One thing that I never hear about (well, ALMOST never) is the hidden cost of getting healthy.
Cost, you say? Yup. Having been, and continuing to be, a person living at what I’d call a lower middle class level, I can vouch that in the past the one of the biggest barriers to getting healthy has been financial.
Let’s put that in perspective. Let’s assume that, like me, you’re trying to feed yourself and your family on $80 a week. Yes, you read that right - my food budget is between $80 and $100 a week. For three meals a day, seven days a week. As soon as you begin to try and get healthy you discover that your food budget starts rising. All those yummy fruits and veggies? That lean meat, and those boneless skinless chicken breasts? Whoops - those aren’t cheap folks.
What IS cheap, on the other hand, is prepared foods. Mmmm, those Encore frozen dinners - $3.99 for a pound of starchy, saucy goodness. Or for about $3, a McDonalds value meal. I am not picking on them - you could go to almost any fast food joint and find something approximately the same price, with tons of tummy filling fatty goodness and a never ending fountain of refillable pop.
Is it wrong that my mouth is watering right now? Call me Pavlov’s blogger.
Spaghetti and ramen noodles, or Kraft mac-n-cheese? Also super cheap. And sure, you CAN do everything from scratch to save a few bucks, but that’s where the catch 22 kicks in. If you’re as broke as I am, you’re working 12 hour days or more. You get home exhausted, maybe you haven’t seen the sun in days, and then you have to de-bone a chicken, chop veggies, and make low-carb biscuits from scratch? How many of us succeed beyond the first week - soon we’re so damn tired and hungry that we throw up our hands and reach for some frozen dinner goodness. Is it any wonder that a hundred years ago, the poor were super thin - but NOW, the American poor are heavy? The cheapest, easiest way to feed ourselves is one designed to make us overweight!
So one of my goals as I work on finding fitness (because I refuse to believe that this is impossible!) is to find meals in the”sweet spot” - inexpensive and healthy alternatives that don’t take more than 30 minutes to prepare. That’s going to be a real challenge but I’m going to try. If you know of any - pipe up and send me a link!
**EDIT** And sure enough, I found another article just today talking about the same topic. You can see it at “A High Price for Healthy Food“.
February 27th, 2008 at 7:20 pm
Hi Erika,
One thing I often try is to browse the shelves for some fresh meats that are on offer. This could be lean minced beef, chicken breasts, turkey breast etc. Most of the times I go to the supermarket at least one fresh meat product is on offer.
Once you have found your meat decide on a sauce based dish you can cook with this meat. For example, lean minced beef can be made into spaghetti bolognese or shepherds pie or chicken can be made into a casserole or curry.
Then add to this sauce based dish with lots of mushrooms and onions. Mushrooms and onions are both cheap and versatile, plus they really thicken up your dish, making it go that little bit further.
Let’s take the spaghetti bolognese example:
- 800G lean mince beef which is on offer = £3.
- 500g of mushrooms = £1.50.
- 3 large onions = £2.
- 1kg spaghetti = £0.50.
- 2 bolognese powder mix = £1.
- 2 tins of chopped tomatoes = £2.
- TOTAL COST = £10 (approximately $20)
Whilst this does seem like a lot to pay for one meal bear in mind that this should make around 8 generous portions and is a relatively healthy option. At $2.50 a portion I think it represents excellent value, tastes good and is a lot healthier than McDonalds.