On A Budget #3: Food
As a personal trainer, I have heard countless people say that "You cannot eat healthy on a budget!"
It’s simply not true, those who make this statement are either being intentionally deceptive for political reasons (a subject not for this blog) or have not taken the time to actually make price comparisons.
Eating Out Vs. Groceries
I hope I do not need to spend a lot of time on this. I have partially addressed this issue here.
If someone is eating out even once, the average cost of a meal out is $12.75 [1]. Think your groceries cost that much for a meal? Not even close. A four ounce serving of chicken will cost you about $0.75 ($3/pound), some vegetables fresh or frozen another $0.75 plus a half cup of uncooked rice (a very filling portion) for less than $0.10 brings you to around $1.60 for your meal. That meal out was worth about 8 meals of groceries! If you are eating out, please do not say you cannot afford to eat healthy, simply stop eating out and the funds to eat healthy will be there.
Various Grocery Stores
Are there certain grocery stores that are more expensive than others? Certainly, and you may get what you pay for. A more expensive grocery store may have a wider selection of fresh, but if you are willing to make some sacrifices in terms of variety or to shop frozen instead of fresh, then a budget grocery chain will work just fine.
“Ah, but fresh vegetables are better for you!” you say. This has been studied and the research shows that there is no significant difference between the nutrient quality between fresh and frozen [2,3]. It appears the biggest impact on nutrients for fresh and frozen is the amount of time it sits on the shelf or in your freezer, so the take home point is don’t let food sit around and/or go to waste.
Not sure where to shop? Here is a list of some of the best budget grocery stores. While not as cheap as the stores listed in the link, WalMart is often a convenient place to find most of your grocery needs and is often less expensive than
Convenient Food Vs. Healthy Food
Now we get down to the nitty gritty. Often, those who say it is not affordable to eat healthy will make apples to oranges type comparisons. They may point out that the dollar menu McDonald's cheeseburger has 420 calories while $1 of frozen WalMart broccoli yields you only 35 calories.
“You'd starve on broccoli or go broke, you’d need to spend 12 times as much to get the same amount of calories!”
Who eats broccoli to get calories? We eat broccoli in our diet for vitamins and minerals, not to load up on calories. It is a ridiculous comparison. What happens when we actually make logical comparisons?
For consistency, all prices are from Walmart
Carbohydrates
A $2.28 loaf of white bread yields: 1560 calories, 338g carbs, 0g fiber, 52g sugar, 52g protein
A $2.32 five pound bag of white rice yields: 2950 calories, 636g carbs, 28g fiber, 2g sugar, 61g protein
Rice gives you twice as many calories and more fiber for your dollar. So you won't go hungry trying to eat healthy.
Protein
A $3.48 pound of ham lunch meat yields: 720 calories, 36g fat, 24g carb, 72g protein
A $2.38 12 ounce can of tuna yields: 250 calories, 2.5g fat, 0g carb, 55g protein
A $1.90 pound of boneless skinless chicken breast yields: 440 calories, 10g fat, 0g carbs, 92 g protein.
For your dollar, you get slightly more protein from tuna than you get from the lunch meat but without all of the extra fat, carbs and preservatives.
For one dollar, the lunch meat would provide 21g of protein versus the chicken’s 48g! It’s no contest, the boneless chicken breast simply blows the lunch meat away. Not only does it offer more protein, but it has a similar number of calories as well, meaning the chicken will leave you far more satisfied after a meal than the lunch meat would.
So not only will you not go hungry, but you will feel full and be giving your body the protein it needs to build muscle.
Fat
For 22 cents, you can have 2 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil. A very healthy fat to add to salads or whatever dish you are cooking. It yields: 240 calories, 28g fat, 0g carb, 0g protein
22 cents worth of Lay’s Potato Chips yields: 160 calories, 10g fat, 15g carbs, 2g protein
The olive oil is a healthier fat than the vegetable oil in the potato chips, gives you more calories to keep you full and does not come with the excess carbs that the potato chips comes with.
I hope you can see that dollar for dollar, you can actually get more carbs, fiber, protein and essential fats from making healthy choices at the grocery store versus buying the so-called convenient items.
If you are willing to take the time to cook, your health AND your budget will reap the rewards!
Remember you reap what you sow.
https://www.thesimpledollar.com/dont-eat-out-as-often-188365/
https://greatist.com/health/frozen-vs-fresh-which-vegetables-are-best
https://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2016/11/18/are-frozen-fruits-and-vegetables-as-nutritious-as-fresh/
