Why is eating healthy so expensive...

I guess technically you could survive on a properly formulated nutrient paste

but if you were to head out into the wilds and decided you weren't going to eat any meat you would have a much harder time than if you decided you weren't going to eat any plants

dare I say, and ultimately impossible time. This isn't even a muh protein! argument even though it kind of is.
do plants have protein? yes
if you are reliant on wandering around to find your food on a day to day basis, are you going to find a high enough volume of plants to meet your protein requirements?
unlikely

You get protein in the wild primarily from nuts.

nuts aren't really all that easy to come by though, they are a rare food and hard to eat once you find them

I'm working on a theory of what would be an ideal diet for humans, and I would say it's animals you can catch on foot/kill bare handed, and plants you don't need to climb up high for

I primates do best when we are fairly lazy about our food. if it requires a lot of effort to get it, it's not really worth it

I see this argument everywhere and it makes no sense. Who eats vegetables for calories? Eat oats, legumes, eggs, dairy, meat etc for calories and protein, and as many veggies as you can afford for micros and fiber

pinto beans are cheap. get a pressure cooker.

tomato paste is cheap

flour is cheap...

eating healthy is cheap.

hey fat bastard put the cake down

>chicken, fish, vegetables and water is expensive
>going for a morning and night jog is expensive
>moisterising and brushing your teeth is expensive

I just layed out a guide for you to become healthy and is no way expensive you big fat gay bastard.

Who moisturizes their teeth?

Eating optimally healthy is cheap, I don't mean inexpensive, I do in fact mean cheap.
Those who are saying otherwise in this thread are trolls, uninformed, or off the clock lobbyists.

even I could get food for a month and spend less than 500 at whole foods. eating healthy is expensive yes but if you are paying more than 3 dollars a meal you fucked up somewhere bad. most of mine cost less than 1.

Why the fuck are you guys talking about hunting/gathering? Is that the only other option besides Whole Foods? There are countless ways to save money on groceries and eat healthy, none of which necessitate going into the wild.

eating healthy is cheap as fuck just raid mom's freezer

>>fish
>>ever cheap
you're retarded aren't you?

OP if you feel like you need fish to live then hit a can of sardines, sprats, herring, etc.

avoid fish unless you're rich or eating an invasive wildcaught species. which is just about never unfortunately. someone really needs to do something about the carp in the great lakes. Litterally tax fund it and sell the fish at a loss, you'll provide cheap fish for people who cant aford cod in their diet. carp tastes like nothing anyway.

not the same guy, but where the fuck do you shop? fish is cheap. you can buy a frozen bag of salmon or whiting for 15 bucks, and that should last the week for a single person. good deli fish isn't much more.

You're shopping at the wrong stores if you think eating healthy is expensive. Try Asian markets, their prices are usually cheaper than big name retail stores like Walmart, ralphs, vons, etc. Whats more, include rice into your meals. You can cook it dozens of ways, and a 20lb can last you months. Try eating meat only once or twice a week, and have them be cheaper cuts. They're still good; maybe not ribeye or porter house good, but if cooked correctly still tender and tasty. Pork is really cheap. I'm talking 2lbs for like $5 cheap. If you portion correctly that's enough for a week easy.

Budget correctly and you can feed 2 people healthy meals for around $100 or less a month.

you didn't even provide a weight or value for the bag you paid 15 bucks for, which makes it double obvious you don't know what the fuck you are talking about or you're middle class and don't know it.

