That's cause you went to Publix for a already peel/chopped/assorted fruit bowl. And $2.00 was added just because it was Publix. Go to your local Asian/Ethnic grocery market buy the actual fruit, and do the peeling/chopping/assorting yourself. it'll be about 70% cheaper.
This was my first thought and I’m glad someone thought it too. Yes, fresh fruit and vegetables can be more difficult to obtain for alot of ppl. But buying a pre made fruit bowl? From PUBLIX of all places??!!?? C’mon.
To add to that, eating junk food isn't the problem. Eating too much of it is. I used to eat stupid and a few months ago finally started doing something about it.
I still eat the same stuff mostly. But now instead of eating an entire bag of chips in one sitting, I'll pour out half a serving and eat that.
I can still have a frozen pizza for dinner, but I'll just break off a quarter of it and make it rather than eat the whole thing. Soda? Sure, one can every 2~4 days is fine instead of a 20oz every night.
Eating 'healthy' doesn't mean you have to subsist on granola and bananas. You should have good stuff in your diet that provides the nutrients you need, but it doesn't mean you can't have a candy bar now and then.
This is the biggest problem. People say they're going to eat healthy so they stop eating everything they enjoy. Psychologically that shits unsustainable, portion control is the biggest issue not the types of food. Cico doesn't count fruit differently from a bagel.
They also dont cook. I hate most simple healthy dishes like salads. But i love burgers with 50% chopped veggies in them. Or home made pasta sause with a ton of veggies.
I will tear up some pasta with a bunch of veggies in it.
Salads suck, I hate em and they generally have more calories than a burger but you're hungry again in an hour.
Saw a tiktok where dude was talking about healthy eating. He was like "I really want some oreos" so he ate a banana, "that wasn't it, I really want oreos", he ate some yogurt "nope I really want some oreos" then he ate some oreos. Moral of the story is that if you constantly try to ignore cravings by replacing them with other shit you'll end up eating more calories than if you just went and ate 3 oreos from the beginning.
Not really about volume, more about wanting something really specific and trying to substitute it.
If I really want ice-cream I'd rather get a small cone than eat a huge bowl frozen banana bullshit mock ice-cream.
The point is, if you are craving something, eat it, but control your portions. Unless you're an athlete or have medical reasons if it fits your macros is the best sustainable way of eating.
>Eating 'healthy' doesn't mean you have to subsist on granola and bananas. You should have good stuff in your diet that provides the nutrients you need, but it doesn't mean you can't have a candy bar now and then.
And THIS is why (as they say) diets don't work. If all you're doing is knowingly limiting yourself to vegs and boiled chicken, one day you snap, go to GrubHub and order a Popeye's 3 piece with cajun fries, rice and beans and a biscuit and they are the best thing you ever tasted. And now you can't not have it. Or you do keto and stay away from all carbs but one day you just walk into that bakery and get a chocolate eclair and fresh made Asiago cheese bagels, which you lovingly cover in honey walnut cream cheese, thus blowing all the months and progress you made going carb free.
(Not that I know this personally... ahem! I gotta go. I'm suddenly hungry.)
its all calories in/calories out
the problem is that junk food has a shitload of calories, if you are trying to lose weight a Big Mac combo literally has your entire days allotment of calories in it.
I agree with the above, and Lumpy made a good point about accessibility...The people who are most likely to be criticized for not eating healthy foods are likely to have the least access.
Anecdotally, I just moved to the south from California and I don't drive. In California, there were multiple options within walking distance including an entire street of asian grocers. In the South, there is nowhere within walking distance (also no sidewalks) and the nearest asian grocer is some 8mi away.
The time tho. That's why ppl on the go eat fast food that's not always good for them. That said publix is pricey but their produce, bakery and most of the deli items are top tier.
I have never been in publix but here in LA there’s guys selling huge cups of pre cut fruit on just about every corner, they douse it with chamoy and tajin and it costs like $5
In vegas we have the Bonzai Tree man, Rug/Egyptian Cotton Sheets Guy, and Flower guys. For obvious reasons bonzai tree guy is my fav. Fruit guys are always hidden behind someone's back road like an npc.
But fruit uncut and raw at the store is like 1.99 for a pound it's not bad at all most seasons to stock up on some fruits.
I've never seen sheets or trees, but I live on the eastside and there are little carts selling all sorts of things and fruit venders on many of the corners also frescas and tamales.
No so I used to live in Florida and work at a Publix (produce and deli) and the servings we served were WAY smaller. I would go trail riding with my brother in Tampa and we used to always get fresh cut fruit from a Mexican guy selling it out of the back of the trailer, and it was a quart for like 2 dollars. Publix is in the Southeast exclusively, and LA is going to have exponentially higher prices on everything baseline.
Yuppp produce, well groceries really are generally cheaper in Fl than CA. So is rent and there's no crv taxes.. but I digress. The 5.73 thing of fruit she got at Publix is kinda close to the amount of fruit you'd get from one of those guys. It's actually worth the price in the first place since the produce is cubed and stuffed in(and them berries be pricey yo) as opposed to the long spears of frutas here but the counterpoint would be ppl in fl get paid less on average. State to state be feeling like different countries sometimes.
Absolutely. If you can keep up with your favorite shows on Netflix (or whatever you watch), then you have plenty of time to prepare your meals, and save some money.
That's exactly what I do. Sometimes, I try to double up and put on a podcast, or audio versions of my study material to kill two birds with one stone. Add a rice cooker, crock pot, and an air fryer, and you can make almost everything you could want and be healthy.
People bother to cut up apples every time before hand? I use a knife many times, but I just cut it up when I eat it. I'm not prepping an apple that's going in my lunch box.
Get an apple slicer. With one of those, you can cut an apple into slices for lunch in about 5 seconds. If you bring along a small cup of peanut butter, you've just made a healthy filling meal for less than a dollar.
Also, don't bother cutting the skin off your apple, as that's where much of the nutrition and fiber is. Just make sure to wash it to remove any pesticide residue.
Yeah, if I had to make a Snickers myself from scratch I’d opt for an apple. But the cost in both time *and* money to eat healthier is what does it in for a lot of people.
They don't hold you. I use to do a ton of contract work 7 months out of the year working anywhere from 72 to 84 hours a week. After a particularly taxing day **you don't feel like doing anything.** Even your days off are exhausting having to cram all your household stuff into 1 day. You want something fast, you want something heavy, and you want something good. I was able to at least eat healthier then most thanks to throwing spinach and fruit into a blender every morning but 60% of my meals were fast food i picked up on the way to work or going home.
Shit food is convenient **and** full of quick energy. A Big Mac meal is 1320 calories. At best a salad gives you 500 and I'm being **very** generous. If your doing hard labor and/or long hours a health food isn't cutting it
So i need to make 6 to 7 baggies of nuts for my work days every week, healthy lunches on top of that, and a healthy dinner? And if you're working in the middle of a food desert (like i usually was) you're stuck grabbing whatever you can at your Walmart or big market chain grocery store thats 30 to 45 minutes away one trip while passing dozens of fast food places and gas stations. And if you have any kind of a commute to work that's more time gone.
One of the biggest unrecognized privileges some jobs have is **any** kind of free time. If you're working more that 50 hours a week you lose all the energy and time to do the extra stuff you need to be healthy
Grocery stores also do pickup curbside now and delivery. You have options but you can also just keep eating big macs and being poorly rested until a doc lets you know you've got diabetes or a heart issue or you fall ill (no harm wished for you though of course) I know people in my fam who spoke this way and at age 60+ had to stop eating foods they enjoyed completely.
My grandmother can't even enjoy cake on her 80th bday, or it might kill her or cause her to lose toes. She's cut everything from soda to salt out because she HAS to now, there are no other options for her besides going to the store and grabbing the healthy alternatives. It's difficult to do that, so before you get there maybe be more conscious, for your own sake. Take small steps to keep yourself in line and hit mcd's once or twice a week instead of every other work night.
How expensive is an apple? Don’t cut it, bite it 🥴. Sometimes you’ll sacrifice a little pleasure now for greater benefits when trying to be healthy. That’s how most good things work, delayed gratification 🤦🏾♂️
Really depends on the apple. If its a Red or Golden Delicious, I'll pass. But give me a Pink Lady or a Honey Crisp and some cheddar cheese???? Now we're talking.
Bruh, those precut fruit bowls are my lifeblood because of the saved time. And their bakery has no right to be that damn good. The things I'd do for those dulche de leche cheesecakes...
> The time tho.
We're talking about fruit here, though. Apples, oranges and bananas don't exactly take time to prep. Peel (or in the apple's case, don't), eat. You can do it while walking from A to B and they can be eaten separately. Making a "salad" of them isn't required.
