.
Generally speaking, the ones I have seen that say eating healthy is too expensive also are undereducated about calories and fitness. Once people get educated about one or the other, they change their threshold of what they will eat.0 -
WindSparrow wrote: »Food is more expensive at the corner stores, and not much fresh food available. So it is not an option if you are trying to eat better, less expensively. Plan your shopping expeditions for days you don't have to work, and prep and prepare for the coming week Feeding a family of 4 even off the dollar menu, adds up very quickly, and I am pretty sure that if you really wanted to, you could come up with a much better option, for less than it takes to eat fast food off the dollar menu. It is an excuse. If you want it bad enough, you will find a way, not make excuses for why you can not do it. What is best for your family? One thing we have to remember is portion sizes as well. Shopping sales and buying bulk items really works.
I work very long hours (11-12 hour days M-F), and a 45 minute commute one way to work. I manage to do it, plus get up very early and go to the gym before work. It is a very long day for me. I will give you it is more difficult with a young family, but what you make a priority will benefit all of the family, and aren't you and your family worth the effort?
What is best for YOUR family might not be what is best for someone else's family. You have found a way to balance your life in a way you declare is healthy for you. That is excellent. I feel so blessed that I now live in a small town that is big enough to have not only several grocery stores but also a farmers' market plus assorted farm stands and orchards. But what if things were not so easy? Add in taking another job just to get by. Add in one of your children having problems at school, and needing a different after-care set-up. Add in developing a chronic health problem and not having resources to do anything about it. Add in getting evicted to make way for gentrification and getting your affordable housing possibilities pushed further and further away from your jobs. Add in a myriad of issues that sap away a person's ability to get everything done. These types of problems may be difficult for you to imagine, but pretending you know all there is to know about other people's lives does not mean those problems do not exist. These examples are not worst case scenarios that are few and far between, happening only rarely and therefore need not cause you consternation. Too many people live them every day, every week, every month, every year. When we pretend that these systemic problems are mere excuses for not magically overcoming the lack of advantages they have, we dehumanize the people laboring under them.
Your post indicated access to public transportation, fast food, and corner stores available. All of which are not available in rural areas and most small towns. I am truly sorry you have such a difficult life, and I do realize that many people do. This post is about eating healthy, and for people living in areas that have public transportation, it is possible to eat healthy. It takes work and planning for everyone (I live in the country 12 miles from the nearest town so I do know what it takes). People make choices in their lives all the time, no matter their circumstances.0 -
I find it evens out if you're buying healthy foods and not buying the prepackaged processed Foods anymore. I also spend all day Sunday meal prepping, and freezing foods for the week or two and I bring everything to work with me I've come to enjoy cooking dinner and being creative my Grocery bill has shrunk since I started eating healthy since I buy in bulk and prep my meals. Prepping also helps me make healthier choices because I do it when I have time to think about what I'm eating in what I could substitute that may be healthier0
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DawniDeHart wrote: »Seriously, guys, my fiancé and I have saved a little over $200 in two weeks since we have stopped eating out and started counting our calories. Turns out, not buying and eating more than your body needs is actually a good thing.
To be truthful the government wants to make the healthier foods less accessible to the middle class to the poor so they will have health issues and need to go to the doctor and get put on drugs. But I don't want to turn this in to a political debate so I won't elaborate on that.
But in all seriousness, would you rather spend a few more $$ on the healthier foods now or later on have to spend more money for health issues you may not have had if you didn't eat the crappy foods? That's how I try to look at it. The grocery stores in my area are more and more offering organic foods and prices are better than the whole foods type stores. 0 -
Why does everything always have to be labeled with sweeping generalizations? A person can make frugal choices eating "healthy" foods - rice, beans, canned fruits/veg, cheaper cuts of meat, in season ridicule, shop the ads, etc OR they can elect to buy all organic, grass fed beef, trendily labeled packaged foods...
Similarly a person can make frugal "junk" food choices eating the sale items at the grocery store (bags of chips, cookies, and Gatorade are always in our sale section) or at fast food restaurants (dollar menu, etc) or they can spend quite a bit on restaurant meals and expensive pre-prepared foods.
But another sweeping generalization that irks me is that people must eat exclusively "healthy" or else they are eating nothing but junk. There are plenty of nutrient dense convenience foods and there's nothing wrong with eating fast food on occasion. My busy life usually means I cook from scratch 1-2 nights a week, rely on quick prep convenience foods 3-4 nights a week, and eat out the remainder. That may be fast casual like Panera or Chipotle, pizza night with my family, or a neighborhood Mexican or Italian restaurant. My food budget hasn't changed dramatically from before I lost weight, other than maybe I eat less total food than before!3 -
DawniDeHart wrote: »Seriously, guys, my fiancé and I have saved a little over $200 in two weeks since we have stopped eating out and started counting our calories. Turns out, not buying and eating more than your body needs is actually a good thing.
hahaha0 -
samanthaluangphixay wrote: »Wish this applied to Vancouver. Come for the overpriced housing, stay for the expensive food.
