Is a healthy diet more expensive?

Brambling

So where would you draw the line? Ban all flours, sugar, butter or fat of any kind to stop me making my own baked goods? Let's add in motor bikes and any extreme sport! can't see the politicians happy to add alcohol to the ban. I'm not sure I want to live under a nanny state I'm a adult and I'm able to make my own life choices part of being an adult is learning from our mistakes. Surely the answer is education as we can see from the thread so many different variations on what people think is a healthy diet

tooldle

trailingspouse said:

Farway said:

Maybe because it's a free country & we are considered to be adults capable of making our own choices in what we buy and eat?

If you disagree, maybe we should also remove voting rights from those too thick unable to choose what to buy while an elite few select what foods the plebs can have?

With 63.8% of the UK population either overweight or obese, we're obviously not capable of making sensible choices. When you go to the supermarket there is aisle after aisle of food that is basically bad for us - why? Simply because it is profitable - absolutely no other reason.

Although, it might not be supermarkets that contribute the most to the obesity epidemic. Pubs, restaurants, takeaways etc all contribute.  It is not necessarily what is eaten but also the volume of consumption. Our morbidly obese pal believes they eat very little.
 I worked with a chap who blames the supermarket for his obesity. He claimed to have specific dietary requirements which largely boiled down to frozen potato products, crisps, bread and coke. He never set foot inside the supermarket. His mum would shop for him and drive a round trip of 100 miles each fortnight, to deliver his shopping. This arrangement had gone on since he’d left home. 

Auntycaz

Education and moderation are the key to a healthy diet, but we can't keep blaming everyone else for our bad choices. I don't eat as much now I'm retired and have less mobility. If I had continued to eat the same amount of food as I did when I was more physically active common sense tells me I would put on weight.
When I first left home and got my own place I nearly ran out of food the first week. It made me more careful how I spent my wages the next week.   

strawb_shortcake

I think healthy eating is a far cheaper diet, when you  go back to basics, when you add in the latest fads of chia, goji, acai and the other stuff I can’t pronounce then it gets expensive.

Growing up we mostly ate healthy, my Mum always said we ate healthier when money was tight, during these times it was a large joint of meat from the butchers, a sack of potatoes and more veg than any child really wants, but we were never hungry, nothing was wasted, and leftovers created another meal. 

We aren't vegetarian but we actively reduce our meat intake, one of our favourite meals is a sweet potato curry which I add plenty of veg, this creates several meals and really only costs pence per serving. 

People that say eating healthy is expensive is often the same people that choose an 80p chocolate bar over a 40p apple

Brie

cooking your own meals can mean you can be healthier, avoiding excess salt etc but takes more time and needs energy to cook and store.  we tried a month as vegetarian but found that very expensive but that's due to us starting from scratch with little knowledge so we had to buy lots of things we didn't normally have.  A decade later it's easier for us to have non meat days as we know more about how to manage that.  

all that said - we have no green grocers within about 5 miles of where we live - and we're in a city, not in the middle of no where.  And no butcher within about 4 miles.  Nearest strictly organic place is also about 4 miles.  There's large supermarkets of course but the nearest is not large so the selection is limited.  At what point do you balance healthy eating with healthy procurement?

Longwalker

KxMx said:

Farway said:

trailingspouse said:

-taff said:

Now if everyone could agree on what a healthy and varied diet was, that would be a bit of a breakthrough...

Ain't that the truth. Also - why do we allow manufacturers to make (and retailers to sell) 'food' that is demonstrably bad for us?

Maybe because it's a free country & we are considered to be adults capable of making our own choices in what we buy and eat?

If you disagree, maybe we should also remove voting rights from those too thick unable to choose what to buy while an elite few select what foods the plebs can have?

Honestly I was against the sugar tax on fizzy drinks before it came in, but since them I'm firmly in favour. 
Manufacturers reformulated with less sugar to avoid the tax, fast food chains only serving sugar free, etc.
Net positive benefits. 

Mum is diabetic and needed some added sugar, non cola drinks recently, I had no end of trouble finding a Sprite/7up/lemonade that wasn't sugar free!

I enjoy takeaways myself on a semi regular basis, but what I'd like to ban is those double/triple burger meals that calorie wise far exceed the daily recommended intake. Absolutely no need for such gluttony and at such a vast number of calories, you can't even consider it a treat. 