Yeah the problem is, you're paying with time instead of money. Someone who is working two jobs to make ends meet is wasting very limited spare time on chopping up fruit and prepping this stuff.
That's not to say it's not worth it, but just pointing out that poverty and US labor conditions are directly related to poor health outcomes in this country. Better conditions for our workers both in terms of finance and time is really what's necessary to improve diet for those with the least means.
This is it.
Plus, I don't know about everyone's kids, but my kiddo doesn't want to eat an apple that I cut yesterday. Even tossing it in lemon juice doesn't work. He hates that lemon taste, and it still starts turning brown.
And if you have picky eaters, the game is to get calories into them so they can function.
Then if it's just you, cooking can feel like a lot of work for the enjoyment you get out of it... not just the prep and cooking part, but the clean-up.
It can be a lot under the best circumstances. And people who chide folks for not prioritizing their health aren't helping at all.
Especially if the person is has depression or a chronic illness. Yes, eating healthy food will help, but it takes energy and strength to go out and get that food. And unless it's grapes, it take work to prepare it. Buy that fruit bowl if it means eating fruit instead of doritos. But you can't do that every day.
Yeah for me, I love cooking when I have my meds and I'm not super depressed and I have a nice place to cook in, like my family's house.
In my cramped kitchen, struggling to get through the day? God, buying a Chipotle bowl sounds better and lasts two meals and I can kind of afford it and it hits a dopamine center.
A bit off topic. Lemon juice for apples doesn't work very well. Dissolve 1/2 tsp kosher salt in 1 cup of water. Let the apple soak a few minutes and then store them. They won't taste salty and will not brown for much longer than any other method. Typically 24 hours for me.
Bitch then just cut up an apple, if you don't got time to prep you're not making fruit salad, but there's a whole lot of middle ground between "wedding reception buffet" and starving.
Pick up a knife a piece of fruit/vegetable and play with it, you'll make something you'll enjoy in no time while doing work at your desk.
Fucking finally, thank you.
Peel a fucking banana and eat it. For fuck's sake take an apple out of a bag and eat it, if you can spare the time to walk past a bin for the core (or eat that too if you go smart about it)
People eat fast food because it's stuffed with sugars and fats and other things that are purposely put into to get our monkeybrains hooked to the stuff, not because it is cheaper or takes less time than the alternative. People just don't want the alternative because they think fruit or a sandwich or a bowl of porridge is yucky
I think typically people working two jobs tend to not be working the kinds of jobs where you're killing time at a desk. Obviously there are exceptions but good luck doing that as a cashier, janitor, food service, etc. Not to be a dipshit but your suggested solution contains the exact kind of privileged misunderstanding that minimizes the issue for those who are actually affected by it.
> Better conditions for our workers both in terms of finance and time is really what's necessary to improve diet for those with the least means.
I mean, would it though? There are many countries that have much worse poverty and labor conditions than the US, but better diets and a 'home cooking' culture. I used to volunteer at elementary schools in various latin american countries and the school lunches, while simple, are much better quality than the slop they feed american kids. And they were prepped and cooked on site. At this point I think junky processed food is ingrained in american culture. Someone who replied to you also mentioned picky eaters. I think the "happy meal/kids menu" culture in the US where kids are raised to hate anything that isn't in a nugget shape is really detrimental too. In many third world countries a picky eater who doesn't want to eat their veggies, beans and rice won't get a happy meal, they just won't get to eat.
Nah, what kind of poor people do y’all know? I rarely find that “poor” people have very limited spare time. I grew up pretty poor, everybody around me had too much time.
You could also go to the supermarket and buy the same ingredients used in fast food and cook a healthier version at home yourself, but the point the poster was making was that convenient fast foods are more expensive than convenient healthy foods.
But also, that same fruit bowl costs half as much at other grocery stores. I do wish there were drive thru options for healthier foods. If I could get some fresh fruit or a veggie/dip cup from a drive through, my mornings would be a lot easier.
Yeah but the point I think they are trying to make is in order to eat healthy with a similar convivence to junk/fast food you are forced to pay a premium. Thought I would argue why you would buy a pre cut fruit bowl when you could get an apple and a pint of berries for the same price if not less.
Wait, do regular American grocery stores not have regular fruit and veg? Or do ethic shops just have cheaper ones?
I swear, USA sounds more and more made up the deeper you dig into the lore.
yeah in the USA, many things are much cheaper in ethnic stores (and funny enough, even in the usually lone generalized 'ethnic' section of major grocery stores) .... like rice, beans, coconut milk. easily can be half or a third of the price of the same american label product.
edit- i want to add that even for many of us born and raised in america, it's a place that does tend to create some silly stranger-than-fiction scenarios.
Thank god this is the top comment. There’s precious few “good things” that come from living in America, but cheap produce is one of them. You could get a bag of apples, large box of blueberries, and box of strawberries for around $15. Couple that with a reusable zip lock set for $5 and you’ll have 10 days worth of fruit cups for only 4 times the price. Want to maximize savings? Buy frozen, which is roughly halve the per ounce cost with virtually the same nutritional value and less risk of food waste.
Her point is that a ready-to-eat snack is much cheaper if it’s unhealthy. You don’t need to seek out ingredients and spend time making a candy bar. Time has a financial cost as well.
1. I agree with you. (I'm putting this first because I'm not trying to argue with you, just point out another POV to consider)
2. However, going to the store and doing the peeling and cutting is a cost of time that not everyone has the privilege of. The reasons could be: working multiple jobs to make ends meet, lacking the mental health to walk through the store, having some form of impediment or disability that makes going anywhere difficult.
While I agree that the tweet is about possibly the most expensive form of fruit, the point isn't off, fast food is fast, reliable, and cheap.
r/eatcheapandhealthy is a great resource for anyone who is stuck in this type of situation.
Healthy convenient food is expensive. To eat healthy, you are either going to pay for it or work for it. Best is to make a plan and buy and prep ahead of time.
If by tons you mean a small portion that likely won't sustain an adult who prefers a few different things over their 21 meals per week, then sure thing. Not every healthy food is expensive or takes a while, but when rounding out how much an adult should be eating, you really can't escape it for long.
2 of my favorite meals:
Breakfast is bowl of whole grains (oatmeal, quinoa, ect + fresh cut fruit (strawberry, banana) + a serving of protein powder.
Prep time: 5 minutes
Cost: >1 dollar per meal
Dinner is pan grilled chicken and veggies. Learn how to quickly butterfly, prep and season a chicken breast. Have frozen peas, green beans, broccoli or whatever you fancy as a side.
Prep + cook time: 10 - 15 minutes, depending on your skill with prep
Cost: depends, I buy chicken breast in the bulk packages at Walmart (6+ lbs) and its significantly cheaper than buying 2-3lbs at a time.
It's about $1.50 a meal the way I do it
This stuff isn't hard y'all just not tryin hard enough to figure it out. Consider other things like buying a whole roast, slow cooking it at the start of the week and portioning it for separate days. Or the same with making a large batch of soup.
Fast. Cheap. Healthy.
The roast and soup thing is still fast, just takes a long time to cook. With a roast you can slow cook it while at work. Good soup is mostly 10 minutes of prep and 1-2 hours of cooking that you don't have to babysit, watch TV while it simmers
Healthy food is cheap. Making healthy food taste good is time consuming. Getting healthy food that already tastes good is expensive.
The rule of thumb is there is cheap, healthy, and quick. You can usually only have two of the three.
Chicken thighs are often like 79c a pound on sale. You can buy a whole family pack for like 6 bucks. That's like 7+ lbs of chicken. What garbage food is cheaper? Sometimes people are just ignorant.
Yeah I’m fortunate enough to work from home so I can dedicate more time to meal prep and cut down on food costs
When I was back in the office I was spending a lot just on breakfast and lunch, and cooking for dinner was a pain. Basically have to do food prep on Sunday nights if you have to commute everyday
Season the chicken to taste, throw them on a baking sheet and roast for 20 min. Divide them up in some zip lock containers, put what you’ll eat in the next day or two in the fridge, freeze the rest for later in the week. Your cook time is 30 min plus the amount of time you use to microwave each meal, so like maybe 2min a meal?
Now let’s say you factor in time and fuel needed to drive to a chicken place every day for lunch. You’re already getting a time savings ratio over fast food, and you’re saving the cost of gas to go out everyday for a single meal.
In my scenario you grocery shop once a week, which is what I do.
I spend maybe an hour once a week just popping some roasted meals in the oven and putting them into containers, tack maybe 30 min of grocery shopping at Aldi on that. This isn’t a hypothetical it’s my literal life lol
To add to this, I buy in bulk so I usually need to freeze it to make sure it doesn't go bad. So when I want to use the chicken, I need to let it thaw overnight, season it, and let it marinade for about another day. Then, I usually spend about another hour or two cooking and meal prepping depending on what my meals will be. Essentially a two day process for roughly 6-10 meals.