Eating less of it, however, is always cheaper 1 -
Ready2Rock206 wrote: »Those people who claim they can't eat healthy because it is too expensive are usually just looking for an excuse to not lose weight. Stop eating out and be a little creative and it's really not bad at all. Of course I am a terrible shopper and I like to eat out so I always spend too much money but that's a whole other issue...
This is a sweeping generalization and not true for all people who say "eating healthy" is too expensive. Besides, what is considered healthy? It's all in the perception.
There is nothing wrong with eating out, but it can indeed get expensive.
It's actually not, really. You don't need to eat out to eat healthy. And, it's always cheaper to eat less.1 -
WindSparrow wrote: »Ready2Rock206 wrote: »Those people who claim they can't eat healthy because it is too expensive are usually just looking for an excuse to not lose weight. Stop eating out and be a little creative and it's really not bad at all. Of course I am a terrible shopper and I like to eat out so I always spend too much money but that's a whole other issue...
Unless, of course, they live in a place where it is difficult to access those types of foods. Not everyone has a car to go shopping in another neighborhood if there is no good grocery store near where they live. If you have no car, and inexpensive forms of better quality, nutritious foods take hours of public transportation to get to, and you are already exhausted from work plus caring for your family, you are going to take what you can get at the corner store or fast food dollar menus. The segment of the population most likely to have physically active jobs is also the segment of the population most likely suffer from obesity. Laziness and making excuses - are they really doing that, or are others simply making assumptions? Being able to look down on others without having a clue what their lives are like is a precious, precious privilege. Guard it carefully.
You do know one can lose weight by eating McDonald's, right?0 -
I saw some idiot on facebook post the meme about salad costing more than steak...
Then she went off about the cost of the salad bar at [area grocery store chain].
Well, yeah, if you go to the salad bar, with everything prepped, waiting all day in refrigerated
comfort, ready to eat, it's expensive. Most convenience food is. You're not paying for food,
you're paying for the convenience, for not using your time & effort to prepare it.
And someone I used to connect with on FB posted something else whining about healthy
food being expensive, so that evening I went to the grocery & took pictures of their signs or
shelf tags and posted them to her comment, showing that getting a family-size bag of potato
chips cost almost exactly the same amount as buying a pound EACH of onions, carrots, rice,
and dried beans.
So... about a pound of completely non-nutritious crap, or close to 8 pounds of healthy food?
And for those on a budget, or wanting to stretch their food money, here's some help.
Here's a cookbook put together to help SNAP (food stamp) recipients make the most of the
small amount they're given. Yummy healthy recipes, great photography, a nice departure from
the usual bland government output.
https://8e81c55f4ebf03323905b57bf395473796067508.googledrive.com/host/0B2A2SnkA9YgxaHdzbEhGSmJOZDg/good-and-cheap.pdf3 -
Eating out you don't just pay for the food you eat. You pay a service fee (cooking, serving) and you could say you pay a "rent" for the time you're occupying a chair. (usually to-go is cheaper)
Buy only fresh, non-processed foods and you get optimal health at a minimal price.1 -
pebble4321 wrote: »Packerjohn wrote: »WindSparrow wrote: »Ready2Rock206 wrote: »Those people who claim they can't eat healthy because it is too expensive are usually just looking for an excuse to not lose weight. Stop eating out and be a little creative and it's really not bad at all. Of course I am a terrible shopper and I like to eat out so I always spend too much money but that's a whole other issue...
Unless, of course, they live in a place where it is difficult to access those types of foods. Not everyone has a car to go shopping in another neighborhood if there is no good grocery store near where they live. If you have no car, and inexpensive forms of better quality, nutritious foods take hours of public transportation to get to, and you are already exhausted from work plus caring for your family, you are going to take what you can get at the corner store or fast food dollar menus. The segment of the population most likely to have physically active jobs is also the segment of the population most likely suffer from obesity. Laziness and making excuses - are they really doing that, or are others simply making assumptions? Being able to look down on others without having a clue what their lives are like is a precious, precious privilege. Guard it carefully.
I seriously doubt there is any city that has public transportation where it would take "hours" to get to a grocery store in another neighborhood if there was not one near where they lived.
Not everyone lives in a big city where there is good public transport, you can't apply what happens in your own small part of the world to the entire planet. Certainly in some rural towns in Australia you have very little choice of where to shop, fresh food is expensive because it has to be shipped in by road and there are almost no options to get to the next town or to the main city if you don't have a car and can't afford the airfare.
Eating healthy doesn't have to be expensive for most people - if you have the skills to menu plan, buy bargains and can get to a couple of different shops or have access to a farmer's market to buy produce in season then you can eat well for a pretty reasonable amount. Not everyone has those skills though or access to the range of produce that I have.
I'm well aware not everyone lIves in a big city with good transportation. That is why my post specifically talked about transportation to food stores in a city.
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governatorkp wrote: »Eating out you don't just pay for the food you eat. You pay a service fee (cooking, serving) and you could say you pay a "rent" for the time you're occupying a chair. (usually to-go is cheaper)
Buy only fresh, non-processed foods and you get optimal health at a minimal price.
Out of season frozen vegetables will be a better deal and likely have more nutrients.2
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