The cost of Healthy Eating?

[AnyDream]

I've BTDT with choosing unhealthier foods to make the food budget stretch.

Sausages, cheap fatty mince, hot dogs, pies or sausage rolls have graced our table on a regular basis in times of financial shortfall, instead of lean cuts of meats or (heaven forbid @ $25/kg) fish.

And when you can't afford any of those, the addition of a hefty amount of grated cheese makes nearly anything palatable.

Ok, so I had the background knowledge and skills to add veggies to pretty much everything we cooked (which added to the food value enormously), and I can do a million things with pasta, rice and couscous, but it's still far cry from an ideal diet.

Calluna - re people having access to information. One of the most basic skills involved in finding information is recognising that you need it. Many people don't even have this ability. They are surviving by doing what they've always done, often learnt in their own family of origin. Other barriers to accessing useful information include illiteracy, speaking a language other than English, having no basic IT skills, not having transport to get to the library or not even knowing that the library offers this kind of service. Saying that there are computers at the library is a rank oversimplification of the skills and processes needed to benefit from the information that is available.

[AnyDream]

And when your dental health is poor and you're missing half your teeth because you have little to no access to dental services, chomping down on a nice healthy salad is the last thing you want to do! Chips, on the other hand, can be gummed down pretty easily...

[nothing2lose]

Funny, the one thing I keep thinking of when reading this (and another similar) thread is Trillian's signature.

The irony of white privilege is that you don't understand it because you are privileged.

If only the playing field was equal.

[AnyDream]

LOL N2L, I've been thinking of Trillian's sig all day too.

[Calluna]

Yeah, Marydean, I realised that after I posted but wasnt sure how.I could come out of it without looking like a ****. So I just shut up. Lol
I guess I was just looking at it from city living point.of view. Everything one needs is here. Its all I know. I am learning a lot from this discussion though.

[Butterfly Dawn]

Having lived in a 3rd world country for so long now I see what people really get by on and what they have to feed their kids.
Hubby was bought up with a egg when the chicken laid 1 no lay no egg. Meat was a special occasion thing really. You might get a little bit during the week. Tofu, rice, veg. His grandma taught him to really chew his rice so it would taste sweet- read- not always enough to eat so eat slow.
A boy 2 houses up from us tonight will eat rice and vegetable for dinner. - the school lunch we pay 700 a term for has meat served, his parents buy meat once a week cause they can't afford it. He came to lunch 1 day and his eyes popped out if his head at what we were having.

Its all taught, no money for food use to mean getting creative.
Ask me this in a years time when Im back in the reg world, living off assistance and feeding 3kids and 1adult

soups are great though. A "dog" bone from the butcher chopped up and slow cooked with onion carrot etc. Its a good extra boost of nutrition

[LimeSlice]

That's just day to day life all over the world. In Palestine they call lentil's poor man's meat. The reason that there is such a rich vegetarian tradition in so many cuisines is because meat has traditionally been expensive and saved for special occasions. The unusual scenario both globally and historically is living in a society that most people expect to eat meat at most meals.
And not just meat but the best meat. A society in which large parts of an animal are rejected as just being too yucky is really a historical anomaly.

I think this is a really important issue that isn't given anywhere near the thought it deserves.

We live in what we perceive t be an affluent country, when in reality, not everyone can have the same access to the best of everything all the time, as they simply cannot afford it.

My husband's family all still tell the story of The Best Mash and Gravy Ever as being The Best Meal We Ever Ate. MIL made mash, and left over gravy for dinner one night. Because she was a single mother, and that is literally all they had left and she had no money to buy anything else. So 3 adolescent boys at mash and gravy for dinner and they all still remember that meal as the best thing ever.

Being poor doesn't mean you should *only* have access to highly processed and **** foods, but it does mean that you can't eat meat 7 nights a week, and you may just have to look at how MUCH you are all consuming and decide if you really do NEED to eat so much at every meal.

We take food for granted, and given the current global situation, and our own economic situations here at home, perhaps is time we truly re-evaluated how we look at food?

[Astrid]

Gosh - multiple things to discuss.

First, but minor. Warrnambool has one library, which if the council could withdraw its funding it would. The cook book section is small, plus, as has already been said, you need to know what you are looking for in the first place.
Food pyramid - Yep, lots of posters around, but that does not mean it is right or what constitutes healthy. I know if we eat pasta and potatoes, the cheap stuff that the food pyramid wants us to eat, well we get fat, very fat.

As they say in realestate, Location, Location, Location. Not all places have farmers markets, Asian grocers etc. Major regional centre here and the food is expensive. The supposed fruit and veg supplier that "everyone" raves about, it more expensive and less quality than the major supermarkets. If you want to eat out as a family, forget about it. No food courts with sushi, salads, choice for all the different family tastes. There is the typical local cafe, with its thin skanky ham and cheese toasty paired with the local produced, but additive laden, juice like drink, costs more than feeding the family at Maccas. If you think about it, the Maccas meal could almost healthier

Whenever we make an effort to eat better (and I think we already eat pretty well), our food bill goes up. We do have a veggie patch, but honestly if you add up all the costs that have gone into its set-up and ongoing maintenance, I think we break even in compared to buying.

If only it was all so simple.

[Butterfly Dawn]

yes defiantly LS
Portion control is an affluent country term lol

[lady_neon]

I grew up in an area very similar. And I know how the food pyramid works. But it doesn't go into detail about food options. It doesn't tell you that whole grain bread is the best alternative. It doesn't tell you that commercialised cereal actually isnt very healthy. Bread, cereals, rice & pasta's are the base of the food pyramid. So 'should' be eaten the most. I'm not so sure the food pyramid is as accurate as it could be?

I don't remember school going into that sort of detail either.