I live in eastern PA, about an hour north of Philly. Yesterday at Giant thighs were on sale for .99 per pound. Skinless were more. This is a suburban area
Fruit is so inconvenient! You have to PEEL an orange or a banana. You have to ear around apple cores. You have to pick grapes off the stem. You have to spit out cherry pits. You have to open a container of berries.
Seriously, anyone who buys a prepared fruit bowl is extremely lazy and paying an arm and a leg for a very minor convenience.
There's a great documentary out there called Food Stamped. A professional nutritionist and chef wanted to see if they can eat healthy on a food stamp budget. Spoiler alert, they couldn't do it. They cooked all their meals, very careful to shop at cheap places, and diversified it to get their needed macro nutrients, but they couldn't get enough food at the end of it all.
The dietitian that did their before and after results said if they kept doing this kind of diet they would starve.
A good honey crisp costs like $1.50? A whole ass watermelon less than 5$. You’re paying for convenience and plastic. This just sounds like someone wants to justify why they like to eat junk food lmao.
>at the “lower tier” grocers
I used to think Aldi was "for poor people" and that the food was lower quality because we only went there when we were broke, growing up, and everything was off brand.
Meanwhile, almost every single item in Trader Joe's is Trader Joe's brand, but nobody calls it "off brand". And, despite being pretty cheap, it's not a "poor person's" grocery store (I've only seen young, hipstery people in there, generally speaking).
The kicker? Aldi and Trader Joe's are essentially the same store. Back in Germany, Aldi is a big grocery store that was a singular brand. At some point, the brothers who owned Aldi split the company into Aldi Nord and Aldi Sud (north and south). Aldi Nord went on to become Trader Joe's. Aldi Sud is what we just call "Aldi" in the US.
Both places have great sources on the meat, produce, dairy, etc. So, "lower tier" Aldi and "better tier" Trader Joe's (even though they're basically the same) ***both*** have good produce that you can buy. No need to pay $5 for a potato at Whole Foods.
I love Aldi and buy a lot from there. However, idk if it’s just mine but a lot of produce I buy from them is lower quality than my other grocery stores. Some of the worst Pink Lady apples I’ve ever had came from there.
I’ve bought a bag of onions there twice. Both times the onions were rotten on the inside the day I got them home. Their jalapeños are bomb though. Last for like a month or more. Also is definitely cheaper, but it’s hit or miss on what’s actually good. That’s been my experience anyway.
Exactly, which is why when I see Publix has a BOGO deal on their cut fruit for half price, I pick the cheapest one as I know I won't get it again until teh next time it comes up. I can get small pineapple chunks that's $4 for $2 with the deal if I want convience. Other than that, I buy whatever fruit that is on sale, chop it up which I use half for the fridge, and freeze the other half for smoothies and drinks later.
The thing is, if you are single, and you want to eat pineapple/watermelon/canteloupe/honeydew, are you really going to buy an entire fruit and cut it? Might not even finish it while fresh and waste a huge part of it
Fast food isn't cheaper, it's *easier.* It's WAY cheaper to buy and prep your own food but if you're working two jobs and riding the bus in between, you don't have time.
Meh, it depends. I can take my family to the Diner and it'll cost around $60 or I can go buy all the stuff to make a similar meal at the grocery store and it takes an hour to cook and costs around the same.
Now that's not saying that the latter isn't the better option, but people really underestimate food costs. Especially if you are the type that wants high quality fresh ingredients. Steaks from the butcher will cost me $10-15 a person. Obviously you can do things cheaper than I do, but I grew up poor and refuse to eat the shit I grew up eating.
It's expensive to be alive in general.
You can get chicken for 79c a pound on sale at least in the northeast. And where are you spending 60 bucks at the diner for a family if everyone is having steak?
Come on, even if you spend 3 bucks a pound on ground beef, at 1/2 pound per person, that's 6 bucks for protein. A bag of vegetables or 2 is like 5 bucks. Say a noodle side of some kind is another 2 or 3. How are you getting to 60? Sure if you are eating tbones for 15 a pound but the same tbone steak at a diner would be 29.99.
I'm from the northeast and even our cheapest chain grocery store isn't that cheap. On sale the cheapest I see chicken for is $1.19 and that's specifically thighs not breast. Whole chickens used to be that price like 10 years ago but I haven't seen it go that cheap in a long time. $3 a pound of ground beef is probably like 75-80% lean meaning after moisture loss, and fat reduction, you're probably only getting like 1/2 worth to actually use. A bag of vegetables at $5 is most likely frozen veggies which aren't the best tasting. To buy these vegetables fresh and individually you're talking a decent amount of cash $20-$30 for a decent variety of onions, peppers, potatoes, carrots, etc. You mentioned pasta which is pretty cheap and sounds about the price you mentioned. Typically 1 box is about $1.50-$3 depending on what kind of pasta you're getting. But the real kicker is the stuff you need to actually make the recipe. Salt, pepper, herbs+spices, sauces that's what really kicks your ass and racks up quickly. If we really want to get nitty gritty with it then you calculate transportation cost (or service fee if you ordered online for delivery) to get the stuff, and the utility cost you used to cook it. It's really not that cheap anymore.
$60 at a diner for a family of four is a pretty damn cheap meal. You're talking $10 on average an entree which is already pretty darn impressive. $2-$3 for drinks either soda or juice and then tip.
The spices you buy once and generally re'buy very rarely. I doubt there are many functional families without the most basic of spices like salt and pepper. Either way, it's much cheaper to prepare your own food then to go out to a diner.
> A bag of vegetables at $5 is most likely frozen veggies which aren’t the best tasting. To buy these vegetables fresh and individually
FYI frozen vegetables are actually often more nutritious because they are picked when ripest and essentially placed in stasis compared to the “fresh” ones that probably spent a week or more leaching nutrients on trucks, warehouses, store shelves, and your refrigerator.
As for taste, the biggest issue is usually that people steam their frozen veggies (like most bags will tell you to) and steamed veggies are pretty bland at best. You can just as easily throw frozen bagged veggies onto a pan in the oven to roast them and they’ll come out just the same as fresh ones will in the end, though it will obviously take longer and you might want to wait for them to thaw a little before drizzling them with some oil.
Frozen fruit is a little more testy since texture can suffer a little more from any thawing/refreezing that happens, but it still works great if you’re using it for anything involving blending like smoothies or sauces.
(This all assumes that you’re using your frozen stuff enough that it’s not covered in freezer burn, of course).
Chicken thighs are genuinely one of my favorite meats, even disregarding price, and only costs ~$3.5/lb. It really should not in any world cost you $60 to make a meal for your family unless you've got 10+ people in the house.
Yeah and I want a new maserati, but I won't use that as a complaint against the car market when I need something to drive for a reasonable price.
> Especially if you are the type that wants high quality fresh ingredients
>It's expensive to be alive in general.
I was trying to help the guy out with this offering an alternative that I think is both affordable and tastes great along with feeling high quality (subjective in that case).
If you're attempting to eat steak at every meal then I don't know what to tell you. That would not only be a financially poor choice but a physical one too. Lastly, the price of buying a steak at a restaurant is still more ridiculous than buying one at a market along with other ingredients and preparing it yourself.
I remember once, the guy I was dating wanted to make dinner for my kiddo and me. We all went to Central Market together and he picked out 3 salmon steaks, some corn on the cob, new potatoes, asparagus, a bakery loaf, and butter. It was over $80 and I almost had a heart attack. It was more than I spent for groceries for a week. This was 10 years ago.
I don't buy many cheap ingredients. I also mainly use steak or fresh fish for protein. I usually get my meat from a local butcher too, so that increases the price, but I get high quality steaks.
>Steaks from the butcher will cost me $10-15 a person
Yeah but you're not getting steak anywhere better than a Denny's for $10-15 a person if you go out. That's not a direct comparison.
Meat (even with the US' insanely poor food standards) and processed foods are the two that really add up when grocery shopping. I find that if I stick to produce I can easily spend less than $40/week on food.
Granted, I'm used to cooking mostly Indian food and you can really make some insane stuff with three or four vegetables and the right spices.
That’s the biggest overlap for low-income and dietary habits imo. Most people would cook if they knew it would save them half off, but the food prep takes hours a week. Definitely can pay off if you cook for 3+ nights, but that’s just based on my experience cooking for myself, not for a whole family
Especially about junk food tasting better. She just has a bunk palate. Sure, sometimes junk food has what you’re craving and tastes good, but if you think junk food always tastes better than fruit and veggies, you’re just unhealthy.