Poor people can eat fish too, but it's a treat for us. 15 dollars for a bag of meat is far from cheap, especially when you can get what is likely the same value for a third of the price in chicken thighs or pork shoulder. then its a matter of using that meat sparingly in dishes. you'll get way more out of your money that way.

you can afford to eat meat in every meal if you buy a cheap cut like pork shoulder, shred it, and use it sparingly. most murricans who eat meat every day don't tend to eat a small ammount of that meat. Great seasonings work for pork and chicken, and it's a good idea to oversalt the meat and have it be fatty cuts. this makes it act like bacon, which is an intensely flavorfull per unit of volumne meat. This means that you'll be satisfied with less of it, as you need to eat it with filling starches to cut the salt and ride the intense flavor. I'm sure we all have days where we just eat the whole rasher of bacon slowly throughout the day anyway because it;s so good. but this shit has worked really well for me as far as budgeting, and normally i end up spending about 3 times or more as much money on fresh vege than meat, which lays dormant in my chest freezer for optimal economy.

cabbage- never more than $1 each
potatoes and carrots- roots that take a long time to expire and are also fairly cheap
rice and beans
eggs
frozen fish
eating healthy doesn't have to be expensive. I lived off of this grocery list pretty much all of college. Expect people to make fun of the amount of cabbage you eat though but definitely worth it

the fish was sparing as my only meat, i had no clue how to cook a pork shoulder

fuck man, it's a 2 pound bag, which is plenty, unless you want your fish to be as filling as pork chops, which is not the right way to eat fish. if you're able to afford it, buy the boxes of cod fish in bulk. its usually either a 10 or 20 pound box that will last a couple months, depending on how often you want fish as a meal.

as for the 15 dollar bag, it comes with at least 7-9 pieces of fish. thats less than two dollars a piece.

you can literally buy top tier frozen white fish and salmon bags with about 10 pieces in each for 10 bucks or less.

maybe if you left your house you'd find things like this instead of your mummy doing all your shopping for tendies and mustard

Also OP, eat what the fuck you want just exercise a lot.

This is actually the reason people think eating healthy is expensive. It's really as simple as eating more vegetables and monitoring your calorie intake (since that's one of the biggest problems with first worlders diets) but there are so many retards who only buy whatever is being marketed toward them as healthy.
In modern society no one is desperate for energy intake. They have the exact opposite problem, hence why people are fat.

Even Walmart you can buy a healthy grocery list for cheap. Buy a bunch of produce, chop it up and freeze it. Buy chicken and learn to debone. It's cheaper and gives you the makings for stock. Rice is cheap. Bread is cheap. Beans are cheap. You can prep a week's worth of meals on Sunday, and just reheat it all. It is literally that easy, and it is cheaper than fast food.

If you can hack a vegan diet, it wouldbecheaper and more effectve for weightloss.

in theory it isnt...the only needed vitamin in meat is some B vitamin and you can get it someplace else. this being said...I love steak and no matter how many times I go on vegetarian kicks I always need to have a nice steak dinner once in a blue

What?
I just got a fresh slice of halibut, a small bag of brown rice and a couple pieces of asparagus for like 12 bucks from acme for dinner. If you aren't a lazy autist, healthy eating is way cheaper than junk food and more filling.

Being retarded is certainly a reasonable excuse for weight-loss shortcomings. Being a weak faggot is not.

Hey, OP....these anons branched off and are doing their own thing. Why don't you re-evaluate your own life and not rely on Veeky Forumsbros to do it for you? Too complicated? Faggot.

You are only poor because you have made your retardation clear for the whole Internet.
Don't pay the above user any regard...he's about as retarded as you can get outside of you fucking your own spawn.

12 dollars for dinner isn't cheap, are you retarded?

Not the same guy, but..
>solid quality food...most likely multiple servings...
Fucking pleb.

Maybe if you're a neet that spends all day on here. A 12 dollar fish dinner with leftover for lunch is pretty cheap for people that actually work.

The issue with healthy eating is time/skill required to prepare, not price.

Buy some brown rice, beans and produce. The whole organic meme is only good for soft fruit and tomatoes.

Even time is not really an issue if you do all the prep work one day for fun. Cooking is a hobby, too. This whole thing where people treat it as a massive sink on their time, instead of something they can do for fun with their family or friends boggles my mind.

