it DOESNT cost more to eat healthy!! :-)

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  • cspong
    cspong Posts: 260 Member
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    When I add in all the random Fast Food runs and buying chips or whatever on movie nights, it really is cheaper. Plus, in canada at least, the tax is about half for healthy food rather than junk :)
  • runfatmanrun
    runfatmanrun Posts: 1,090 Member
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    Mine is cheaper only because it lasts longer. Before I would buy a bag of chips say $3 and it would last a day or two tops. Now it last 3-4 days so all of a sudden my $/day gets cut in half. My biggest think was costco tortellini. The double pack used to be two meals, now it's seven. The cost of the items didn't get cheaper just how long the items last in my house increased.
  • Ge0rgiana
    Ge0rgiana Posts: 1,649 Member
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    I get Bountiful Baskets (bountifulbaskets.org). For $15 (+$1.50 handling) every 2 weeks, I get a TON of produce. Going to pick up a basket in the morning, and I still have tomatoes, onions, asparagus, and some apples and oranges left over from the last time. Food co-ops are fantastic if you can find one!
  • saxmaniac
    saxmaniac Posts: 1,133 Member
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    I don't agree at all. My grocery bill went up considerably. Let's read the article:

    "healthy foods like toasted oat cereal (a grain), vegetables, fruits, and low-fat milk and plain, low-fat yogurt (dairy) were more affordable than most protein foods (lean roast beef, chicken breast, or canned tuna "

    Chicken breast and fish is not counted as "healthy"? What? Sorry, but I need LOTS of protein to keep from losing muscle.

    Compare the price of ground beef with pink slime vs. fresh sockeye salmon and tell me better food isn't more expensive.

    By the time I get out the fresh vegetable aisle, shopping for a family of 5, I'm already down about $75.

    Here's what I think: It's not a lot more expensive to go from eating utter garbage, to something slightly better but still crappy. But to take it to the next level, with lots of fresh fruit, vegetables, and HIGH QUALITY PROTEIN takes money.
  • deniseearheart
    deniseearheart Posts: 919 Member
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    I live in AZ and can grow my veggies and some fruit inside year round.. Very thankful for that. Although I don't grow all the veggies I would like I can grown some like tomatoes,cucumbers,bell peppers , onion and garlic plus herbs and strawberries
  • Ge0rgiana
    Ge0rgiana Posts: 1,649 Member
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    When I add in all the random Fast Food runs and buying chips or whatever on movie nights, it really is cheaper. Plus, in canada at least, the tax is about half for healthy food rather than junk :)

    Wow. In the States we don't pay tax on stuff like whole produce and milk. I think that's another thing that people in this country forget about. I've made significant trips to the grocery store that resulted in 0 tax at the end.
  • deniseearheart
    deniseearheart Posts: 919 Member
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    I don't agree at all. My grocery bill went up considerably. Let's read:

    "healthy foods like toasted oat cereal (a grain), vegetables, fruits, and low-fat milk and plain, low-fat yogurt (dairy) were more affordable than most protein foods (lean roast beef, chicken breast, or canned tuna "

    Chicken breast and fish is not counted as "healthy"? What? Sorry, but I need LOTS of protein to keep from losing muscle.

    Compare the price of ground beef with pink slime vs. fresh sockeye salmon and tell me better food isn't more expensive.

    By the time I get out the fresh vegetable aisle, shopping for a family of 5, I'm already down about $75.

    Here's what I think: It's not a lot more expensive to go from eating utter garbage, to something slightly better but still crappy. But to take it to the next level, with lots of fresh fruit, vegetables, and HIGH QUALITY PROTEIN takes money.





    Ya I agree my fiance and I and our 3 teenage boys who eat us out of the house hold.. even with growing some of my own veggies we spend about 2-3 a week on groceries :-/
  • cheshirequeen
    cheshirequeen Posts: 1,324 Member
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    if its expensive for you now, look at it in the long run. you wont be eating crappy hospital food for 5 days from your heart attack that youve been spending lots of meds on for years.
  • saxmaniac
    saxmaniac Posts: 1,133 Member
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    if its expensive for you now, look at it in the long run. you wont be eating crappy hospital food for 5 days from your heart attack that youve been spending lots of meds on for years.

    It definitely is worth every penny. It's maybe an extra $50-$75 per week ($300/wk here) but it really matters.
  • alyson820
    alyson820 Posts: 448 Member
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    Ugh, these articles always upset me because there are so many assumptions made. For one, we're assuming that the person driving has a car. Imagine taking bags of fresh produce on mass transit, especially in the summer. Meat could defrost, fruit can start to go bad, not to mention that fresh, whole food is going to be much heavier than pre-packaged processed meals, because you're carrying every ingredient. And what if the nearest grocery store is miles away? Poor neighborhoods statistically have a large amount of fast food restaurants, and often no grocery stores (and if they do, they're usually convenience stores with little to no fresh food) http://content.healthaffairs.org/content/28/6/w1088.abstract.

