The cost of Healthy Eating?

We have room to move in our budget so we buy the healthier choices anyway, but even I have noticed that at least for packaged basics like bread, milk, pasta, rice, cheese, ham, yoghurt etc are all more expensive the moment you choose a whole grain, reduced fat, reduced salt, sugar etc option. A loaf of homebrand white bread is $1, the burgen wholegrain bread that I prefer is closer to $5. Ditto a packet of white rice v brown, wholegrain pasta v white, Lite and whole milk, lean mince v heart smart or premium. The cost of sausages v steak. Fatty chicken cuts v lean breast. low fat yoghurt vs the full fat homebrand option. Cheap processed sandwich 'meat' versus lean shaved ham from the deli etc. These are not exactly luxury items and would be in many family's trolleys, and if you are on a tight budget each of these choices adds up and limits the amount of food you could buy for your family for the same price.

ETA: I adore vegie food and if it weren't for the Mr and Miss we would probably eat that way, but I reject the notion that all low income families should have to turn vegetarian simply because they can't afford any other option. That doesn't seem like real choice to me and I think that's sad in this day and age when the majority of us not constrained by budget are completely bombarded by choice at every given meal.

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As previously mentioned, libraries have free internet access and books. But god forbid you'd actually have to *go* there.

My food policy tends to be, if I can't pronounce the ingredients, its not healthy.

Didn't know that N2L. Was wondering what happened to all those ads

ETA I've never actually made anything from the Curtis stone recipes.

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Where is there a library??? There's not one in my suburb, or in the neighbouring suburbs. There's a mobile book van which visits every so often, but no internet access there. Where i grew up, the closest public library was 45 mins car ride away.

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Can I ask what everyone elses average meal plan is for a week? Because an average week for us is meat 5 or 6 nights of the week, coz thats how we were brought up. Potato is almost every night.

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We don't really have an average meal plan because I try not to serve the same meals too often but........
We often have a roast on a Sunday because it is the day of the week that I have time to stay home and keep an eye on the oven for 2 hours. I try to make a bone broth once a week and make a soup from that. If I've roasted a chook it will be a chicken soup otherwise it might be a seafood soup or a beef noodle soup or sometimes a vege soup with a bone broth base (like minestrone). I like to make a soup on Monday or Sunday night so I can eat it for lunch during the week.
Once a week the boys pick a meal so we usually have something unhealthy like suasages or pizza with salad or veges.
I try to eat vege a few nights a week so on those nights our protein is beans or chick peas or lentils.
I try to serve seafood at least once a week. Tonight it's seafood night and it's pretty boring. Baked salmon with asian greens and asparagus and an oyster sauce and some baked potatoes.

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As previously mentioned, libraries have free internet access and books. But god forbid you'd actually have to *go* there.

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Not all libraries. Some do if you're a member. But NOT all. And most people who go to a library for internet access only go to do something they specifically need to do. And as I mentioned, if you don't know that foods aren't healthy, why would you think to look it up?

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My food policy tends to be, if I can't pronounce the ingredients, its not healthy.

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soooooo a person with english as a second language finds a word like cauliflower hard to pronounce, does that make it unhealthy?

i get that you're more referring to additives, but most people can pronounce "flavour enhancer 621" and still it's unhealthy, so that theory is blown out of the water too!!


i know vego doesn't necessarily = lentils. i ate vego at least four or five nights a week for the entire time i was on campus for uni. BUT, if you're looking to REPLACE a protein portion in an otherwise balanced meal, you would be looking at something like that - mature beans, lentils, pulses, legumes... something along those lines. hence the reference to lentils in previous post... if you're looking at something to "replace", in terms of a burger or something, lentil burgers come to mind...

In bris we have a library in just about every suburb. In Melb - Where I lived was a lower socioeconomic area - I had 2 a short bus ride away. Warrnambool had a couple I think, we use to go every couple of weeks(this is back when warnambool was a small city and you could walk from one end to the other in a few hours.) Ive never lived anywhere else so I cant comment on rural. But there has lalways been several available to me and we were never well off.

I'm sure everyone wants to eat healthy. When moved out I was forever seeking ways to cook healthy. I worked with a lady in her 60s and I would ask her for ideas. I'd get on Google and look things up. But I guess that's kind of the point - I was motivated.

Unless you live on some remote station, there's always going to be a way to seek information. Be it via a book, internet, GP, friends...

I do find it hard to understand that obtaining information is *impossible*

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soooooo a person with english as a second language finds a word like cauliflower hard to pronounce, does that make it unhealthy?

i get that you're more referring to additives, but most people can pronounce "flavour enhancer 621" and still it's unhealthy, so that theory is blown out of the water too!!


i know vego doesn't necessarily = lentils. i ate vego at least four or five nights a week for the entire time i was on campus for uni. BUT, if you're looking to REPLACE a protein portion in an otherwise balanced meal, you would be looking at something like that - mature beans, lentils, pulses, legumes... something along those lines. hence the reference to lentils in previous post... if you're looking at something to "replace", in terms of a burger or something, lentil burgers come to mind...

