The incongruity of this statement dawned on me the other day as I stood in line at my local grocery store. ‘Cause it’s one I’ve heard often enough…

It costs SO much to eat right.

Does it? Really?

From my impromptu info-gathering session at the grocery store the other evening, I’d say it’s VERY expensive to eat poor, nutritionally deficient foods. I watched, for instance, as a heavyset woman and her two heavyset children directly in front of me emptied their cart onto the conveyor…

  • Umpteen 2 litre bottles of pop
  • Two cases of pop in cans (none of it diet)
  • Numerous loves of enriched white bread
  • Hot dog buns and accompanying wieners
  • Hamburger buns and store-brand premade hamburger patties
  • 3 or 4 bags of potato chips
  • Several boxes of highly sugared children’s cereal
  • Various school-box lunch treat type foods — wagon wheels, Twinkies, jelly rolls — that kind of stuff
  • Pizza pockets
  • Pillsbury cookies (you know the ones you just chuck in the oven)

…. and that’s just what I remember. They continued to pile highly processed, crappy and expensive foods onto the conveyor for what seemed an eternity. The only thing our intrepid matriarch pulled out of that cart that fell into the “fruits and vegetables” category was a small bunch of bananas.

Nice work, Mom.

Anyhow, when the clerk asked for well over $120, I got thinking… “wait a minute, what exactly has she just forked her money over for?”

Mostly sugar, flour, and saturated fat. Oh, and don’t forget the flashy packaging and slick marketing campaigns. Because that’s all built into the price.   

But not food. Not really.

Gram for gram, ounce for ounce, real food is cheaper, and you get more of it. For instance, for less than a quarter of what she spent I bought…

  • 3 lbs of bone in chicken breast (sale, 2.99 lb – $9.00)
  • 2 packages of whole wheat tortillas ($2.17 each)
  • Approx 1 pound of bananas ($.75)
  • 2 bunches of green onions (shallots) ($.99)
  • .75 pound of asparagus ($1.07)
  • 1.25 pounds of tomatoes ($1.85)
  • 4 red delicious apples ($1.50)
  • 4 D’anjou pears ($1.50)
  • 1 can re-fried beans ($1.79)
  • 1 pound of radishes ($.99)
  • .75 pound blueberries ($3.49)
  • 1 English cucumber ($.99)
  • 4 red peppers ($2.44)
  • 3 green peppers ($1.32)
  • 2 lbs mini-potatoes ($2.99)

Fact is, despite rising fuel costs and the increasing cost of goods, real food is still pretty darn cheap — especially when you compare it to the processed stuff.

Yes, lean meats can be pricey — but compare the cost per pound to what you’re paying for a pound of pizza pockets, for example, and you’ll realize you’re still better off to go with the lean chicken, turkey or beef.

So it’s final then.  

There’s no excuse for anyone not to eat healthier foods.

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