4.43 Eating Healthy is Too Expensive
This is absolutely NOT true at all. Eating healthy is actually cheaper! Think of a person with a 3000-4000 calorie per day diet, then someone on a 1200-1500 calorie per day diet. That is half the calories! Even if the food was twice as expensive per calorie, it still ends up being the same cost. It is true that a lot of high calorie, unhealthy junk foods can be cheap at times, but you can get healthy foods for cheap as well. Also, think about the cost of fast food or dining out. You could easily find enough healthy food for 1 day for the same cost as eating out once if you know what you are doing.
OK lets give some examples. Think about the cost of these healthy foods. This data is from the Bureau of Labor Statistics in 2015 for the average U.S. retail price of these items:
Banana – $0.65 per pound
Apples – $1.30 per pound
Broccoli – $1.56 per pound
Carrots – $0.94 per pound
Potatoes – $0.56 per pound
Chicken breast (boneless skinless) – $3.62 per pound
Ground beef – $3.82 per pound
If you actually ate 1/2 pound of each of these items above, the cost would be $6.25 per day. Not all that expensive. So remember that if you reduce your portions then you do not need to buy as much food and the cost is not that bad at all, even for healthy food.
Lastly, just think about the cost of medical bills associated with heart disease, the medications to treat hypertension and high cholesterol. The bill for getting your knees and hips replaced since they wore out from all the extra weight you are carrying. Don’t ignore these potentially huge costs.
There is no question, eating healthy is cheaper and NOT more expensive.
Take the FREE online course on eating health on a budget by Food Choices.