    So, no car and no nearby grocery store. A lot of people are going to walk to the nearest fast food restaurant instead of spending an hour between buses and trains to buy food that could perish by the time it's brought home.
  • mrsdizzyd84
    mrsdizzyd84 Posts: 422 Member
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    Anyone who was a couponer and discount shopper before changing their eating habits experienced a marked increase in their grocery bill. The increase is worth it for sure, but I don't understand why people insist on trying to pretend the increase isn't there.

    As another poster mentioned, there is the food desert issue. Much of the US population lives in places where there is one grocery store and a walmart if they are lucky. Healthy food in these places is pricey because there is low demand for it.

    Often times, these articles are based on living in an urban environment with multiple food purchasing options.
  • TheFunBun
    TheFunBun Posts: 793 Member
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    For my family it costs more in some places, less in others.

    12 cheap nasty fat burritos = 3.49
    12 amy's burritos = 24.00
    tortillas, dry beans, block of cheese for 12 burritos = 6.00

    Box of breakfast bars = 2.99
    Box of lara bars = 5.99
    dates & nuts for 6 fruit & nut bars = 4.00

    Box of MSG flavored rice = 1.99
    Box of fancy flavored rice = 2.99
    Bag of rice, container of bullion.. divided by four to get similar servings = 1.60

    container of plain yogurt = 1.99
    equally sized container of plain greek yogurt = 6.99
    make it your damn self = about 2.00 for the same amount, I think.. just depends on milk prices

    I dunno about produce, since I can't think of an unhealthy version, but if you buy organic it's definitely costlier. I try to for the dirty dozen, but it often ends up differently. Living in Killeen TX, I don't have many options.


    It also depends on what you consider healthy, and what you actually have available to eat. If healthy is substituting grass fed for grain fed, and fresh for frozen, it's expensive. If it's just lean meats and frozen veggies, it can be quite cheap! :)
  • Marvalm3
    Marvalm3 Posts: 31 Member
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    For me, it is more expensive to eat healthy.

    I follow blogs that do coupon match-ups, and lately there hasn't been anything for me to get really good deals with coupons on! I could always find excellent deals on pasta, pasta sauce, sugary cereal, breakfast granola bars, crackers and a lot of those things I generally don't buy very much of anymore.
    I still use the coupons for things like greek yogurt, butter, cheese, frozen veggies, and condiments...but the deals are not as good and there are never coupons for the meat and fresh fruits and veggies.

    I went from spending $80-90 a week to about $130.
  • grinch031
    grinch031 Posts: 1,679
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    I agree its not automatically more expensive. I think it depends on what kind of foods you buy. Unless you are buying from the McDonald's dollar menu, fast food is quite expensive these days. I think the real cost of healthier foods is the time spent in the kitchen and inconvenience of preparing foods yourself.
  • Lup120
    Lup120 Posts: 31
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    Ugh, these articles always upset me because there are so many assumptions made. For one, we're assuming that the person driving has a car. Imagine taking bags of fresh produce on mass transit, especially in the summer. Meat could defrost, fruit can start to go bad, not to mention that fresh, whole food is going to be much heavier than pre-packaged processed meals, because you're carrying every ingredient. And what if the nearest grocery store is miles away? Poor neighborhoods statistically have a large amount of fast food restaurants, and often no grocery stores (and if they do, they're usually convenience stores with little to no fresh food) http://content.healthaffairs.org/content/28/6/w1088.abstract.

    So, no car and no nearby grocery store. A lot of people are going to walk to the nearest fast food restaurant instead of spending an hour between buses and trains to buy food that could perish by the time it's brought home.

    Yes, thank you! It also assumes if the person has a car that they can use gas money for frequent trips to the grocery stores to get the fresh/perishable items. No, someone who is low income might have to chose to use their gas for getting to work and possibly pick-up up their kids from day care or school not frequent trips to grocery stores. And if a car-less person can find someone to drive them, it can be pretty unreasonable to always bum that person for a ride every week or every few weeks so they might just do monthly shopping so they are not abusing some one's niceness.
  • LeilaFace
    LeilaFace Posts: 412 Member
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    Like everyone's been saying, depends on where you live. I was born and raised in Hawaii and nothing is cheap or affordable there especially not organic. Because we have limited land almost everything but fruit got shipped over from the mainland. One day the dock workers went on strike and a barge of food rotted in the bay... I don't know how my working family of 6 managed to feed us. In Hawaii cooking with processed food was cheaper, oddly enough our breakfasts of fruit, etc were way more affordable but as for dinners don't ask.