Noooooooo

McD's is a couple of times a year treat for me and the triple cheese is the only one I like. 

Mr L gets a Big Mac medium meal, I get the triple,we share the fries and coke 

I know its high fat and salt, but it really is a rare treat. Cant mind when we last had pizza, or KFC. Its not like Monday its McD's, Tuesday KFC. it might be December Kfc and March Mcd's 

And it would basically be our main meal, a toastie or something later on 

-taff

Most of us on this board would be ok with knowing what a relatively healthy diet is. The diference between knowing and actually eating it is quite vast though. None of us can throw stones, none of us is eating a perfect diet, all of us could stand to improve some habits...

YoungBlueEyes

Well put @-taff. Most people know the answer, they just won't do it. Their choice. But in my opinion that's the most important part of all this - that people are able to exercise their right to choose. I don't want to live in a dictatorship where I'm told what I can and can't eat, for reasons that they've decided on, without my input. No way Pedro. 

When people talk about McD's it always reminds me of daddy. I think I've told this story on here before but anyway. I asked him once why we never have burgers/pizzas etc like everyone else does and can't we just try it just once cos all my friends are doing it. He said "we don't need to use those places sweetheart, your ma can cook".

We do eat takeaways etc, but not very often. However I'd be on the streets with a placard if TPTB decided to close them all down 'for the good of our health'. 

Blue_Doggy

trailingspouse said:

-taff said:

Now if everyone could agree on what a healthy and varied diet was, that would be a bit of a breakthrough...

Ain't that the truth. Also - why do we allow manufacturers to make (and retailers to sell) 'food' that is demonstrably bad for us?

Manufacturers make it, and retailers sell it, but consumers buy it - if no-one bought it, it would soon be taken off the market. But it’s (very) profitable. And the manufacturers spend a lot on researching how to make unhealthy goods very attractive. We’re evolutionarily developed to seek calorie-dense foods, especially sweet things and fat things, so sweet+fat is the ace.
 

It’s also noticeable how many things, such as mashed potatoes, nowadays have added cheese, and cauliflower cheese is a regular side dish (instead of plain cauliflower). And there is so much chocolate! Chocolate is nice, but is just sugar and fat, and a zillion calories. (Disclosure: I eat one square of 85% chocolate a day. I dare not eat milk chocolate because I would just binge, I have occasionally made a whole multipack of penguins my lunch.)
 
I expect any day to see cauliflower cheese with chocolate chips.

Longwalker

Cheese on everything here where I live

One of the most popular sides where I worked was cheesy champ. Buttery mashed potato with spring onion and cheese mashed through, then a wee well made in the top and a big nob of butter put in so you had a pool of melted butter. Or if that weren't bad enough, cheese and bacon mash. Luckily I dont like mash so Ive never tried it

Garlic bread - cheese topped, cheesey chip 

And these sides would be going out along side calorie/fat laden food , I mean people dont go out and buy a salad very often when out for their tea

Im very lucky that I do live so rural so take away/ fast food is a rare treat and the less I eat of it, the less I want. We were in the town yesterday around lunch time and thought we would grab a bite as we had hadn't had breakfast. Other then Subway all the other places are local and at that time of day were running lunch menus which were all going to be way too big as I was cooking in the evening. So we thought Subway it is, but then I said no, gives me heartburn, we will wait till we get home which we did, lifted a couple of crusty rolls from lidl. But when we lived in London and takeaway was on every corner, we did it a lot of "junk". Fish suppers, Chinese, pizza, Indian - all on our doorstep at least twice a week. A McD's when in the town at the weekend. You become addicted to the salt and the fat I think, same as we can guzzle cheap chocolate but only pick at the good dark stuff - the addiction is to the fat and sugar, not chocolate 

Crisps were always my "thing" Loved them, at least 1 if not 2 bags a day. Now though I cant take them. Oh I like a baked crisp now and then but crisps nope. I think its because over the years of living out here and our diet changing to a more basic home cooked one, that the fat and salt turns me now. Its like chips, I love a chip, Im a connoisseur of chips , but I cant eat a full take away portion and when I cook them here at home it really is just a medium size spud, once again I think the oil is what turns me