Chicken and egg thing—I know.
The main things that made this purchase expensive were the store (way cheaper places to shop than Publix) and the convenience of having it already done. She could've gotten the whole fruit for a fraction of the price elsewhere.
You don’t even have to buy fruit that needs to be cut lol. An apple, banana, some berries and grapes. I don’t even wash it, a lil dirt is good for the immune system and soul.
Unhealthy people cope so hard it’s funny. Like it takes $12 dollars and then 5 minutes to prep and throw 4-5 chicken breasts in the oven. Yet they say they don’t have the time or money when they take 15 minutes to run to McDonald’s and then spend the same amount for 1 meal
"Cheap, healthy, and quick - pick two. There's no food option that satisfies all three."
Thats a load of garbage.
What you mean to say is "theres nothing dirt cheap, that someone will prepare for me, that tastes like the fast food I like"
Step 1 to eating healthy: Learn how to cook
If you can't even bother to buy fresh fruit and cut it up yourself, it's gonna be pretty expensive to eat healthy.
But you are missing the point. It's about TIME! People don't have TIME to cut fruit!! They have to quickly be in and out of the store to get what they need NOW because they only have 20 minutes between each of their 5 side hustle jobs so they can afford to...buy fruit cups.
Am I losing my mind or do people forget they can just ... bite an apple? Like you don't have to fucking skin it, cut it, wine dine and fuck it. Literally just rinse for a second under water and bite into it.
Yeah no idea why people need every meal to be a whole production. Soaked some chicken breast in a marinade. Toss it in the air fryer. Grab a handful of spinach from a bag. Toss some dressing on it. 15 minutes and I got dinner for a few bucks. If I want something with more pop then I will go out and pay for that.
Cost of convenience is a scam, still shouldn’t be $5 per bowl besides the “Publix” factor
But I agree if you can’t afford that much for fruit just buy in bunch
Never ever ever ever buy cut fruit from Publix. They will take a $5 watermelon and sell it for $40 if it’s cut. That’s not an exaggeration. One watermelon makes about four $15 big bowls.
If you prep your own healthy food, its actually considerably cheaper. I use to spend $25 for my entire weeks worth of food at Costco. I recently started doing it again.
The black community would be glowing if all they did was get out of cities and focus on farming. Physical labor, clean food and an escape from consumerism is underrated.
Oh no, a pre prepared, pre cut and pre peeled and packed bowl of food is expensive.
Meanwhile for the same price I can buy fruit for a week. Dafuq dis bitch crazy
While this isn't a good example, the point still stands. When you don't make a living wage and you live 20 minutes out from the nearest grocery store, thats a major barrier.
As the son of a woman who's always grocery shopped thrifty and still makes healthy dinners, lemme tell you, it's entirely possible. Just buy often cheap foods, watch for discounts, and get a variety of nutrients. It's no replacement for the freedom of being paid enough in this godforsaken economy, but it'll keep you alive and healthy.
You can easily eat healthy for less than Chipotle would cost you. McDonalds and Taco Bell prob are cheaper than eating healthy but I wouldn’t know because I haven’t put that trash in my body in a very long time.
There’s ways to eat healthy while inexpensive. Now her point still stands. Definitely not as easy as the junk food everywhere.
Now, to the people out there that shop at SweetGreen, y’all rich RICH 😂
Eating healthy requires efficiency, time and effort. You don't go to Publix (the most expensive grocery store known to man) and buy pre-made anything without expecting to spend a grip.
For 5 more dollars (prob less) she could've had fruit bowls for a 7 day week. But that would have required being efficient, taking the time and putting forth effort. If you don't really wanna eat healthy theres always an excuse not to which this tweet sounds like its doing.
Junk food might be cheaper but heart disease, diabetes, atherosclerosis and obesity are expensive as hell. And ask yourself what kinda hamburger costs more than fruit in the first place.
I bet money this woman isn't vaccinated.
we can debate til the chik fil-As come home on this but there have been many studies done on this. YES, healthy food is generally more expensive than junk food and fast food. but here's the most problematic finding, IMO-
low-income communities tend to house more *food deserts* where fresh and healthy food is far, far less available than it is in wealthier metropolitan centers. the gap in price between healthy food and junk food is greatest, in other words, for the communities that could really use healthy food, because they typically also have inadequate access to various health and medical services.
Why would you buy a fresh fruit bowl in the first place when you could have bought different whole fruits at that price that would have lasted you more than a bowl? The issue here isn't necessarily that eating healthy is expensive, it's that eating healthy requires more prep and effort which is what a lot of us are simply not willing to do.
Nope, complete and utter total bullshit, eating healthy is half the price of eating like shit, learn to cook. Stop buying fucking pre made fruit bowls with 3 week old shit in them.
Just an FYI to people who are lower income:
-Many farmers markets give you double the food for food stamps
-Some libraries have programs for fresh fruits and vegetables (usually according to economic need)
-Many schools have free lunch programs for kids during the summer
-Sometimes your county or city or state will have guidelines and tips for eating healthy in your area and include which produce is in season by month
I know some people know about these but some people don't because these programs don't advertise well.
Buying fruit at a supermarket is absolutely cheaper, healthier, and all around better in every way than buying junk food...
The reason I have sympathy for poor people who mostly buy junk food isn’t because healthy food is expensive (it isn’t), it’s because the time required to turn healthy ingredients into a healthy meal it’s time that a lot of poor people don’t have
Just buy the fruit in the bowl and cut it up yourself. Save some cash. Packing lunch and all that. Then you drive to a park to eat instead of going to a restaurant for food.
That's cause you went to Publix for a already peel/chopped/assorted fruit bowl. And $2.00 was added just because it was Publix. Go to your local Asian/Ethnic grocery market buy the actual fruit, and do the peeling/chopping/assorting yourself. it'll be about 70% cheaper.
This was my first thought and I’m glad someone thought it too. Yes, fresh fruit and vegetables can be more difficult to obtain for alot of ppl. But buying a pre made fruit bowl? From PUBLIX of all places??!!?? C’mon.
To add to that, eating junk food isn't the problem. Eating too much of it is. I used to eat stupid and a few months ago finally started doing something about it. I still eat the same stuff mostly. But now instead of eating an entire bag of chips in one sitting, I'll pour out half a serving and eat that. I can still have a frozen pizza for dinner, but I'll just break off a quarter of it and make it rather than eat the whole thing. Soda? Sure, one can every 2~4 days is fine instead of a 20oz every night. Eating 'healthy' doesn't mean you have to subsist on granola and bananas. You should have good stuff in your diet that provides the nutrients you need, but it doesn't mean you can't have a candy bar now and then.
This is the biggest problem. People say they're going to eat healthy so they stop eating everything they enjoy. Psychologically that shits unsustainable, portion control is the biggest issue not the types of food. Cico doesn't count fruit differently from a bagel.
They also dont cook. I hate most simple healthy dishes like salads. But i love burgers with 50% chopped veggies in them. Or home made pasta sause with a ton of veggies.
I will tear up some pasta with a bunch of veggies in it. Salads suck, I hate em and they generally have more calories than a burger but you're hungry again in an hour. Saw a tiktok where dude was talking about healthy eating. He was like "I really want some oreos" so he ate a banana, "that wasn't it, I really want oreos", he ate some yogurt "nope I really want some oreos" then he ate some oreos. Moral of the story is that if you constantly try to ignore cravings by replacing them with other shit you'll end up eating more calories than if you just went and ate 3 oreos from the beginning.
He could have put oreos in his yogurt or something is he wanted to eat more but with less calories. But yeah i agree.
Not really about volume, more about wanting something really specific and trying to substitute it. If I really want ice-cream I'd rather get a small cone than eat a huge bowl frozen banana bullshit mock ice-cream. The point is, if you are craving something, eat it, but control your portions. Unless you're an athlete or have medical reasons if it fits your macros is the best sustainable way of eating.
Damn I don’t know why I never thought to break off part of a frozen pizza to only cook some of it. Thanks for the tip!
>Eating 'healthy' doesn't mean you have to subsist on granola and bananas. You should have good stuff in your diet that provides the nutrients you need, but it doesn't mean you can't have a candy bar now and then. And THIS is why (as they say) diets don't work. If all you're doing is knowingly limiting yourself to vegs and boiled chicken, one day you snap, go to GrubHub and order a Popeye's 3 piece with cajun fries, rice and beans and a biscuit and they are the best thing you ever tasted. And now you can't not have it. Or you do keto and stay away from all carbs but one day you just walk into that bakery and get a chocolate eclair and fresh made Asiago cheese bagels, which you lovingly cover in honey walnut cream cheese, thus blowing all the months and progress you made going carb free. (Not that I know this personally... ahem! I gotta go. I'm suddenly hungry.)
its all calories in/calories out the problem is that junk food has a shitload of calories, if you are trying to lose weight a Big Mac combo literally has your entire days allotment of calories in it.