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Yes you do know where I was going with that comment so there really is no need to nit pick.

And cities are very different to country towns as to the information & services they can provide. A lot of those mentioning things like Coles, farmers markets, libraries & net access are only thinking city living. All that stuff is not available to the rest of us.

Maybebaby - Thats exactly the point I was trying to make in my original post. I coouldn't make a loaf of bread for $1.

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I'm sure everyone wants to eat healthy. When moved out I was forever seeking ways to cook healthy. I worked with a lady in her 60s and I would ask her for ideas. I'd get on Google and look things up. But I guess that's kind of the point - I was motivated.

Unless you live on some remote station, there's always going to be a way to seek information. Be it via a book, internet, GP, friends...

I do find it hard to understand that obtaining information is *impossible*

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Noone said obtaining information is impossible. Though it isn't always easy. Its the fact that people think they're doing the right thing, when they aren't. They have no reason to go look up healthier food choices when they don't realise their choices are unhealthy. Meat & 3 veg has always been classed as an average healthy meal. Different ways to cook it are different, but some don't get why steamed veggies are healthier than a saucy veggie bake. They know that they're eating veggies, plus there'd be calcium in the milk/cream that goes into the sauce, so it can't be too bad. When its full of cheese & cholesterol. They think about the veggies they know they are eating. Not the fat that they don't see.

And when your friends are feeding their kids the same foods & they're the foods you grew up on, why would you think twice? Why would you question the way everyone you know eats? Its normal life & better than the cake/chips/ice cream diet you could be eating, so why would the thought of it not being the best diet even cross your mind?

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Unless you live on some remote station, there's always going to be a way to seek information. Be it via a book, internet, GP, friends...

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Books date, what is deemed *healthy* changes every other day. GP's - well, if you've got one that can a) speak clear English, b) spare the time to have a conversation on nutrition with you and c) not charge you through the roof for an appointment, you're doing well. Not everyone has access to treatment when they NEED it due to illness, let alone when they want to have a chat about good nutrition!

Friends - if your friends are in the same socio-economic position as you, their feedback will likely reinforce your ideas, not challenge them!

and as has been previously mentioned, why would you research if you don't know what you're doing is wrong?

As to libraries - at our last house, the nearest library was a 40+k round trip. and it was a library at the local high school so didn't have extended hours, and had limited resources that weren't related directly to high school studies. they have now opened a small public library in that town but i'm not sure how well stocked it is.

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I reject the notion that all low income families should have to turn vegetarian simply because they can't afford any other option. That doesn't seem like real choice to me

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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 there is a need to get rid of the big chain collusion and the overwhelming hold of the fresh food market.

I know that, that a good portion of people in the world can't even afford to adequately feed their families really ****es me off, in a similar way that one family in this town might not be able to afford to feed their family meat whilst another is busy deciding which trendy restaurant they will eat at this evening. In this world of excess, it upsets me that food is a luxury item for many people. I know it's reality but I don't have to like it.:redface:

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And cities are very different to country towns as to the information & services they can provide. A lot of those mentioning things like Coles, farmers markets, libraries & net access are only thinking city living. All that stuff is not available to the rest of us.

Maybebaby - Thats exactly the point I was trying to make in my original post. I coouldn't make a loaf of bread for $1.

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That's true. I guess I just find it bizarre, I grew up in a *very* low socio economic area, my parents didn't even have a car. And I always saw food pyramid posters everywhere - the school dentist, even Centrelink. And I was definitely taught about it at school (I guess I was the only fool who paid minimal attention in Health Education).

It does annoy me to no end though, that you can buy a loaf of white bread for a dollar but decent rye or wholemeal is $5?!

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I know that, that a good portion of people in the world can't even afford to adequately feed their families really ****es me off, in a similar way that one family in this town might not be able to afford to feed their family meat whilst another is busy deciding which trendy restaurant they will eat at this evening. In this world of excess, it upsets me that food is a luxury item for many people. I know it's reality but I don't have to like it.:redface:

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This. Here we are ranting and raving about the cost of healthy food, and millions of people don't get any :(

It is expensive to eat healthily. We spend around $130-150 per week just on fruit and veg. We don't use Pre made sauces or frozen foods except peas and ice cream. We don't eat take always much so maybe that makes my shop more cost effective and I usually eat lunch at home. We make pizzas at home using a pizza base from our fruit shop which is made of flour and salt. We think our pizzas are tastier than bought ones and much less fat.

I do feel for people that can't afford to buy healthy foods. Meat is expensive and it is time consuming preparing meals. But on the upside it makes me feel good, much easier to maintain my weight. I think it's the best anti aging product around. Though sometimes I wonder if anyone spends what I do on fruit and veg apart from our families!

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That's true. I guess I just find it bizarre, I grew up in a *very* low socio economic area, my parents didn't even have a car. And I always saw food pyramid posters everywhere - the school dentist, even Centrelink. And I was definitely taught about it at school (I guess I was the only fool who paid minimal attention in Health Education).

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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't think in great detail about how they're served. Some options aren't all that healthy in the end.