Healthy food does cost a lot more. Fruits and vegetables cost much more per calorie than flour, oil and sugar.
A $6 bag of apples has less calories in it than a loaf of Wonderbread.
$2 of broccoli has less calories than a $0.30 can of soda.
A $6 bag of apples has less calories in it than a loaf of Wonderbread.
$2 of broccoli has less calories than a $0.30 can of soda.
i grocery shop for a family of four. my experience is i can buy as much as i like in the produce section without having much of an effect on the bill, but i have to be careful with meat. i used to be more fretful with fresh fruit, thinking it was really expensive, but the more of that i buy the less of the more expensive stuff i need, and no one's going hungry around here.
you're right that bread and the like are cheap, but there's only so much of that a person can eat. when you're talking about the cost of food, that's a fact that needs to be accounted for.
You may notice that the poor eating those foods, and not dramatically more expensive items like soda, aren't getting fat.
I'd agree that buying healthy options at the grocery store does not have to be more expensive than junk food (or even cheaper), but that's assuming you can plan ahead well enough to not throw away the fresh food once it spoils. Granted, that's a matter of habit, but a hard habit to overcome if you're not used to it. I rarely shop in the middle of the grocery store, except for staples, but I still manage to throw a bit away a week later.
From my experience, the significant cost in healthy foods is the time to prep and cook them. I keep it simple by steaming frozen veggies and can eat that repeatedly, but most people prefer a lot more variety in their diet at least in respect to healthy foods.
If you use the satiety factor, it is possible to eat healthy and spend less. For example, eat oatmeal instead of sugary cereals for breakfast, eat bananas as snacks instead of chips or others, eat beans or brown rice instead of hamburgers for lunches and dinners. Drink water instead of buying diet or sugar beverages. All these (oatmeal, bananas, beans) are healthier and not necessarily more expensive.
"I'm hungry. The bananas are black and we ran out of oatmeal Tuesday. Do I want to do some chores (cook) and then eat rice and beans in an hour or do I want to get a double cheeseburger on sale?"
Drinking water and eating less is (for most Americans) much healthier and much cheaper, though.
$1.87 Chicken breast or thighs and some spices and vinegar is MUCH cheaper then any pre-processed crap. Take Hamburger Helper you pay $2 for the box and $4.5 for the ground beef your at $6.50. I can cook something with rice a ton cheaper.
Chicken breast has about 500 calories per pound.
So it's 5x the cost per calorie of the price someone would pay if they were shopping price hard. Meat is basically off the table entirely if you are working on keeping price low.
Bananas are super cheap though.
https://www.walmart.com/ip/Coca-Cola-Cola-12-fl-oz-24-pack/2...
Faygo or their store brand will be all the much cheaper.
Generic soda is obviously much cheaper.
edit: is hn the no joke zone?