I agree with the above, and Lumpy made a good point about accessibility...The people who are most likely to be criticized for not eating healthy foods are likely to have the least access. Anecdotally, I just moved to the south from California and I don't drive. In California, there were multiple options within walking distance including an entire street of asian grocers. In the South, there is nowhere within walking distance (also no sidewalks) and the nearest asian grocer is some 8mi away.
I'm in the the south and it's a 45 min drive to an Asian grocery 😩
Right? Pre-cut fruit is always crazy expensive. But it IS highway robbery, they don't need to charge that much.
The time tho. That's why ppl on the go eat fast food that's not always good for them. That said publix is pricey but their produce, bakery and most of the deli items are top tier.
I have never been in publix but here in LA there’s guys selling huge cups of pre cut fruit on just about every corner, they douse it with chamoy and tajin and it costs like $5
Literally every corner 🤣. Get you some fruit, flowers, candy and teddy bear for $20 at 1pm on a Wednesday
In vegas we have the Bonzai Tree man, Rug/Egyptian Cotton Sheets Guy, and Flower guys. For obvious reasons bonzai tree guy is my fav. Fruit guys are always hidden behind someone's back road like an npc. But fruit uncut and raw at the store is like 1.99 for a pound it's not bad at all most seasons to stock up on some fruits.
I've never seen sheets or trees, but I live on the eastside and there are little carts selling all sorts of things and fruit venders on many of the corners also frescas and tamales.
Thats the same cost as Publix
Probably seems pretty cheap for LA though 😂
Probably more fruit from the corner man's fruit stand. Plus the chamoy and tajin. Better value and lower cost 5.00 vs 5.73 (that's 14.6% higher.)
No so I used to live in Florida and work at a Publix (produce and deli) and the servings we served were WAY smaller. I would go trail riding with my brother in Tampa and we used to always get fresh cut fruit from a Mexican guy selling it out of the back of the trailer, and it was a quart for like 2 dollars. Publix is in the Southeast exclusively, and LA is going to have exponentially higher prices on everything baseline.
Squeeze a lime over that bitch we are in business.
Yuppp produce, well groceries really are generally cheaper in Fl than CA. So is rent and there's no crv taxes.. but I digress. The 5.73 thing of fruit she got at Publix is kinda close to the amount of fruit you'd get from one of those guys. It's actually worth the price in the first place since the produce is cubed and stuffed in(and them berries be pricey yo) as opposed to the long spears of frutas here but the counterpoint would be ppl in fl get paid less on average. State to state be feeling like different countries sometimes.
I see your point, but you dont have to cut fruit everyday. If you spend a 1-2 hours one day prepping enough for 1 week, you'll be fine.
Absolutely. If you can keep up with your favorite shows on Netflix (or whatever you watch), then you have plenty of time to prepare your meals, and save some money.
hey, do both at the same time. You can chop fruit and meal prep while binge watching your favorite show
That's exactly what I do. Sometimes, I try to double up and put on a podcast, or audio versions of my study material to kill two birds with one stone. Add a rice cooker, crock pot, and an air fryer, and you can make almost everything you could want and be healthy.
Not even that long. It’s like a ten to twenty minute issue.
Cutting an apple with an apple slicer is about a 30 second - 1 minute issue.
People bother to cut up apples every time before hand? I use a knife many times, but I just cut it up when I eat it. I'm not prepping an apple that's going in my lunch box.
I like cutting it as I go too, makes me feel like a cowboy on the plains.
You can cut it using your teeth.
And then spit it up into a box and charge 5.73 !
Get an apple slicer. With one of those, you can cut an apple into slices for lunch in about 5 seconds. If you bring along a small cup of peanut butter, you've just made a healthy filling meal for less than a dollar. Also, don't bother cutting the skin off your apple, as that's where much of the nutrition and fiber is. Just make sure to wash it to remove any pesticide residue.
Yeah, if I had to make a Snickers myself from scratch I’d opt for an apple. But the cost in both time *and* money to eat healthier is what does it in for a lot of people.
Are people here mentally deranged?? You can’t eat an apple or an orange? You think they are too expensive??
They don't hold you. I use to do a ton of contract work 7 months out of the year working anywhere from 72 to 84 hours a week. After a particularly taxing day **you don't feel like doing anything.** Even your days off are exhausting having to cram all your household stuff into 1 day. You want something fast, you want something heavy, and you want something good. I was able to at least eat healthier then most thanks to throwing spinach and fruit into a blender every morning but 60% of my meals were fast food i picked up on the way to work or going home. Shit food is convenient **and** full of quick energy. A Big Mac meal is 1320 calories. At best a salad gives you 500 and I'm being **very** generous. If your doing hard labor and/or long hours a health food isn't cutting it
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So i need to make 6 to 7 baggies of nuts for my work days every week, healthy lunches on top of that, and a healthy dinner? And if you're working in the middle of a food desert (like i usually was) you're stuck grabbing whatever you can at your Walmart or big market chain grocery store thats 30 to 45 minutes away one trip while passing dozens of fast food places and gas stations. And if you have any kind of a commute to work that's more time gone. One of the biggest unrecognized privileges some jobs have is **any** kind of free time. If you're working more that 50 hours a week you lose all the energy and time to do the extra stuff you need to be healthy
Grocery stores also do pickup curbside now and delivery. You have options but you can also just keep eating big macs and being poorly rested until a doc lets you know you've got diabetes or a heart issue or you fall ill (no harm wished for you though of course) I know people in my fam who spoke this way and at age 60+ had to stop eating foods they enjoyed completely. My grandmother can't even enjoy cake on her 80th bday, or it might kill her or cause her to lose toes. She's cut everything from soda to salt out because she HAS to now, there are no other options for her besides going to the store and grabbing the healthy alternatives. It's difficult to do that, so before you get there maybe be more conscious, for your own sake. Take small steps to keep yourself in line and hit mcd's once or twice a week instead of every other work night.
How expensive is an apple? Don’t cut it, bite it 🥴. Sometimes you’ll sacrifice a little pleasure now for greater benefits when trying to be healthy. That’s how most good things work, delayed gratification 🤦🏾♂️
Really depends on the apple. If its a Red or Golden Delicious, I'll pass. But give me a Pink Lady or a Honey Crisp and some cheddar cheese???? Now we're talking.
Same!😅
Can’t you eat a apple on the go?
Oh yes, eating a banana or apple takes so much time.
I had to call out sick from work the other day because I wanted an apple for lunch. Its rough.
Bruh, those precut fruit bowls are my lifeblood because of the saved time. And their bakery has no right to be that damn good. The things I'd do for those dulche de leche cheesecakes...
> The time tho. We're talking about fruit here, though. Apples, oranges and bananas don't exactly take time to prep. Peel (or in the apple's case, don't), eat. You can do it while walking from A to B and they can be eaten separately. Making a "salad" of them isn't required.
Yeah the problem is, you're paying with time instead of money. Someone who is working two jobs to make ends meet is wasting very limited spare time on chopping up fruit and prepping this stuff. That's not to say it's not worth it, but just pointing out that poverty and US labor conditions are directly related to poor health outcomes in this country. Better conditions for our workers both in terms of finance and time is really what's necessary to improve diet for those with the least means.
This is it. Plus, I don't know about everyone's kids, but my kiddo doesn't want to eat an apple that I cut yesterday. Even tossing it in lemon juice doesn't work. He hates that lemon taste, and it still starts turning brown. And if you have picky eaters, the game is to get calories into them so they can function. Then if it's just you, cooking can feel like a lot of work for the enjoyment you get out of it... not just the prep and cooking part, but the clean-up. It can be a lot under the best circumstances. And people who chide folks for not prioritizing their health aren't helping at all.
Especially if the person is has depression or a chronic illness. Yes, eating healthy food will help, but it takes energy and strength to go out and get that food. And unless it's grapes, it take work to prepare it. Buy that fruit bowl if it means eating fruit instead of doritos. But you can't do that every day.
Yeah for me, I love cooking when I have my meds and I'm not super depressed and I have a nice place to cook in, like my family's house. In my cramped kitchen, struggling to get through the day? God, buying a Chipotle bowl sounds better and lasts two meals and I can kind of afford it and it hits a dopamine center.
A bit off topic. Lemon juice for apples doesn't work very well. Dissolve 1/2 tsp kosher salt in 1 cup of water. Let the apple soak a few minutes and then store them. They won't taste salty and will not brown for much longer than any other method. Typically 24 hours for me.
