I hopefully don't scare away too much of my audience when I preach like this, but this one gets my proverbial goat. A wise woman told me during the blog's infancy that she gets the most out of it when I am teaching something. Well, get ready to be schooled, folks. This is simple stuff that to even the most jaded eater should make sense. If it doesn't make much sense to you, then you likely made an errant turn in the cyber-road and came to the wrong place. I have to assume that you are here, because. A, You know me and want to follow my journey; B, You are interested in the subject matter or my story and I entertain you or, C, All of the above. If it is D, None of the above, I wish you well and hasta la pasta. This won't be fun from here on out.
Hopefully we can all agree that processed foods are, for the most part, not nutritious in the least. They are usually packed with preservatives, coloring, sodium, sugar and fat and barely resemble the whole food building blocks they are suppose to replicate. Fresh, homemade whole foods are what we are meant to eat. I don't want to get into a debate about not eating white flour or meat or dairy or whose hands are in the government's pockets. For the sake of argument, though, we will look at what the USDA says a healthy meal is and compare costs to the highly outsourced cooking regimen that so many Americans eat.
Here is a chart illustrating roughly what a balanced diet would look like, keeping in mind that a typical female aged 19-50 would average around 2200 calories a day and the typical male up to 2600:
According to the monthly costs associated with the above portions, a family of four could eat frugally for $6.67 per meal on average, on a low-cost plan for $9.95, moderately for $12.38 and liberally for $14.43. If you want me to do the math for you, that equates to a range of $600/mo. to $1300/mo. for that family of four. I find it easier to break it down into small bites. Granted, many of my readers live in more metropolitan areas where we might be toward the higher end of the range. Once again, for argument's sake, let use $12 per meal.*
*Official USDA Food Plans Report: Cost of Food at Home at Four Levels, US Average, March 2012
Frozen waffles for breakfast sound good? How much does it cost? Well, including syrup, butter, coffee for adults and OJ for the kids, $7.58 for 4 people. Cost of MultiGrain Cheerios with banana, 2% milk and the coffee/juice...$6.49 for George, Jane, Judy and little Elroy. By the way, I was generous with the servings of cereal. No one eats the prescribed serving size.
Lunch I will leave alone, somewhat. It's a whole blog unto itself and since I don't have kids and most generally eat the unbalanced slop at school, they are off limits for today. Adults? Not so easy there, folks. Let's see if this resembles you. McDonald's Big Mac "Value" Meal, for example. I am out of the loop on these things, but let's say $5 ea., since Mr. Subway is waving his footlong all over my TV and he must be competing with the clown. I'll assume you can get lunch out for $10 per couple. Cost of a turkey and American cheese with tomato and lite mayo on whole wheat bread, plus a piece of fruit and even a bottled water: $5.23...FOR TWO!
Dinner for the American family on the go might be pizza or perhaps frozen fried chicken, with a side of mac 'n cheese and corn. Either way, they both come in around 12-15 bucks in total. Cost of a chicken dinner with fresh corn, broccoli and some potatoes? $11.36 for four people.
Let's compare, shall we? I just laid out a quasi-healthy daily set of meals (You should make better choices, but I am trying to be realistic) that costs around $11.03 per meal for 4 people (I figured $5 each for Judy and Elroy's lunch at school.). The cost of my family-on-the-go processed food meal was $13.69 per 4 person meal. Which is healthier? No contest.
The bottom line is that if people are using affordability as a reason to eat poorly, it is a lame excuse. If you want to feed your family better AND save money, get back to your kitchen. The meals mentioned can not only be made easily, but with leftovers. The examples I showed were based on prices from local supermarkets, using very common products. While I didn't have the time to do a nutritional analysis of each, I can tell you that in addition to much lower calories, fat and sodium, you could save $2912.70 per year while you feed your family better. Could you think of a use for that money? I recommend the TDT195 new clothes fund, but it's your money. I just could use some of it...just sayin'.
Thanks for joining me on the ride, people. I hope you get something out of it.
Cya tomorrow,
M
What I ate today and how I exercised:
Breakfast ~ Kashi 7 Grain Nuggets w/skim milk, banana, strawberries, fresh blueberries and toasted pecans
Lunch ~ Left over broiled chicken, slaw and tomato/avocado salad
Snack ~ Carrots and homemade hummus
Dinner ~ Whole grain pasta with marinara and vegetarian meat crumbles
Exercise ~ I was hoping to walk after writing, but this took a long time to do today. I owe myself an extra 20 minutes of walking tomorrow.
Kudos for busting the 'I can't afford to eat healthy' myth, but whatever source you used for the daily amount of calories is WAY over what it should be! Unless you're training for a marathon, 2200 calories for the average female is extremely high and since the average female is usually pretty sedentary, then the range should be 1200 to 1800 calories. Using THAT as a starting point, then the cost to feed the same hypothetical family, will be even less!!! - Tabitha
ReplyDeleteIt's true that food that is healthier than fast food does cost less and is worth the time and effort. But it is also true that once you get into really trying to tailor your diet, you can run into high costs. For example, I've tried to cut down on if not cut out gluten--those products are insanely expensive. The fake meat products are also very expensive. Organic is a lot more expensive than regular produce. This kind of thing is where some of the complaint about healthy eating being expensive rings true.
ReplyDeleteHi, Megan. The examples above are intended for the majority of people. Yes, organic is much more expensive and unfortunately, that could be considered a luxury. As for special needs like gluten or other allergies, I consider those issues like medicine and all bets are off in terms of costs. The typical American family can indeed eat healthy with fresh home-cooked food. Fast food is not the only culprit here. Pop Tarts, frozen dinners, frozen saucy vegetables, canned almost anything can and will contribute to obesity, high blood pressure and diabetes. As always, thanks so much for your participation. Mike
ReplyDeleteKind of in two minds on this one. We don't eat out that much these days (soccer tournament weekends excepted). I'd love to only buy organic chicken (and I do turn the TV off when they show what is really happening before the regular stuff gets to us) but it is hard with the cost difference. But, we are making better choices every day, and figuring out where it best makes sense to spend the extra. The waffle example hit home, we recently stopped buying them despite how much the boys love them. Cereal is just so much better and cheaper - and your brother was the one to suggest the no waffle route! You may yet be wearing off on him.
ReplyDeleteVery cool, Fiona. Thanks!
ReplyDeleteI agree in principle that you can eat better for less as long as you're willing to invest the time to shop, plan and cook (and preferably add a bit of gardening in as well). No problem with that here, as food is one of my creative outlets. One issue that I've read about is availability; many poorer urban neighborhoods have lost their locally owned markets and can't attract the big chains that find the suburbs far more profitable. That leaves those areas with nothing but convenience stores and fast food outlets. One initiative in NYC is to license and give incentives to street vendors to sell produce from the farmers markets, eliminating the need for brick and mortar stores. H.
ReplyDelete