Why is healthy eating so expensive?

So I just hit roadbump #1 in my goal of living a healthy lifestyle.  I just returned from the grocery store getting a bunch of stuff for my first week of healthy eating.  I ended up spending about $65 dollars more than normal.  Why are the healthy foods so darn expensive?  Any suggestions for healthy eating on a budget?

if you live in a big city [which i don't anymore]... but when I did

I found that if I went to  farmers markets and chinatown markets and other ethnic markets

the fruit and veg was ridiculously cheap

and usually better quality than supermarket

Original Post by arkhamescapee:

OP asked why healthy eating is so expensive. It's because veggies that receive farm subsidies (corn and soy) and cheap fat (including corn oil and soybean oil) are extremely cheap......

This is a good point.  Personally, I don't think that healthy food is overly expesive.  I do think that much of the junk made with subsidized products is artificially cheap.  People will put up with a lot of poverty and sqaulor as long as their bellies are full. 

I too suffered some pretty bad sticker shock the first few times I went shopping for healthy foods.  It will pass - for two reasons.  One, you probably didn't have much healthy food in your house before you started.  Chances are, you had to buy a lot of staples that you won't have to buy again for a while - but you had to buy them all at once.  Also, you get a lot more savvy, you learn how what's affordable and you work with that.

My first few grocery bills were up around $200 (for one weeks groceries).  Now, they are around $75-100, which is approximately on par with what I was spending before.

Fruit is commonly one of the more expensive items I buy at the store, sometimes accounting for more than $20 of a weekly grocery bill, but there are cheaper ways to eat healthy.  Some fruits are always in season and always inexpensive.  Bananas, oranges, and apples are usually about $0.50/fruit, and are some of the most convenient fruits to eat.  They basically come pre-packaged.  They make great snacks.  Seasonal fruits can also be very cheap.  Stick with what's on sale and you'll have a continuously rotating diet of fruits and vegetables.  I live in Michigan and when blueberries are in season, a pint goes for $1.00.  Hard to beat.

I buy a few things every time I go to the grocery store: eggs, milk, bread, fruit, veggies, tuna, yogurt (it's a pretty normal grocery list, really).  There's a few other things I buy every few times.  And then most of the rest just needs to be bought every now and again.

I also suggest investing in a deep freezer.  I haven't bought one yet, but I keep regretting it.  I could have easily saved the cost of a freezer in sales over the last year.  When frozen fruits or vegetables go on sale, I am limited by my freezer space on how much I can capitalize on that sale.  With a deep freezer, I could stock up on cheap sales.  I intend to get one soon.  Also, I could buy large boxes of seasonal fruits and freeze them for unseasonal times.  I'm a huge fan of blueberries, and nothing tops Michigan blueberries.  I could have them all year round if I had thought ahead.  And it would have been cheap, too.

Those are just a few of the tips that I've learned.  I've been doing this since this spring, and I like to think I'm getting pretty good at it.  I haven't spent more than $100 at the grocery store the last 4 times I went, and that includes paper products and hygeine products.

Also, compare your healthy grocery bill to your old grocery bill plus the cost of eating at fast-food restaurants regularly.  I have easily made my diet cheaper by cutting the fast-food out of it.

--J

A lot of people say this, but I never quite understand it. I eat very healthily, and I am always shocked at how much money people spend on unhealthy food, my food bill is about half theirs. Things like biscuits and desserts and icecream and ready meals are crazy prices! I buy about £10 of veg and about £15 of "other stuff" (pasta, rice, fish, occasionally meat, milk, bread, yoghurt, cheese) every week for me and my boyfriend - that covers both our breakfasts, my lunches (which are mostly leftover bits of dinner) and both our dinners. (I don't snack really, I prefer full meals 3x a day.) I don't buy "health foods" I guess - lowfat this that or the other, just fresh stuff. I do have a massive standby stock of spices/condiments/flour/yeast etc though in my cupboards from all the years of cooking...

I agree that supermarkets are expensive - grocers are much better price-wise and quality-wise if you have access to good ones.

Whatever extra I spend for healthy food (not all that much since I buy 80% of my groceries at Aldi and almost all the rest at Trader Joe's) is far outweighed by the $250 per month that I'm NOT spending on Lipitor and Fenoglide. And my lipids are lower now than they ever were when I was eating the junk and gorging daily on the prescription meds.

It's your first shopping trip and you're spending more because you're buying the basics.  

LOTS of good advice on these posts.  