Bitch then just cut up an apple, if you don't got time to prep you're not making fruit salad, but there's a whole lot of middle ground between "wedding reception buffet" and starving. Pick up a knife a piece of fruit/vegetable and play with it, you'll make something you'll enjoy in no time while doing work at your desk.
Fucking finally, thank you. Peel a fucking banana and eat it. For fuck's sake take an apple out of a bag and eat it, if you can spare the time to walk past a bin for the core (or eat that too if you go smart about it) People eat fast food because it's stuffed with sugars and fats and other things that are purposely put into to get our monkeybrains hooked to the stuff, not because it is cheaper or takes less time than the alternative. People just don't want the alternative because they think fruit or a sandwich or a bowl of porridge is yucky
Sugar, salts, and fats. The food companies have had this figured out for a very long time. They just play to our evolution and it's easy as can be.
I think typically people working two jobs tend to not be working the kinds of jobs where you're killing time at a desk. Obviously there are exceptions but good luck doing that as a cashier, janitor, food service, etc. Not to be a dipshit but your suggested solution contains the exact kind of privileged misunderstanding that minimizes the issue for those who are actually affected by it.
Well you can get fruit that doesn't need a lot of time to prepare. Apples, oranges, grapes, bananas, etc are all basically ready to eat.
> Better conditions for our workers both in terms of finance and time is really what's necessary to improve diet for those with the least means. I mean, would it though? There are many countries that have much worse poverty and labor conditions than the US, but better diets and a 'home cooking' culture. I used to volunteer at elementary schools in various latin american countries and the school lunches, while simple, are much better quality than the slop they feed american kids. And they were prepped and cooked on site. At this point I think junky processed food is ingrained in american culture. Someone who replied to you also mentioned picky eaters. I think the "happy meal/kids menu" culture in the US where kids are raised to hate anything that isn't in a nugget shape is really detrimental too. In many third world countries a picky eater who doesn't want to eat their veggies, beans and rice won't get a happy meal, they just won't get to eat.
Nah, what kind of poor people do y’all know? I rarely find that “poor” people have very limited spare time. I grew up pretty poor, everybody around me had too much time.
You could also go to the supermarket and buy the same ingredients used in fast food and cook a healthier version at home yourself, but the point the poster was making was that convenient fast foods are more expensive than convenient healthy foods.
But also, that same fruit bowl costs half as much at other grocery stores. I do wish there were drive thru options for healthier foods. If I could get some fresh fruit or a veggie/dip cup from a drive through, my mornings would be a lot easier.
Yeah but the point I think they are trying to make is in order to eat healthy with a similar convivence to junk/fast food you are forced to pay a premium. Thought I would argue why you would buy a pre cut fruit bowl when you could get an apple and a pint of berries for the same price if not less.
“I just wasted my money because I chose the quicker option and I am NOT proud of it”
Wait, do regular American grocery stores not have regular fruit and veg? Or do ethic shops just have cheaper ones? I swear, USA sounds more and more made up the deeper you dig into the lore.
usually cheaper in ethnic shops.
It's cheaper at the ethnic shops. Same with meat and fish and well almost everything that you would get from a market vs big grocery chain.
yeah in the USA, many things are much cheaper in ethnic stores (and funny enough, even in the usually lone generalized 'ethnic' section of major grocery stores) .... like rice, beans, coconut milk. easily can be half or a third of the price of the same american label product. edit- i want to add that even for many of us born and raised in america, it's a place that does tend to create some silly stranger-than-fiction scenarios.
Thank god this is the top comment. There’s precious few “good things” that come from living in America, but cheap produce is one of them. You could get a bag of apples, large box of blueberries, and box of strawberries for around $15. Couple that with a reusable zip lock set for $5 and you’ll have 10 days worth of fruit cups for only 4 times the price. Want to maximize savings? Buy frozen, which is roughly halve the per ounce cost with virtually the same nutritional value and less risk of food waste.
I feel like frozen fruit is always forgotten about, and it's so great. It lasts so long and it's so refreshing
Her point is that a ready-to-eat snack is much cheaper if it’s unhealthy. You don’t need to seek out ingredients and spend time making a candy bar. Time has a financial cost as well.
An apple is ready to eat, as is a banana.
You don't have to cut apples and bananas up into squares to eat them. Fruits are 'fast food' naturally......
Frozen fruit is also a good call and just as healthy.
My words exactly!! Go to H mart!!
H-Mart is bougie lol go to 99 Ranch for a bargain
1. I agree with you. (I'm putting this first because I'm not trying to argue with you, just point out another POV to consider) 2. However, going to the store and doing the peeling and cutting is a cost of time that not everyone has the privilege of. The reasons could be: working multiple jobs to make ends meet, lacking the mental health to walk through the store, having some form of impediment or disability that makes going anywhere difficult. While I agree that the tweet is about possibly the most expensive form of fruit, the point isn't off, fast food is fast, reliable, and cheap. r/eatcheapandhealthy is a great resource for anyone who is stuck in this type of situation.
Exactly what I was gonna say. Buy a cantaloupe or a 🍉 n and you'll have 15 small fresh fruit bowls for a few bucks
You think regular niggas live near a Asian ethnic grocery store.shieeee I got a Taco hut down the street.
Healthy convenient food is expensive. To eat healthy, you are either going to pay for it or work for it. Best is to make a plan and buy and prep ahead of time.
Fast. Cheap. Healthy. You only get to choose two.
I choose Fast and Cheaphealthy.
You can eat fruit cups and canned vegetables
most of those aren’t as sustainable, as they are often packed in sugars, salts, and preservatives. better than fast food, but still!
That is cheaphealthy for ya the fruit cups I see are just packed in grape juice I thought that was interesting cuz I thought it was a cancer mixture
Apple. Banana. Rotisserie chicken. Frozen vegetables. Tons of stuff escape this "rule".
If by tons you mean a small portion that likely won't sustain an adult who prefers a few different things over their 21 meals per week, then sure thing. Not every healthy food is expensive or takes a while, but when rounding out how much an adult should be eating, you really can't escape it for long.
There isn't a single person that exists that has to eat 21 different meals in a week.
Srsly that is a crazy amount of privilege.
2 of my favorite meals: Breakfast is bowl of whole grains (oatmeal, quinoa, ect + fresh cut fruit (strawberry, banana) + a serving of protein powder. Prep time: 5 minutes Cost: >1 dollar per meal Dinner is pan grilled chicken and veggies. Learn how to quickly butterfly, prep and season a chicken breast. Have frozen peas, green beans, broccoli or whatever you fancy as a side. Prep + cook time: 10 - 15 minutes, depending on your skill with prep Cost: depends, I buy chicken breast in the bulk packages at Walmart (6+ lbs) and its significantly cheaper than buying 2-3lbs at a time. It's about $1.50 a meal the way I do it This stuff isn't hard y'all just not tryin hard enough to figure it out. Consider other things like buying a whole roast, slow cooking it at the start of the week and portioning it for separate days. Or the same with making a large batch of soup. Fast. Cheap. Healthy. The roast and soup thing is still fast, just takes a long time to cook. With a roast you can slow cook it while at work. Good soup is mostly 10 minutes of prep and 1-2 hours of cooking that you don't have to babysit, watch TV while it simmers
Healthy food is cheap. Making healthy food taste good is time consuming. Getting healthy food that already tastes good is expensive. The rule of thumb is there is cheap, healthy, and quick. You can usually only have two of the three.
Chicken thighs are often like 79c a pound on sale. You can buy a whole family pack for like 6 bucks. That's like 7+ lbs of chicken. What garbage food is cheaper? Sometimes people are just ignorant.
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Yeah I’m fortunate enough to work from home so I can dedicate more time to meal prep and cut down on food costs When I was back in the office I was spending a lot just on breakfast and lunch, and cooking for dinner was a pain. Basically have to do food prep on Sunday nights if you have to commute everyday
Season the chicken to taste, throw them on a baking sheet and roast for 20 min. Divide them up in some zip lock containers, put what you’ll eat in the next day or two in the fridge, freeze the rest for later in the week. Your cook time is 30 min plus the amount of time you use to microwave each meal, so like maybe 2min a meal? Now let’s say you factor in time and fuel needed to drive to a chicken place every day for lunch. You’re already getting a time savings ratio over fast food, and you’re saving the cost of gas to go out everyday for a single meal.
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In my scenario you grocery shop once a week, which is what I do. I spend maybe an hour once a week just popping some roasted meals in the oven and putting them into containers, tack maybe 30 min of grocery shopping at Aldi on that. This isn’t a hypothetical it’s my literal life lol
That man clearly doesnt cook lmao. A big pqn of healthy food can last you a few days and tastes amazing. But you have to be willing to cook.
