Wow Val I currently live in the D.C. area, I have also lived in NY, Southern VA (VA Beach), FL, and GA and food is certainly very expensive here compared to every where else I have lived. Even in NY atleast you had Korean corner grocery marts on every block with fresh produce, so the competition drove the price down. But here there are alot of specialty markets like Whole Foods and Wegmans where the produce, meat and seafood is VERY pricey. But if you shop in the "regular" grocery stores like Giant, Safeway and Shoppers your food goes bad in 2 days.
Our problem here is we have ONE store. Just one. No competition, no options other than making an 80 mile round trip to a big department store. For the basic necessities of a week's worth of dinners (protein, veggies, bread and milk) it costs more than $80 to feed the TWO of us. Add in what my husband (a truck driver) takes each day for lunch, and my snacks for work, and it's easily over $100 a week to shop in my town.
I don't know what I'd do with myself if I had several options. I'd be lost in a Whole Foods...
Definitely more expensive to eat healthy here. Fresh produce, meat, etc...all costs an insane amount. A cucumber in season is a dollar...a dollar! For a cucumber! Luckily my parents have a garden and keep me supplied with lots of fresh veggies.
Fruit? Insanely expensive. Fat free, low cal...all those foods are more expensive than the regular stuff. Lean meat? Forget it.
I can cook a casserole that is unhealthy and high calorie (but will feed us for a solid week) for nothing (pasta, cheese, ground beef).
As for cooking, convenience, and food prep...I have 3 precious hours after I get home from work until my baby goes to bed. THREE. Many homes are like that. My sister has 3 kids and works full time as well. After homework, baths, etc...who in the world can blame people for wanting convenient, quick foods? Feeding your family nutritious food is of course high priority...but so is time with family. Hard to find a balance...so it's not that people are just lazy and don't want to put in effort in the kitchen. Glorify the old days where women made their own bread and stuff--but used to most women stayed home all day.
Anyway, just wanted to chime in w/ my experience.
The healthier foods are more expensive here. Not everyone who uses that "excuse" is eating , fast food, fried chicken and soda. When you are really poor...things like that aren't even on radar.
To stay on diet on a budget (ie can barely afford to keep lights on), I've eaten egg sandwiches (or just eggs if I couldn't afford bread--and white bread is way way cheaper than wheat) and/or peanut butter sandwiches. For every meal. Now that I have a family, that's not really something I want to do for them though.
Also I'd like to add that eating healthy foods doesn't always translate into low calorie lifestyle. My egg and (measured) peanut butter diet was low calorie and cheap, but not necessarily healthy (not eating it everyday anyway).
I also ate Ramen...counted the calories. Not healthy. Cheap, though. I lost weight too. I also had a stint where I ate a snickers bar (very very cheap) for lunch. Lost weight doing that too...counted the calories. Lol. I've done some really weird things w/ food... Now I'm rambling...
Wow Val I currently live in the D.C. area, I have also lived in NY, Southern VA (VA Beach), FL, and GA and food is certainly very expensive here compared to every where else I have lived. Even in NY atleast you had Korean corner grocery marts on every block with fresh produce, so the competition drove the price down. But here there are alot of specialty markets like Whole Foods and Wegmans where the produce, meat and seafood is VERY pricey. But if you shop in the "regular" grocery stores like Giant, Safeway and Shoppers your food goes bad in 2 days.
huh? I live in DC area about 35 miles out and I think food is pretty dirt cheap. It's cheaper than it was in SC where I lived before and the salaries are 4x higher.
But if you shop in the "regular" grocery stores like Giant, Safeway and Shoppers your food goes bad in 2 days.
I've found I have to calculate this into the price/value. I'll spend a bit more at the oriental market or famers' markets because the produce lasts three to ten times longer than chain grocery store produce.
The simple answer is that its not more expensive to eat healthy in fact my grocery bills have gone down since starting to eat correctly, 200 pounds lost later I wish I had done it years ago!
I really don't think there is a simple answer that fits everyone's situation. Unless your budget is at the extreme lowest end (where it can be very difficult to eat a fairly balanced diet, let alone an optimally healthy one), most people can find ways to cut their budget AND eat healthier - but it's not at all true for everyone.
Even food banks are finding it difficult to give their clients "good" food, because the most often donated food is of poor nutritional value. Some people donate to purge their house of unwanted high calorie items (lots of starch and fat) and others donate "treat" foods out of a mistaken belief that they would be the most appreciated.
There is no simple answer... For some people its cheaper for some people its more expensive. Depends on where you live, what your grocery stores are like, you access to fresh produce, how you used to eat before.
Our grocery bills have gone up, produce here goes bad in 2 days because its kept in cold storage for so long, so we buy frozen, which usually costs more.
We have 2 grocery stores, one is too busy to go unless you want to spend 3 hours shopping,and I wont do that for normal groceries. The other one is a bit more expensive, but we can get in and out, and we like their sales a lot better, and quality. Thats where we do our in town shopping. Most of our grocery and household shopping is done out of town at Sam's club, trader joes, and whole foods. We have to drive 90 miles each way, but it is worth it once every other month we save up and go.
Our bills are up overall because when we do shop locally the healthy food is more expensive.
Again there is no simple answer, its different for everyone.
Some things about eating healthier are more expensive I agree but many are not and what I save on portion control alone makes up the difference! I used to eat until I was stuffed, easily 2-3 "portions" all by myself! Now I plan my meals, waste little to nothing and get to eat quality, clean, healthy food for overall less $.
Even food banks are finding it difficult to give their clients "good" food, because the most often donated food is of poor nutritional value. Some people donate to purge their house of unwanted high calorie items (lots of starch and fat) and others donate "treat" foods out of a mistaken belief that they would be the most appreciated.