I think you'll soon notice you're saving money and buying higher quality, better flavor (and not artificially flavored) and more nutritious foods.  Keep it up and you'll be a food snob like the rest of us!

My first week I went WAY over budget as well, but then I realized that I'm eating so much less than before that I'll be saving money that way. It helps having a set amount of money th at you will pay for something. For example, I won't pay more than $1.99/lb for asparagus even though I absolutely love it. I also won't pay more than $5.99 for a crate of clementines (which are tauting me right now in the stores). 

I would also suggest buying Progresso vegetable soups when they are on sale. (They can be a little pricey for a can of soup otherwise) because they are very low in calories and give you your vegetables! 

If you plan out your dinners for the week, you will also save money by buying only what you need. 

I also only buy chicken when it is on sale ($1.99/lb is the maximum I'll pay). I cook up a bunch of it and freeze it. The rest I freeze in portion sizes using the Reynolds Handi-Vac sealer, which is inexpensive and works like a dream.

Hope next week works out better for you!

I hear what you're saying.  I'm a label reader and look for the best choices available when shopping.  Everything from whole wheat pasta to low sodium soups cost more than the standard selections. 

As someone else mentioned I buy the Sara Lee Delightful breads - but I could get the store's brand white bread for half price or less.  And you can always pick up stuff like Tuna Helper on sale for very little money - but check out the sodium and carb counts in that stuff, not good.

Guess we have to look a the long term savings - in health care costs, etc. 

I feel your pain, Amerdee2.

I recommend reading Michaels Pollans's "The Omnivore's Dilemma" and "In Defense of Food".

These books goes deep into the reasoning behind choosing "real" food vs. the heavy marketed, highly refined and super cheap "Fake" foods. It opened my eyes to the real price of eating unhealthy and the reasons why unrefined foods are so expensive, and worth the extra $.

Pllan's seemingly-simple message is surprisingly complex, because there is food, and then there are what he describes as “edible food-like substances.

Good info!

You've already received responses with many recommendations I would make, so I'll limit to a few I have not seen here.

I eliminated alcohol which more than made up the difference. I also eliminated prepared foods in favor of simpler, whole foods.

Additionally, I started shopping at more than one store. I don't know if this solution would work where you live, but in Dallas many stores are grouped within plain sight of each other.

When I go for groceries, I take a cooler with frozen gel bags packed inside. Depending upon what I need and where the specials and sales are, I shop at Sprouts, Kroger, Central Market (HEB), Whole Foods, Sam's Club, Tom Thumb (Safeway), etc. After checking out at each location, I place frozen and refrigerated items in the cooler in the car. Then, I head on to the next store. That way, I can do all of my grocery shopping in the same round of errands, saving both time and money. 

Good luck - once you find the method that works for you, your costs will go down.  

Healthy eating doesn't have to be expensive.  I get all my food on no more than $35 a week.  I buy a lot of frozen vegetables instead of fresh, though I do prefer fresh, but they're a lot cheaper and don't go bad.  Also, grab a Sunday paper and look for sales!  I stock up when I see a sale, which really helps cut down on costs.

Real food is always more expensive than fake food because it's real. Real food is dense and nutritious and needs preparing and chewing. Fake food is nothing but filler, fluff, corn syrup, refined flour, sodium and puffed air. That's why you need to eat so much processed food just to feel full and it's why we're all fat. The more they process it, the cheaper it is. Ever notice how light fake food is? Puffed rice cereal, refined flour pastries; they melt in your mouth because there's nothing there. Invest in your own body with genuinely nutritious foods the way God made them and dump the junk out. Junk food is the true waste of money.

i know a lot of people have already responded to this, but i noticed one suggestion is missing . . . coupons!!!  i always thought that coupons were a trick to get you to buy things you don't really need, until a woman at work showed me how to use them.  she spreads all her coupons out on her desk, and scours the sale papers.  she only uses her coupons on sale items, and often gets things for less than half the original price.  her latest victory was .50 for greek yogurt.  so keep the sale papers, and combine those with coupons.  plus, it makes shopping exciting.  i always feel like i won the lottery when i combine a great sale and a great coupon.  good luck! 

Hello!

I am wanting to eat mostly vegetarian and am  only feeding myself and my boyfriend.  What does your shopping list look like at $35 a week (just food not the supplies)?  I find it hard to keep it much under $60 for food.  I am buying fresh produce and fruits.  And jarred pesto for pasta and hummus, peanut butter.   I'm trying to eat heatly and watch calories as well since we are under a weight management lifestyle.  So that does mean more vegetable based meals with low fat versions of cheese, etc.  Any help you could offer would be greatly appreciated!