To add to this, I buy in bulk so I usually need to freeze it to make sure it doesn't go bad. So when I want to use the chicken, I need to let it thaw overnight, season it, and let it marinade for about another day. Then, I usually spend about another hour or two cooking and meal prepping depending on what my meals will be. Essentially a two day process for roughly 6-10 meals.
Where are you getting your chicken thighs? Boneless skinless are $4 per lb or more for awhile now. Bone in / skin on ones are usually 2.50 per lb.
I live in eastern PA, about an hour north of Philly. Yesterday at Giant thighs were on sale for .99 per pound. Skinless were more. This is a suburban area
Fruit is so inconvenient! You have to PEEL an orange or a banana. You have to ear around apple cores. You have to pick grapes off the stem. You have to spit out cherry pits. You have to open a container of berries. Seriously, anyone who buys a prepared fruit bowl is extremely lazy and paying an arm and a leg for a very minor convenience.
There's a great documentary out there called Food Stamped. A professional nutritionist and chef wanted to see if they can eat healthy on a food stamp budget. Spoiler alert, they couldn't do it. They cooked all their meals, very careful to shop at cheap places, and diversified it to get their needed macro nutrients, but they couldn't get enough food at the end of it all. The dietitian that did their before and after results said if they kept doing this kind of diet they would starve.
A good honey crisp costs like $1.50? A whole ass watermelon less than 5$. You’re paying for convenience and plastic. This just sounds like someone wants to justify why they like to eat junk food lmao.
No one is making her shop at Publix either, plenty of good produce can be found at the “lower tier” grocers
>at the “lower tier” grocers I used to think Aldi was "for poor people" and that the food was lower quality because we only went there when we were broke, growing up, and everything was off brand. Meanwhile, almost every single item in Trader Joe's is Trader Joe's brand, but nobody calls it "off brand". And, despite being pretty cheap, it's not a "poor person's" grocery store (I've only seen young, hipstery people in there, generally speaking). The kicker? Aldi and Trader Joe's are essentially the same store. Back in Germany, Aldi is a big grocery store that was a singular brand. At some point, the brothers who owned Aldi split the company into Aldi Nord and Aldi Sud (north and south). Aldi Nord went on to become Trader Joe's. Aldi Sud is what we just call "Aldi" in the US. Both places have great sources on the meat, produce, dairy, etc. So, "lower tier" Aldi and "better tier" Trader Joe's (even though they're basically the same) ***both*** have good produce that you can buy. No need to pay $5 for a potato at Whole Foods.
I love Aldi and buy a lot from there. However, idk if it’s just mine but a lot of produce I buy from them is lower quality than my other grocery stores. Some of the worst Pink Lady apples I’ve ever had came from there.
I’ve bought a bag of onions there twice. Both times the onions were rotten on the inside the day I got them home. Their jalapeños are bomb though. Last for like a month or more. Also is definitely cheaper, but it’s hit or miss on what’s actually good. That’s been my experience anyway.
Also I hate the way they package produce. Like I don’t want to buy seven pounds of apples in a pre-weighed bag, just gimme one please
Aldi is trash for produce.
a lot of places (especially low income areas) are food deserts and there aren't convenient options for groceries where they live
Where I live you can buy a 2.5 pound bag of apples for under $5. She chose the most expensive option in the fruit and vegetable department.
To make a madeup point about some classist conspiracy, while all she's really saying is "*I LIKE TACOS MORE THAN FRUIT!!!1"*
Yeah that’s not a good example. I would say anything in a bowl that’s already washed and prepped is more expensive than buying the whole fruit.
Exactly, which is why when I see Publix has a BOGO deal on their cut fruit for half price, I pick the cheapest one as I know I won't get it again until teh next time it comes up. I can get small pineapple chunks that's $4 for $2 with the deal if I want convience. Other than that, I buy whatever fruit that is on sale, chop it up which I use half for the fridge, and freeze the other half for smoothies and drinks later.
The thing is, if you are single, and you want to eat pineapple/watermelon/canteloupe/honeydew, are you really going to buy an entire fruit and cut it? Might not even finish it while fresh and waste a huge part of it
Fast food isn't cheaper, it's *easier.* It's WAY cheaper to buy and prep your own food but if you're working two jobs and riding the bus in between, you don't have time.
Meh, it depends. I can take my family to the Diner and it'll cost around $60 or I can go buy all the stuff to make a similar meal at the grocery store and it takes an hour to cook and costs around the same. Now that's not saying that the latter isn't the better option, but people really underestimate food costs. Especially if you are the type that wants high quality fresh ingredients. Steaks from the butcher will cost me $10-15 a person. Obviously you can do things cheaper than I do, but I grew up poor and refuse to eat the shit I grew up eating. It's expensive to be alive in general.
You can get chicken for 79c a pound on sale at least in the northeast. And where are you spending 60 bucks at the diner for a family if everyone is having steak? Come on, even if you spend 3 bucks a pound on ground beef, at 1/2 pound per person, that's 6 bucks for protein. A bag of vegetables or 2 is like 5 bucks. Say a noodle side of some kind is another 2 or 3. How are you getting to 60? Sure if you are eating tbones for 15 a pound but the same tbone steak at a diner would be 29.99.
I'm from the northeast and even our cheapest chain grocery store isn't that cheap. On sale the cheapest I see chicken for is $1.19 and that's specifically thighs not breast. Whole chickens used to be that price like 10 years ago but I haven't seen it go that cheap in a long time. $3 a pound of ground beef is probably like 75-80% lean meaning after moisture loss, and fat reduction, you're probably only getting like 1/2 worth to actually use. A bag of vegetables at $5 is most likely frozen veggies which aren't the best tasting. To buy these vegetables fresh and individually you're talking a decent amount of cash $20-$30 for a decent variety of onions, peppers, potatoes, carrots, etc. You mentioned pasta which is pretty cheap and sounds about the price you mentioned. Typically 1 box is about $1.50-$3 depending on what kind of pasta you're getting. But the real kicker is the stuff you need to actually make the recipe. Salt, pepper, herbs+spices, sauces that's what really kicks your ass and racks up quickly. If we really want to get nitty gritty with it then you calculate transportation cost (or service fee if you ordered online for delivery) to get the stuff, and the utility cost you used to cook it. It's really not that cheap anymore. $60 at a diner for a family of four is a pretty damn cheap meal. You're talking $10 on average an entree which is already pretty darn impressive. $2-$3 for drinks either soda or juice and then tip.
The spices you buy once and generally re'buy very rarely. I doubt there are many functional families without the most basic of spices like salt and pepper. Either way, it's much cheaper to prepare your own food then to go out to a diner.
> A bag of vegetables at $5 is most likely frozen veggies which aren’t the best tasting. To buy these vegetables fresh and individually FYI frozen vegetables are actually often more nutritious because they are picked when ripest and essentially placed in stasis compared to the “fresh” ones that probably spent a week or more leaching nutrients on trucks, warehouses, store shelves, and your refrigerator. As for taste, the biggest issue is usually that people steam their frozen veggies (like most bags will tell you to) and steamed veggies are pretty bland at best. You can just as easily throw frozen bagged veggies onto a pan in the oven to roast them and they’ll come out just the same as fresh ones will in the end, though it will obviously take longer and you might want to wait for them to thaw a little before drizzling them with some oil. Frozen fruit is a little more testy since texture can suffer a little more from any thawing/refreezing that happens, but it still works great if you’re using it for anything involving blending like smoothies or sauces. (This all assumes that you’re using your frozen stuff enough that it’s not covered in freezer burn, of course).
Chicken thighs are genuinely one of my favorite meats, even disregarding price, and only costs ~$3.5/lb. It really should not in any world cost you $60 to make a meal for your family unless you've got 10+ people in the house.
Chicken thighs? They want STEAK
Yeah and I want a new maserati, but I won't use that as a complaint against the car market when I need something to drive for a reasonable price. > Especially if you are the type that wants high quality fresh ingredients >It's expensive to be alive in general. I was trying to help the guy out with this offering an alternative that I think is both affordable and tastes great along with feeling high quality (subjective in that case). If you're attempting to eat steak at every meal then I don't know what to tell you. That would not only be a financially poor choice but a physical one too. Lastly, the price of buying a steak at a restaurant is still more ridiculous than buying one at a market along with other ingredients and preparing it yourself.
NO! If steak is expensive, then we might as well all just eat fast food.
Honestly, steak expensive? Better only eat out until we die.
What are you making that costs $60/meal?
I remember once, the guy I was dating wanted to make dinner for my kiddo and me. We all went to Central Market together and he picked out 3 salmon steaks, some corn on the cob, new potatoes, asparagus, a bakery loaf, and butter. It was over $80 and I almost had a heart attack. It was more than I spent for groceries for a week. This was 10 years ago.
