Is a healthy diet more expensive?

thriftwizard

Today, popping in in passing for some mozarella, I picked up a L!dls £1.50 box; there were 3 left and the till operator looked at me quizzically & said, "Are you sure? Don't you want to check them over first?!" as if no-one in their right mind would want one. But I'd looked through the window before going in, and ignoring the very-wilted lettuce, pak choi & almost-dead basil plant on the top of each, the rest looked fine. So my £1.50 bought me the wilted greens for my chickens (beak-smacking good, apparently!) a pot of basil that's reviving in water on the table prior to being chopped onto tonight's HM pizzas, carrots, onions & leeks, some of which went straight into a vat of chicken noodle soup made from the bones of Sunday's chicken, and the rest are in the fridge, new potatoes (easily enough for 5, will be eaten with some fish on Friday) apples, pears, a plum and a whole punnet of nectarines, all of which look absolutely fine & have joined the other items in the fruit bowl. OK, they're probably not organic, or as fresh as fresh can be, and I do have to expend time & energy to prep & cook most of it, but my £1.50 just bought the 5 of us, at the very least, a box of very healthy fibre!

trailingspouse

Many thanks for all the responses. I've come to the conclusion that the answer to the question is 'It depends'.

If, for example, you were eating large quantities of unhealthy food and you decided to simply eat less (but continue to choose the same unhealthy food), you would save money and might be marginally healthier if it resulted in you losing weight.

If you chose to replace takeaways with healthier home-cooked options, that would also be healthier and cheaper.

If you chose to eat less meat and have vegetarian options instead, that too would be healthier and cheaper.

But if you do a direct comparison between less healthy or more healthy versions of the same foodstuff, the healthier versions tend to be more expensive (eg wholemeal bread versus white sliced).

For myself, I avoid ultra-processed food (there are entire aisles at the supermarket that I don't even bother going down any more - which at least saves time, if not money!), I opt for unrefined carbs whenever possible, I used to have takeaways once a month but I don't think I've had one this year so far, and I don't eat nearly as much meat as I used to (I'm not a vegetarian, but I do like vegetarian food).

Am I saving money? On balance I think I am. Am I healthy? Again, on balance I think I am. Certainly I would rather spend £9.65 on good food than on prescription charges...

DiamondLil

and of course I do love them as chips ( who doesn't? ) but I limit chips to once a week,

I don't like chips, never have since the fifties. They are in my "smells delicious, totally tasteless" category. I think it's a combination of not being fried in lard any more and my having to follow a low-to-no-salt diet.

trailingspouse

DiamondLil said:

and of course I do love them as chips ( who doesn't? ) but I limit chips to once a week,

I don't like chips, never have since the fifties. They are in my "smells delicious, totally tasteless" category. I think it's a combination of not being fried in lard any more and my having to follow a low-to-no-salt diet.

I agree!! Chips and coffee fall in to the 'smells better than it tastes' category for me.

Longwalker

trailingspouse said:

DiamondLil said:

and of course I do love them as chips ( who doesn't? ) but I limit chips to once a week,

I don't like chips, never have since the fifties. They are in my "smells delicious, totally tasteless" category. I think it's a combination of not being fried in lard any more and my having to follow a low-to-no-salt diet.

I agree!! Chips and coffee fall in to the 'smells better than it tastes' category for me.

Not at all

I do make myself a decent cup of coffee - 3 times a week, and its fantastic. I like a deep roasted bean with chocolate undertones and what I buy is expensive ( hence so few cups ) and the taste is how it smells - beautiful

Same as chips. I cut and fry chips here, air fryer doesn't get a look in. However its the potato that makes a chip.

Marie piper here in NI make crap chips, way too much sugar. Actually there are no good chipping potatoes grown here - we have too much rain and cold weather so very high sugar contents. Most of our chipping potatoes come in from Scotland and Lancs etc. Get a potato thats grown for the chipping market and you do taste the difference 

JIL

I discovered a fabulous potato that made the best jacket potatoes and the best chips.
I think it was Italian however I cant remember what it was called. Perhaps for the best. Because they were very very good. My dad got me a sack, then I bought one at a farm. My dad insists it was picasso, I thought it was something else, maybe spunta big oval potatoes with red flecks and yellow flesh.

Agree as well about coffee, I really love a freshly ground cup. Get the right beans and there is nothing better in the morning.

YoungBlueEyes

Aye you've gotta have an actual chip pan, the right fat, and good tatties for proper chips. We don't have chips often but when we do... mmmmmm....... yum 

sarahj1986

I personally don’t think it is. Fast food, takeaways, really meals, that kind of thing has become so expensive now. I’m not perfect but I do home cooked meals every evening and most dinners cost less than £5 for 2 adults and a 4 year old, some less than £3. 

I’m very lucky that my daughter likes the “cheap” fruits like apples and bananas. Her favourite breakfast is porridge with fruit. She still has some processed stuff like babybel but I have to limit that to 1 per day as they are now so expensive. 

We spend around £60-70 a week on food which isn’t too bad. That includes meat, fish, veg, fruit, a few processed stuff and cupboard staples. If our shopping was mostly processed food I certain it would be over £100. It does depend on what you eat though admittedly. 

MattMattMattUK

trailingspouse said:

DiamondLil said:

and of course I do love them as chips ( who doesn't? ) but I limit chips to once a week,

I don't like chips, never have since the fifties. They are in my "smells delicious, totally tasteless" category. I think it's a combination of not being fried in lard any more and my having to follow a low-to-no-salt diet.

I agree!! Chips and coffee fall in to the 'smells better than it tastes' category for me.

Good coffee and good chips taste just as good as they smell, cheap, badly made coffee and mass produced chips far less so.

MattMattMattUK

An example of cheaper and healthier, last night I bought the ingredients for pizza tomorrow (I am babysitting during the day), now admittedly I already have some of them, but the cost of those bits is minimal anyway. We will be making fresh pizza, mostly from scratch. I will make the dough, I already have the flour, yeast, salt, semolina etc. for that so nominally it is free, although in cost terms making the dough for four pizzas is going to be around 10-12p. Herbs, salt, pepper etc. are not counted as trying to work out the cost of those would be a nightmare and likely only a penny at most.
Passata £0.60 (for pizza sauce, will also use herbs from the cupboard)
Mozzarella £2.40 (2 x £1.20, will shred the balls up)
Chicken £1.26 (One large breast from a pack that will get used over the course of the week anyway)
Pesto £0.60 (half a jar, because I am feeling too lazy to make it myself)
Pepperoni £0.70 (will not use the whole packet so will freeze the rest for later use)
Fresh basil £0.52 (pack of fresh basil)
Peppers £0.55 (half of a red and yellow pepper, the other half will be used in other meals)
Onion £0.10 (one onion from a bag)
Total £6.73

They will be far healthier than shop bought pizzas, the cost of which based on what was in the supermarket yesterday would likely cost £4.50-5.50 each, so a cost saving of £13.27 as well. It is a task that were it just me making them would take me no more than 25 minutes, with the children it will likely take an hour, but keep them entertained as well. They will contain no additional ingredients, salt and sugar will be below the commercial options as well.