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?

Or you can make your own veggie stock using veggie scraps accumulated during the week. I always keep my carrot peels, odd bits of onions, etc in a freezer bag until I'm ready to make stock. All you have to do is boil the scraps in water for like an hour. Easy peasy.

Original Post by feeddaneedzapp:

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!

I highly recommend The Omnivore's Dilemma too. You can check it out from the library if you don't want to buy it.

I've never found that eating healthy is more expensive. Staples seem to be much cheaper, and you have to realise that much of these things aren't going to be eaten in one go, but diveded up into meals. Any pre packaged diet food is going to be much more expensive, producers of the food have found a nitche and people who will buy them at inflated prices. Try as much as you can to go around the parameter of a grocery store, all the items in nthe food pyramid are at the edges, while the center of the store is reserved for name brands and pre packaged foods. I spend about 40 dollars a week, making it 160 a month. With coupons and planning, you could probably make it around 120 a month.

I love everyone's suggestions here and will be taking some of them onboard myself! I especially liked the comment on buying a whole chicken ro turkey and dividing up the meat sections yourself. I have doen this for things like bulk minced meat and other bulk meat buys, but necer thought about buying a whole bird.

My boyfriend and I buy sides of beef and lamb at the butchers a sit works out cheaper. We had to invest in a deep freezer for this, but it's saving us money in the long run as it takes us months to eat all of that.

We have also just planted our first vege garden with corn, herbs, tomatoes and baby spinach as they are our most eaten items. We are guilty of buying baby spinach in prewashed bags, as that's the only way we can get them at our supermarket (we find reg spinach to be too strong-tasting for a salad base).

I have to agree with all of the other tips given here about stocking up on sale items, staples, frozen vegies and bulk items.

some other ideas to save you money that aren't necessarily related to food are:
* buy body wash/soap at $2 shops/bargain basement shops, smae with tooth paste and tooth brushes.
Here in Australia, a toothbrush by a leading brand at the supermarket will cost you nearly $10! At the variety store (I think you guys call them) they're 3 for $2. Massive saving!

* tinned juice or long life juice is cheaper than fresh juice from the refridgerated section

* By no name brand items and watch your shopping bill go down. Splurge on items you can't do without, like toilet paper (inferior quality TP is HELL!), but relax on the staples like flour and tinned tomoatoes.

* Go to factory outlets for your canned goods. There may be no label on them or there's a dint in the can, but you can get the same good branded tinned food for a fraction of the price!

* DONT buy frozen meals like lean cuisine, they're too expensive! Instead, just cook for a few extra people and freeze the remaining left overs or have them for lunch the next day (freezing is better, then you have a 'take away' meal when you can't be bothered cooking or have a busy night). Lean cuisine etc are priced from $5.00-7.00 here in Australia. Owch!

Thats all i can say folks

I'd also like to mention that with the buying the entire bird thing...you can make your own chicken stalk that way

just pop the bones etc. in a pot of water and simmer for about 30-45 minutes.
strain. and voila! good ol' chicken stalk.

if you don't feel like doing it right away, you can always freeze the bones and do it later too.
then you can always freeze the left over stalk and use that later if you want to.

mom always does this with turkey bones around Christmas and Thanksgiving, but you can also do it with the small chickens you can get at supermarkets