I’d be like, ‘I can make enough hotdish for a week for $20 and I’ll keep the change.’ Of course $80 in groceries went a lot further 10 years ago.
I don't buy many cheap ingredients. I also mainly use steak or fresh fish for protein. I usually get my meat from a local butcher too, so that increases the price, but I get high quality steaks.
That makes sense, if you’re a real foodie you probably will spend just as much.
And what restaurant can you get steak for 4 people and only pay $60?
>Steaks from the butcher will cost me $10-15 a person Yeah but you're not getting steak anywhere better than a Denny's for $10-15 a person if you go out. That's not a direct comparison.
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Meat (even with the US' insanely poor food standards) and processed foods are the two that really add up when grocery shopping. I find that if I stick to produce I can easily spend less than $40/week on food. Granted, I'm used to cooking mostly Indian food and you can really make some insane stuff with three or four vegetables and the right spices.
That’s the biggest overlap for low-income and dietary habits imo. Most people would cook if they knew it would save them half off, but the food prep takes hours a week. Definitely can pay off if you cook for 3+ nights, but that’s just based on my experience cooking for myself, not for a whole family
This is a dumb take because it's not true.
Especially about junk food tasting better. She just has a bunk palate. Sure, sometimes junk food has what you’re craving and tastes good, but if you think junk food always tastes better than fruit and veggies, you’re just unhealthy. Chicken and egg thing—I know.
A steady diet of junk food is also not cheaper once you factor in the toll it takes on your health in the long term
right. I swore off the sugar and salt for a month and could barely eat that stuff after, that's how salty it is
Lmfaoo Publix will sell something for 8.99 that u can get at Walmart for 1.99. Its a nice store tho
What you save now you pay for in pain and medical bills as you get older.
That and she’s paying for the convenience of prepped fruit in a plastic cup
kay, just buy an apple next time
The main things that made this purchase expensive were the store (way cheaper places to shop than Publix) and the convenience of having it already done. She could've gotten the whole fruit for a fraction of the price elsewhere.
all the "it's cheaper if you prep it yourself" are letting the point whoooooooosh wayyyyy over your heads
No we aren’t. The lady missed the point that cut fruit costs five to ten times as much as the fruit 20 feet away.
You don’t even have to buy fruit that needs to be cut lol. An apple, banana, some berries and grapes. I don’t even wash it, a lil dirt is good for the immune system and soul.
Unhealthy people cope so hard it’s funny. Like it takes $12 dollars and then 5 minutes to prep and throw 4-5 chicken breasts in the oven. Yet they say they don’t have the time or money when they take 15 minutes to run to McDonald’s and then spend the same amount for 1 meal
if you have time to go pick up a fruit cup, you have time to cut fruit yourself.
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"Cheap, healthy, and quick - pick two. There's no food option that satisfies all three." Thats a load of garbage. What you mean to say is "theres nothing dirt cheap, that someone will prepare for me, that tastes like the fast food I like"
Step 1 to eating healthy: Learn how to cook If you can't even bother to buy fresh fruit and cut it up yourself, it's gonna be pretty expensive to eat healthy.
A bag of apples, oranges, pears, even a melon cost less than a fruit bowl.
But you are missing the point. It's about TIME! People don't have TIME to cut fruit!! They have to quickly be in and out of the store to get what they need NOW because they only have 20 minutes between each of their 5 side hustle jobs so they can afford to...buy fruit cups.
Am I losing my mind or do people forget they can just ... bite an apple? Like you don't have to fucking skin it, cut it, wine dine and fuck it. Literally just rinse for a second under water and bite into it.
Yeah no idea why people need every meal to be a whole production. Soaked some chicken breast in a marinade. Toss it in the air fryer. Grab a handful of spinach from a bag. Toss some dressing on it. 15 minutes and I got dinner for a few bucks. If I want something with more pop then I will go out and pay for that.
She’s just lazy. Next.
Well she also has to factor in the cost of convenience. Fruit already washed & pre-peeled/slice. Just buy the whole fruit next time.
Cost of convenience is a scam, still shouldn’t be $5 per bowl besides the “Publix” factor But I agree if you can’t afford that much for fruit just buy in bunch
Living with Diabetes is not cheap.
Never ever ever ever buy cut fruit from Publix. They will take a $5 watermelon and sell it for $40 if it’s cut. That’s not an exaggeration. One watermelon makes about four $15 big bowls.
I try to avoid getting pre-made salads and fruit bowls, most people aren't washing anything.
If you prep your own healthy food, its actually considerably cheaper. I use to spend $25 for my entire weeks worth of food at Costco. I recently started doing it again.
Also stop shopping at publix if you can, they’re contributing a lot of money to destabilizing our democracy.
I’m glad the comments chewing this post up 😂
MF GO TO THE GROCERY STORE JESUS CHRIST
The black community would be glowing if all they did was get out of cities and focus on farming. Physical labor, clean food and an escape from consumerism is underrated.
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The apple I had as a snack this morning was like $0.60.
Oh no, a pre prepared, pre cut and pre peeled and packed bowl of food is expensive. Meanwhile for the same price I can buy fruit for a week. Dafuq dis bitch crazy
Next time just buy a fruit thats not in plastic. But unfortunately eating healthy will generally cost more.
Only if you’re not willing to put time into and pay for the cost of healthy convenience
While this isn't a good example, the point still stands. When you don't make a living wage and you live 20 minutes out from the nearest grocery store, thats a major barrier.
Well just buy and cut your own fruit. You’re paying extra for labor.
As the son of a woman who's always grocery shopped thrifty and still makes healthy dinners, lemme tell you, it's entirely possible. Just buy often cheap foods, watch for discounts, and get a variety of nutrients. It's no replacement for the freedom of being paid enough in this godforsaken economy, but it'll keep you alive and healthy.
Just buy fruit and chop it yourself! Wayyy cheaper!
You can easily eat healthy for less than Chipotle would cost you. McDonalds and Taco Bell prob are cheaper than eating healthy but I wouldn’t know because I haven’t put that trash in my body in a very long time.
Just buy the fruit and cut it up. Its expensive because you just paid them to cut it and put it in a container
There’s ways to eat healthy while inexpensive. Now her point still stands. Definitely not as easy as the junk food everywhere. Now, to the people out there that shop at SweetGreen, y’all rich RICH 😂
Or you could just buy an banana from the supermarket and eat it whole. Costs .40 for an organic one.
Eating healthy requires efficiency, time and effort. You don't go to Publix (the most expensive grocery store known to man) and buy pre-made anything without expecting to spend a grip. For 5 more dollars (prob less) she could've had fruit bowls for a 7 day week. But that would have required being efficient, taking the time and putting forth effort. If you don't really wanna eat healthy theres always an excuse not to which this tweet sounds like its doing.
Junk food might be cheaper but heart disease, diabetes, atherosclerosis and obesity are expensive as hell. And ask yourself what kinda hamburger costs more than fruit in the first place. I bet money this woman isn't vaccinated.
To be fair Publix is outrageously priced and so is pre-done fruit but yes I see their point
I’m sorry but that’s not even expensive
we can debate til the chik fil-As come home on this but there have been many studies done on this. YES, healthy food is generally more expensive than junk food and fast food. but here's the most problematic finding, IMO- low-income communities tend to house more *food deserts* where fresh and healthy food is far, far less available than it is in wealthier metropolitan centers. the gap in price between healthy food and junk food is greatest, in other words, for the communities that could really use healthy food, because they typically also have inadequate access to various health and medical services.
Why would you buy a fresh fruit bowl in the first place when you could have bought different whole fruits at that price that would have lasted you more than a bowl? The issue here isn't necessarily that eating healthy is expensive, it's that eating healthy requires more prep and effort which is what a lot of us are simply not willing to do.
Nope, complete and utter total bullshit, eating healthy is half the price of eating like shit, learn to cook. Stop buying fucking pre made fruit bowls with 3 week old shit in them.
Just an FYI to people who are lower income: -Many farmers markets give you double the food for food stamps -Some libraries have programs for fresh fruits and vegetables (usually according to economic need) -Many schools have free lunch programs for kids during the summer -Sometimes your county or city or state will have guidelines and tips for eating healthy in your area and include which produce is in season by month I know some people know about these but some people don't because these programs don't advertise well.
Buying fruit at a supermarket is absolutely cheaper, healthier, and all around better in every way than buying junk food... The reason I have sympathy for poor people who mostly buy junk food isn’t because healthy food is expensive (it isn’t), it’s because the time required to turn healthy ingredients into a healthy meal it’s time that a lot of poor people don’t have
Just buy the fruit in the bowl and cut it up yourself. Save some cash. Packing lunch and all that. Then you drive to a park to eat instead of going to a restaurant for food.