Best comment, 2016

>go to an ethnic grocer and it will cost you the same as walmart.

>Eggs are cheap as fuck, tasty and good for you.
$1.50 for a dozen. 2 eggs for breakfast = $0.25
>Fruit in season is cheap as fuck, tasty and good for you.
I bought pears the other day for $0.89/lb
Each only about $0.45
>Chicken thighs are cheap as fuck, tasty and good for you.
I found an add the other day for boneless skinless for $1.35/lb. I bought 10lb. Ground most of the up in the food processor and made taco meat, meat balls and chicken burgers. I froze them. They reheat amazingly in the microwave or thrown into hot pasta sauce.

You just need to learn to budget.

Depends on the product. Produce and meat are usually cheaper at the mexican place near me, spices and niche stuff at the korean, and starches and carbs at walmart.

The asian markets in LA have the cheapest food. Produce is typically locally grown and for a fraction of the price, especially items like coriander, spring onions and mint. They do leave stuff out until it is literally rotting, so look out for that.

The meat selection is also very good, especially pork products.

Why does that guy have a sad face on his arm?

It's impossible to "eat healthy," you fags. You eat healthILY.

Why did they intentionally get cheap stuff for everything else and then not optimise their McD's order at all?

>2L of soda from store
$1
>2 for 2 mcdoubles (2x)
$4
>2 Large Fries (1 lg. = 1med+small)
$4
>20 nugs
>$5

TOTAL: $14

and you even get more food than their dumb meme image. lame desu.

Nerve gas

>go to whole foods

There is your problem. You can buy healthy food in normal supermarkets. And it's okay to buy frozen or canned veggies. And don't fall for the organic food meme.

Look up a nutrition table and build a diet that has all of the nutrients you need.

>for four people

3 bucks for a meal is a good price.

The image has nothing for $12. $12 is the price given in his post. I don't think he intends to feed four people with one slice of fish.

Welsh genetics.

at my local shop (upper middle class area in british countryside)

tin of mackerel - 70p
big bag of oats - £1
bag of carrots - £1
brocolli - 50p
bag of basmati rice - £1
eggs - 1.25
bell peppers x3 - £1

get the fuck off of your ass and get fit you fucking idiot

that's not even the cheapest shit either you can do much better at produce markets and cheap shops. there is NO excuse to complain about the price of food in a first world country

$5 Turkey Burgers? The fuck are you putting on that thing, truffle? Turkey is like $3/lb which should make at least four burgers.

Is that a Co-op, user? Prices look exactly the same as the one just down the road from me.

Yo can for it even cheaper too. Morrisons and Tesco have a kilogram of porridge for 75p.

Mackerel in various flavours from olive oil to curry sauce are 66p there too.

They always have fruit and veg on offer for 69p a pack.

A cucumber is 42p

A bag of bananas is 80p

Etc.

seems like a strawman. Eating vegetables isn't for energy/calories. It's for nutrients. This seems so obvious, I'd assume you are "baiting."

I'll go ahead and state more obvious things: your body requires the nutrients in vegetables for optimum health.

thats why you dont go to whole foods

Nigga I spend $80 on groceries every month for 2 people. Get your shit together

We've reached full Autism captain

You can survive off of chicken thigh, rice, beans and vegetables cheap as fuck. People are just fucking stupid and lazy

Fish IS expensive though.

Fresh fish is only a few dollars a pound, even cheaper frozen.

>Fresh fish is only a few dollars a pound, even cheaper frozen.

I swear the people that think eating healthy is expensive are people who have never once stepped into a god damn grocery store for anything other than chips, soda, and pizza rolls

the frozen tilipia is $5lb and the salmons $8

>>a few dollars a lb
fresh fish is almost never under 5 dollars a lb you fucking idiot. the only thing that regularly goes under is catfish and sometimes talapia and squid. welcome to being retarded you dipshits.

>everyone lives where I do

Fascinating.