    I eat healthier now in Washington State and it is about the same price, I go to the Farmers market where I can buy organic meats, wine, veggies and fruit at only slightly elevated prices but because I'm not buying cookies, ice cream and chips it evens out.
  • LeilaFace
    LeilaFace Posts: 412 Member
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    Ugh, these articles always upset me because there are so many assumptions made. For one, we're assuming that the person driving has a car. Imagine taking bags of fresh produce on mass transit, especially in the summer. Meat could defrost, fruit can start to go bad, not to mention that fresh, whole food is going to be much heavier than pre-packaged processed meals, because you're carrying every ingredient. And what if the nearest grocery store is miles away? Poor neighborhoods statistically have a large amount of fast food restaurants, and often no grocery stores (and if they do, they're usually convenience stores with little to no fresh food) http://content.healthaffairs.org/content/28/6/w1088.abstract.

    So, no car and no nearby grocery store. A lot of people are going to walk to the nearest fast food restaurant instead of spending an hour between buses and trains to buy food that could perish by the time it's brought home.

    Yes, thank you! It also assumes if the person has a car that they can use gas money for frequent trips to the grocery stores to get the fresh/perishable items. No, someone who is low income might have to chose to use their gas for getting to work and possibly pick-up up their kids from day care or school not frequent trips to grocery stores. And if a car-less person can find someone to drive them, it can be pretty unreasonable to always bum that person for a ride every week or every few weeks so they might just do monthly shopping so they are not abusing some one's niceness.


    Totally agree!! Yes!
  • roachhaley
    roachhaley Posts: 978 Member
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    Ugh, these articles always upset me because there are so many assumptions made. For one, we're assuming that the person driving has a car. Imagine taking bags of fresh produce on mass transit, especially in the summer. Meat could defrost, fruit can start to go bad, not to mention that fresh, whole food is going to be much heavier than pre-packaged processed meals, because you're carrying every ingredient. And what if the nearest grocery store is miles away? Poor neighborhoods statistically have a large amount of fast food restaurants, and often no grocery stores (and if they do, they're usually convenience stores with little to no fresh food) http://content.healthaffairs.org/content/28/6/w1088.abstract.

    So, no car and no nearby grocery store. A lot of people are going to walk to the nearest fast food restaurant instead of spending an hour between buses and trains to buy food that could perish by the time it's brought home.

    Yes, thank you! It also assumes if the person has a car that they can use gas money for frequent trips to the grocery stores to get the fresh/perishable items. No, someone who is low income might have to chose to use their gas for getting to work and possibly pick-up up their kids from day care or school not frequent trips to grocery stores. And if a car-less person can find someone to drive them, it can be pretty unreasonable to always bum that person for a ride every week or every few weeks so they might just do monthly shopping so they are not abusing some one's niceness.

    Yes, this is a huge reason that people on lower incomes usually weigh more. To always have fresh produce, you almost HAVE to go to the grocery store at least 2 times a week. Some people can't afford the gas to go that often. Sometimes there isn't even a grocery store NEAR enough to go that often - for years, there was no grocery store in the north side of Tulsa, Oklahoma. They finally opened one and it got robbed so often they had to close it. Must have really sucked for the people who needed food.
  • bcattoes
    bcattoes Posts: 17,299 Member
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    Part of what feeds into the disparity is the grocery desert that many rural families face. Grocery stores are spread out here, and not only do I spend gas to get anywhere, but local prices are way higher than in the bigger city 15 more miles away. So add on some more milage, pay a little less...damned if we do, same if we don't.

    How does the gas and milage fit into making healthy food more expensive? Where do you get unhealthy food?
  • LeilaFace
    LeilaFace Posts: 412 Member
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    Anyone who was a couponer and discount shopper before changing their eating habits experienced a marked increase in their grocery bill. The increase is worth it for sure, but I don't understand why people insist on trying to pretend the increase isn't there.

    As another poster mentioned, there is the food desert issue. Much of the US population lives in places where there is one grocery store and a walmart if they are lucky. Healthy food in these places is pricey because there is low demand for it.

    Often times, these articles are based on living in an urban environment with multiple food purchasing options.

    Agreed I'm an avid coupon clipper and changing our diet did up the cost slightly, it's fine I'm happy I'm healthier but there's aren't coupons for lean meats, veggies or fruit which is what I mostly buy now.

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