And again, we all know fruits & veg are healthier, but we don'tthink in great detail about how they're served. Some options aren't all that healthy in the end.

Good point. I guess I've always been a natural sort of person so eaing food closer to its natural state comes easily to me.

What BD said is true, about creativity. But again it does come back down to laziness for some part... Why get creative when you can buy a jar of Chicken Tonight for $2.50?

Food manufacturers have a lot to answer for. I do think there needs to be much stricter guidelines on the amount they advertise. Coco Pops commercials running conveniently during children's program hours and what not.

[Novella]

Gosh -

As they say in realestate, Location, Location, Location. Not all places have farmers markets, Asian grocers etc. Major regional centre here and the food is expensive. The supposed fruit and veg supplier that "everyone" raves about, it more expensive and less quality than the major supermarkets. If you want to eat out as a family, forget about it. No food courts with sushi, salads, choice for all the different family tastes. There is the typical local cafe, with its thin skanky ham and cheese toasty paired with the local produced, but additive laden, juice like drink, costs more than feeding the family at Maccas. If you think about it, the Maccas meal could almost healthier

Whenever we make an effort to eat better (and I think we already eat pretty well), our food bill goes up. We do have a veggie patch, but honestly if you add up all the costs that have gone into its set-up and ongoing maintenance, I think we break even in compared to buying.

If only it was all so simple.

Astrid its a good point you make, there are a number of Australian studies that show eating healthy in rural areas is significantly higher than that of metropolitan areas

Well said MD!

This is a really interesting topic and I think goes to show that there are multiple issues relating to why people may not be making healthy food choices, cost being only one.

I know I don't always make healthy food choices and for me it's either due to convenience/laziness, cost, or because I prefer the taste of some foods.

[Livinthedream]

Funny, the one thing I keep thinking of when reading this (and another similar) thread is Trillian's signature.

The irony of white privilege is that you don't understand it because you are privileged.

If only the playing field was equal.

N2L. I get what you are saying, I truly do.
But the issues we are discussing concern people who do have access to money and refridgerators and supermarkets.
I am sure there are 10s of thousands of people living in abject poverty.
But the simple fact is, they do not make up the majority of obese Australians.
Go to your local shopping centre, there are fat people EVERYWHERE.
Now these people are all capable of obtaining a drivers licence, remembering pin numbers to ATM cards, setting up facebook accounts and sending txt messages.
They are not impoverished, or mentally disabled, they KNOW that an apple is better for you than a mars bar.
Yet for some reason, you would have us believe that its not their fault, that there must be some other reason that they are fat.
Why make excuses for them, doesnt that just perpetuate the problem?
I am 15 kg over weight. I eat too much (of the "right" foods)
I own it, its not anyone elses fault and I need to fix it.
No excuses

[onthefly]

Hey, go failsafe. You'll save loads on the grocery bill - true! And you probably won't overeat - not much point with so little flavour.
In all seriousness, we're spending a lot less on food nowadays.

[Calluna]

First, but minor. Warrnambool has one library, which if the council could withdraw its funding it would. The cook book section is small, plus, as has already been said, you need to know what you are looking for in the first place.

Ok. I left when I was 12 so dont remember a whole lot. I just remember walking there. maybe I was thinking of Dennington or the school library or something. Thats really sad about the funding. I dont think Ive ever seen the cooking section. Didnt really interest me at the stage. Lol

[Phteven]

soups are great though. A "dog" bone from the butcher chopped up and slow cooked with onion carrot etc. Its a good extra boost of nutrition

Noms...... I'm glad I'm not the only person here who asks the butcher to set aside a few big bones.

[PumpkinZulu]

Lol. If white privilege is the problem in this discussion, then I think we need to shut this whole forum down. Which pregnancy care provider to chose, birth advocacy, IVF, which school to send our kids to...may as well throw the towel in on all of those white privileges as well, because after all, somebody has it worse than us somewhere and they don't have the choices we do.

I honestly do not think the *majority* of the people who are contributing so grossly to the ever rising obesity epidemic here and in other countries are doing so because they live 100km from a library, have never seen a supermarket, haven't eaten a home cooked meal, don't know what a vegetable is and are so disadvantaged in every single way that to dare judge them or assume they could do better or try harder is a moral crime. I feel like the amount of 'what ifs' being thrown around now is almost getting laughable. I'm sure we're all smart enough to understand that yeah, there are going to be barriers for some people, more for some than others. But let's be real, most people feed their kids crap on a daily basis as the main part of their diets because they're ignorant by choice, or lazy. If you rounded up all the people in any given supermarket with trolleys FULL of junk food, as in, that was a weekly shop, not just part of one, and assessed whether they had any way of improving themselves and their children's diets, I'm very confident the majority of them would have a myriad of options open to them that they choose not to access. Hell, if there are people like Mark Mathabane, who can pull themselves through a horrific childhood of poverty and rise up through apartheid and become still become successful people in life, I'm sure people living in Australia can learn how to adequately feed and nourish themselves and their children

[briggsy's girl]

We do have a veggie patch, but honestly if you add up all the costs that have gone into its set-up and ongoing maintenance, I think we break even in compared to buying.

this is pretty much true - ours will break even-ish this year compared to what we'd pay buying the items from the local woolies - the win is the flavour. and the instant gratification i guess - tonight for instance, we were having fried rice and took peas and snow peas out of the garden and into the pan. no having to think it through at the shops or dash down there - it was a case of having it when we needed it. and having healthier snacks - i'd much prefer DD to have strawberries or snow peas fresh from the garden instead of yogurt or sultanas - but we still have those in the house as healthier alternatives to sweet biscuits and chips and stuff....

[LimeSlice]

Have to share the love, PZ!