I get cheap fresh fish from Acme all the time. I can get flounder for 5 dollars a pound, salmon for 7 and deviled crabs for 2 dollars a piece. Welcome to actual grocery stores, not shopping at Walmart like a nigger.

>normally I subsist on turkey, corn tortillas, and coke zero
that has to be one of the worst diets holy shit.

Like I said in another comment, you lazy, stupid, fat fucks complaining about price have never been in a grocery store. Walmart sales frozen fish starting at 3 dollars a lb.

You should only need 1/4 to 1/3 lb per serving you fat fuck. Add that with some rice and cheap veggies and we are talking $1.50/meal serving (typically tilapia and flounder, and sometimes swai)

idiot

>Twelve, TWELVE WHOLE DOLLARS OY VEY get back in the van kids we're not dining here no sir

It's not that eating healthy is expensive, per se. If anything it is cheaper than it was a hundred years ago.

Unhealthy food is just really inexpensive by comparison and has distorted the perception of relative price difference today since a lot of millenialls grew up in the era where unhealthy food started becoming really cheap, tasty, convenient and readily available.

Although, chances are if you are paying $500 you have no clue what you are buying, there are many companies today that exploit general nutritional ignorance and the health fads by overpricing foods like goji berries(basically asian raisins, and worth about the same nutritionally).

You can eat healthy for less than $200 a month no problem if you are willing to spend some time learning about nutrition science to some degree of depth and you are willing to spend some time in the kitchen.

Heck, I spend less than $80 a month, but I have nutritional and frugal autism and have no problem sacrificing taste.

Are you trying to suggest that buying garbage fish and Walmart vegetables, for purposes of eating, is in some way a good idea?

Yes, you stupid fuck. It's cheaper than mcdonalds and very healthy. Fucking idiot.

>very healthy
That is debatable. Healthier than McDonalds, sure.

Healthier than something you can get for a similar price, nope.

>Healthier than something you can get for a similar price, nope.

How is Tilapia/Swai/Cod not healthy? I know it's not the best quality from a gourmet perspective, but ther is nothing wrong with it healthwise.

Fuck off tripfag

Do people seriously bring their own soda to McD's?

Healthiness is depends on many factors and in most cases you can only measure it relatively by comparing it to alternatives.

So saying Tilapia is "healthy" isn't say much, since there is no objective standard for "healthy". You can argue that giving McDonalds to someone that hasn't had anything to eat for two weeks is healthy, as that McDonalds improves the overall health of the person.

As for what is wrong with it health wise, as far as animal based foods go fish is arguably the least unhealthy of the lot(perhaps with the exception of insects), but that excludes other factors like source and species of fish as well. Tuna for example has dangerous levels of industrial pollutants, but even some freshwater farmed fish have been found to contain dangerous pollutants due to contaminated feed fed to them as a result of quality control negligence.

That all said, animal based food have a poor macro nutrient balance, and a poor micro nutrient to calorie ratio, and given the price per calorie for these foods, I just see fish as a massive waste of money when comparing it to something like lentils which is healthier on both counts, and cheaper.

There is a lot more to take into account, the devil is in the details at the end of the day, and I can only touch on the basic ideas, but once you start asking yourself how to quantify the "healthiness" of food, what are the factors that have been scientifically proven to impact health, and then look at the numbers and add everything up, I see no real reason to consider fish objectively healthy or cost effective.

I'd still eat it though given the lack of a better alternative or on special occasions like going out to dinner with friends or family, but for my day to day general food consumption I don't waste my money on it.

But as I said in I have nutritional and frugal autism, I don't blame you if you don't give a crap about any of this shit.

they look like aliens lol

Potatoes aren't roots

In America it's encouraged to be fat. They look down on people that are slim. I was often called too skinny because I'm 150 pounds at 6 foot 1 inches. I checked out my BMI and it's average. They have a warped view of what's normal and what's over weight.