Original Post by thin_girl:

I found that if I went to  farmers markets and chinatown markets and other ethnic markets the fruit and veg was ridiculously cheap and usually better quality than supermarket

Absolutely.  I buy much of our produce at an Asian market.  The price and quality is much, much better than at other markets.  For spices and some herbs, I go to the Indian market.  For nuts, lentils, chickpeas, rice and olive oil, I go to the same Indian market or one of the "Mediterranean" markets around (e.g., Lebanese, Greek, etc.)

Lentils, chickpeas, other beans, and rice are great to buy in bulk and just store in the pantry.  Whole spices also keep well in the pantry, although you can buy ground and store them in the freezer (vacuum-packed is even better).  Nuts also store well in the freezer, so also buy them in bulk.

D

Original Post by mermaid3011:

Hi Amerdee2! 

I feel the same way! My first two weeks were extremely expensive! Just Saturday I spent 75 $ for just me on groceries! But I bought lots of stock (like 5 cans of Campbell's fat free cream soups) or frozen fish filets and also I treated myself to a tenderloin beef steak which was 11 $ alone as well as 3 boxes fresh raspberries which were on sale though! Still... where did the money go??!!! 

On the other hand I just made 6 servings of 'Lentil Sweet Potatoe Curry' out of quite cheap things:

1 cup lentils, 2 cups chicken broth, 1 bunch carrots, 1 large sweet potatoe, 1 cup red wine and lots of spices like cinnamon, cayenne pepper, fennel seeds, cumin and crushed pepper flakes.

You can find the recipe here (even though I would take MUCH LESS CAYENNE PEPPER!) http://caloriecount.about.com/savory-golden-l entil-sweet-potato-recipe-r6199

The worst was buying all those spices - which I did 2 weeks ago. Now that I stocked up the spices they will last forever and the other stuff is actually quite cheap! I serve it with 1 cup of rice (200 cal) or eat the curry as is (281 cal) - I would say it costs around 2.50 $ per serving. Compared to what I used to spend on lunches at work (10 $ per day) this is really good for me! 

Also - since I am on CC I stick to my eating plans every day and I don't spend any money for other food. It's just the groceries I buy! No burgers on the go, no soda on the way, no after work drink, no expensive food at the baseball game! 

It actually safes a lot of money! :o)

 

Mermaid,

I have to say this.  Spices can be very cheap, depending on where you buy them.  I would suggest, to go to an Indian/Asian grocery store.  Most modest size cities have atleast one.  The spices are a fraction of the cost there.  And they are good too!  Thanks for that soup recipe, will try it!

Also, for everyone else, I'd like to suggest not to use Chicken or Vegetable broth in recipes.  Just use water, add a few spices for taste.  Really saves on cost and the hassle of always having to keep one extra ingredient in the house.  I never use broth.

It's not that healthy eating is expensive, it's that unhealthy eating is artificially cheap because of farm subsidies.

http://news.wbru.com/2009/08/the-root-of-our- food/

As Kimberly Burge of Bread for the World aptly puts it, "Calories are cheap in the United States--it's nutrients that are expensive."

It definitely all adds up. HFCS is dirt cheap thus the less expensive prices for anything that includes it. (which is like, um, everything. lol) Healthy food goes the alternative route of adding ingredients that won't go straight to your a**. So although you could get a box with a dozen Hostess Cupcakes for $3 or half of that in Kashi Go Lean Granola Bars, you win this fight my friend. ;)

It's time to make clipping coupons a come back. Srsly.

Do you have any ethnic grocery stores by where you live? Like Chinese, Hispanic, Middle Eastern? I find that their prices are so much more cheap than any of the big chain grocery stores. I buy all of my produce from either a local CSA (might be a good option for you too) which is $15 for a box load of veggies for the week, or from an ethnic market. At my ethnic market they always have crazy deals like 4 pounds of apples for $1 or watermelon for $.75 per every 7 pounds. So I'd look there.

Next, I would never go into a grocery store without a menu already planned for the week and only those ingredients on my list. I literally only buy food (breakfast, lunch, dinner, 2 snacks) for 7 days. No more. No less. No extra things I think I might want to eat during the week. I'm a vegetarian whose main diet source is vegetables and I spend roughly $30 a week to feed me and my bf.