Actually that's part of why I donate what I do to the regular food drives we have here at work. I always try to bring 1 healthy item, one quick item and one kid friendly item. Having known people who got their food from the foodbank I know that many of them do work and in some cases have multiple jobs so cooking from scratch isn't always a viable option and I've had mothers tell me how hard it is not to be able to meet your children's requests for dinner occasionally even if it's just a $.60 box of macaroni and cheese.
huh? I live in DC area about 35 miles out and I think food is pretty dirt cheap. It's cheaper than it was in SC where I lived before and the salaries are 4x higher.
35 miles out? That's the suburbs of DC I am sure it is cheaper to buy there than where I live which is right near the heart of DC. Just like things in Long Island are cheaper than in NYC but they aren't that far in distance.
It's obvious from this thread that there are two sides to every opinion. There seem to be as many people who feel eating healthy is more expensive as who feel the opposite. For every example you can give of a healthy food that is cheaper than an unhealthy one, there is an example of the opposite.
I have found in my own experience that eating healthier is usually more expensive for me. Fresh fruits and veggies in my area of suburban Phila are certainly more expensive than most junk food. Lean ground beef, ground turkey, chicken breasts, fresh fish, etc. are all more expensive than buying a frozen dinner or casserole mix. In pretty much every fast food restaurant around, if you look at the dollar menu you will generally not find the healthy choices there. Maybe a side salad but that's about it. Look at McDonalds..... you can get a McDouble, small fries, and small drink for $3.00. That's about 600+ calories if you get a diet drink. If you want a healthier option like a grilled chicken sandwich or a salad, you will pay at least double for your meal. Most other fast food places are the same. Look at their dollar menus and that will tell you whether it's the healthy or unhealthy food that is cheaper.
That being said, there are certainly ways to keep healthy eating on the less expensive side by trying to stock up on things like lean meats when they are on sale, eating fruits and veggies in season when they are the least expensive, etc. Anyone who is using the expense of healthy food as their reason not to try to lose weight is in complete denial. It's just another reason, whether valid or not, for not being ready to make the changes that are needed for permanent weight loss.
Here are some general thoughts I've had after reading this thread:
1. Eating healthily does NOT mean that everything has to be FRESH.
Frozen green beans are $2.99 for 2 lbs. Frozen blueberries are $2.99 for 1.5 lbs. A 28 oz tin of no name no-salt-added canned diced tomatoes is $0.98. Dried beans and lentils are on average $2.50 for a large bag. Dried pasta and rice are cheap.
2. You pay a premium for organic foods. But you aren't any less healthy if you can't afford them.
3. There are cheap sources of protein.
Tinned tuna and tinned chicken in water will do in alot of recipes. Dried beans can be soaked overnight and cooked the next day. Lentils, especially red ones, don't need to be pre-soaked. Whole chickens are cheaper than those pre-packaged for you -- you can buy one and quarter it yourself and save money. Club packs or bulk meats are cheaper than smaller portions and meat freezes well.
4. Planning and preparation goes a long way as you can buy what you need and plan to eat it all. If left-overs stay in the fridge for a long period of time, seriously consider getting a smaller fridge! We downsized our fridge and don't have room to store leftovers!
5. If you make eating well a priority, you WILL find time to fit the prep-time in. If you had a child that needed physical therapy, you'd find the time to go even if you had multiple jobs. The same goes for food prep. It doesn't have to take alot of time -- DH grew up as one of 9 with a single parent who held a full time AND a part time job. They NEVER ate out. His mom made everything in a crock pot. No one starved, and they never ate out. So it CAN be done. IF you make it a priority.
6. IF your grocery budget is pinched, you may have to choose to cut back somewheres else. Ditch the gym membership. Walk more and cut down on vehicle and gas expenses if possible. Kill the cell phone. Choose between TV and internet if you have to. Keep track of the "cash stuff" we all buy - magazines, Starbucks, cigarettes, alcohol, snacks. Sell the Wii or X box. Downsize the stuff. Now, I'm not saying that people aren't strapped, but often if you reevaluate what is important, you often can find the cash in the most unexpected places.
I posted this on another thread, and thought it might be appropriate here:
I just got back from the grocery store, and thought I'd share the high cost of preparing a meal at home, with cheap nutritious foods available at the local grocery store:
1 lb extra-lean ground from a butcher shop (my splurge): $4.00
2 x 28 oz tins canned tomatoes, no salt added: $1.98
1 onion: $0.35
1 bulb garlic: $0.20
750 g bag dried spaghetti, no name: $2.99
Small bag dried Italian Spices, bulk: $0.42
16 oz fresh whole white mushrooms: $2.99
1 baguette: $1.99
This will make two days worth of spaghetti for 6 servings, for a cost of approximately $15.00 Cdn., or $2.50 PER SERVING.
Low salt, low fat, delicious, made at home, filling, WW compatible!
For dessert: Blueberry grunt:
Fresh blueberries from Costco: $3.99
1 lemon: $0.50
3/4 cup flour, 1/4 cup sugar, 2 tbsp butter, baking powder: $2.00
No added salt, can be made with frozen blueberries for less than you can for fresh, filling, WW compatible!
Total dessert for 6: $6.50, or approximately $1.20 per serving
Total cost for spaghetti and meat sauce, garlic bread, blueberry grunt, and water to drink per person: $3.70 Cdn
Cost of ONE 12 inch takeout pizza -- $17.00, taxes included. From a 2-for-1 place, TWO 12 inch pizzas for $24.00 taxes included.
in fact my grocery bills have gone down since starting to eat correctly, 200 pounds lost later I wish I had done it years ago!