>en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_root_vegetables
>While botany distinguishes true roots such as tuberous roots and taproots from non-roots such as tubers, rhizomes, corms, and bulbs (though some contain both taproot and hypocotyl tissue, making it difficult to tell some types apart), in ordinary, agricultural, and culinary use, "root vegetable" can apply to all these types.

This is stupid.
The Kung people still lived a primarily hunter/gatherer lifestyle until reasonably recently. During the period where they were being observed by anthropologists the Kung diet was closely monitored.
Turns out both men and women gathered. 85% of their caloric intake was from gathering. 90% of the food gathered was plant based, the other 10% being grubs, birds eggs and small animals which are either slow, stupid or otherwise easily caught.
so your assumptions are provably wrong, given the empirical evidence we have.

>Vegetables contribute nothing to calorie intake

Potatoes (and all varieties)
swede (rutabaga)
turnip
carrots
all legumes

>$5 fresh whole chicken
LOL
>$1.5 3 slices of bacon
HAHAHAH

>Heck, I spend less than $80 a month, but I have nutritional and frugal autism and have no problem sacrificing taste.
>tfw I wanna be like that too
>but I live with parents so I can't

How are your parents stopping you? Won't they buy you the food?

I live with my father, when I'm buying groceries it's fine but since we split everything I'm only buying stuff for two weeks.

And when it's his turn buying shit he just fills bacgs of cookies and shit.

maybe if you're buying ready-made """""healthy""""" meals to put in the microwave, it might be expensive.

unless of course you're buying 7 portions of meat to eat some every single day, which would be retarded.

Just talk to him about it?

Dietary habits, like any habit, are hard for people to change, and as you are on Veeky Forums you will know how zealous people can be about their food.

If you really want to go down this route you have to accept that being strict about what you eat will be at odds with the more relaxed habits of nearly everyone you will encounter, so you will face constant resistance from people about it, and once they know you don't eat what they eat they will constantly try to tempt you with their food as well. I try to avoid the topic of food whenever possible and come up with excuses like "That looks delicious to but I just ate a large meal and I'm full, but thanks anyway."

But try and suggest to your father that you two buy, prepare and eat separately, each taking care of their own needs and wants. You could agree on certain cupboards and sections of the fridge/freezer to be for each one's use. Really sounds more like a roommate agreement, but honestly that is what I used to do with my mom.

>Dietary habits, like any habit, are hard for people to change

He's a lost cause, I'm just waiting for him to get a stroke and die.
Fucker didn't eve drop smoking after getting a heart surgery and COPD.

>prepare and eat separately
We already do that actually,

I have family like that too. Just suggesting a change in diet caused a minor shitstorm.

Well, I can't really give more advice other than buying a bit more than you can eat in two weeks, cooking it and freezing it. I do this a lot, buying in bulk is cheap after all(muh frugality), and cooking in bulk saves time in the long run. Freezing your food while still fresh also helps preserve its nutritional value better as well.

I don't know how you split the food bill but if that is a problem for you you just have to be direct and say your food costs x amount less and it isn't fair. Otherwise you'll just have to bear it.

I know the hair exaggerates it, but they look like bobbleheads. Heads way too big for the rest of them.

mate you're doing it wrong. Ironically eating healthy is also pretty close to the cheapest way to eat/cook too.

Don't get tricked by yuppie culture. You don't need to eat hipster shit like kale, quinoa and other shit you've never heard of.

It's really easy to live off of around $1.50~$2 a day with a healthy cereal for breakfast, simple salad or pasta lunch and then meat&3veg dinner.

Make all your food in bulk and fill it out with heaps of rice, lentils, onions and beans. Those are the fucking cheapest and best ways to pad out a meal to make it 4x as big for almost no cost.

fuck whole foods. Shop at sprouts.

the chicken is pretty spot on for my area
and that bacon is actually overpriced
both of which are funny because thats a pretty old picture