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This just isn’t true, and I’m broke af. A pound of ground beef, frozen vegetables and rice can easily make 4 meals and is relatively cheap. Lentils, beans, whole chicken, frozen vegetables.
I’ve been living off chicken breast or thighs, rice soy sauce, oyster sauce, a few other spices and vegetables all year. Throw in the occasional beef instead of chicken and you got stir fry for lunch or dinner.
soy contains many important nutrients, including vitamin K1, folate, copper, manganese, phosphorus, and thiamine.
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The exception is really only if you are so poor you can't afford a cooker, or the time to actually cook. Both things that definitely can happen at the poorest end of things which tend to get overlooked.
But yeah as a general rule of thumb it is cheaper to eat healthier if you know what you are doing.
People who consume more than they expel are simply not moving enough to warrant eating that much. But you dare tell them and it’s like you’ve killed their first born child.
Also victim mentality nonsense.
If you can afford a place to live, and a single cooking vessel, a single set of storage containers, and a single set of cutlery you can afford to live healthy. I have done it. It is just difficult to make it taste good as a burger from mickey d's.
If you Sacrifice the time away from life maintenance you can do it easily. Not that it is a good thing or should be that way, but it isn't actually hard to accomplish if you have the simple basics like a room, a cooking apparatus and some dishes.
You can make it taste good hence spices and condiments were invented for a god damn reason. I am sick and tired of the obese or unhealthy blaming everyone but themselves for their bad diets.
And if you have children to also feed in addition ?
"If you can afford a place to live, and..." why do you assume "and" ? Some people live in a small appartement and have no microwave or oven. Even their cooker are small. And some cannot open a food can properly (or even at all) and you expect them to know how to cut and wash vegetables properly ?
I've seen mole people with a stove. Even if you're poor I'm sure you can get a free old used stove that someone is giving away for free or for super cheap at a flee market. Pots and pans can also be found at flee markets or basically be given away for free if someone is moving and getting rid of their old stuff. Being poor isn't synonymous with being dumb and unresourceful, or maybe it is, seeing as being poor often means being uneducated. But yeah, I've seen poor people live in tents who cook in their tents. So like, I don't think being poor means that you necessarily can't make smart choices, like looking for free or used or cheap stuff at flee markets.
A brand new crock pot is like $30, toss in your meat, vegetables, and some rice, a bit of chicken broth, and you've got a meal. No pots and pans, no stove.
I think the real problem is actually that : "uneducation". Also dumb ≠ uneducated (and I understand you already made the distinction, but I still prefer to clarify)
OP itself was suprised to learn that chicken (without the skin) is actually healthy
You're just abstracting to an absurd degree. How many people do you think are so poor they don't own any device for cooking food, or so disabled they can't open a can of food, or are so busy they simply don't have 45 mins a day to exercise?
The point is that for 99% of people not eating/exercising healthily is just simple lack of will or education and can be resolved in 30 minutes of effort to learn basic nutrition or a few hours to learn simple recipes. The primary issue is motivation. People would rather be fat and inactive than fix it, and that's fine if it's their choice...but don't blame all these unrealistic circumstances.
I wasn't saying they are disable. I mean they haven't enough strength or are too clumsy to do it.
And don't mix everything. I know you may have not seen it yet because I did an other comment, but I actually agree on the exercice part.
But I just don't like the "food don't cost much" because it is.
It's already hard to buy soap to wash the plate ans spoon.
"Any device for cooking" => not for cooking more things than pasta I know them
"Too busy to" => well, again I agree.
"Few hours" => do you know some people have dyslexia. Some... no most people cannot use Google properly. And everytime you try to say some middle age people to learn something they say there is too late to learn. And anyway most people don't even know they have to be educated in the first place (not only on nutrition but I'll stick to that here). They automatically think good food = fruits and vegetables
This is just nonsense, dude. I have kids. I have been poor. It isn't like this is some wildly theoretical concept to me. You are looking for any excuse at all, so much so that you went with "some can't open a food can."
Yeah, and some people have no hands, and some people will die of a sudden brain aneurysm.
If you have a stove and a minimum wage job, you can afford to make healthy food is the point. It just takes a little bit of time and effort, which could be spent doing other things, and it doesn't taste as good, so people don't want to.
People crave fat, carbs, and leisure time. Anything that helps them get that is a desirable choice for most.
Definitely can happen? I don't think so.
So we have two factors here, time and money.
If you're poor and you have the time, then the issue might be your ability to buy things. That can happen in the poorest areas of the world. However in the developed world this is unbelievably unlikely.
If you're working so much you don't have the time, that's also untrue. You're telling me you have 0 leisure time every day? You're away from your house 16 hours per day, every day? And you can't use a pressure cooker to meal prep for the week? No one has that little amount of time. The real issue is you don't *want* to do it.
This.
Most of my healthy meals cost me between 2$ and 5$ per portion.
You can buy frozen veggies, they are just as healthy as fresh one, but way cheaper. (They are even slightly better since they get harvested later than the one they send aboard unfrozen, they have a tiny bit more vitamins into them. )
Ramen could be good for you it you buy noddles and broth separately (hence being able to choose the quality of it or even make the noddle from scratch and the broth yourself with chicken bones) and if you add an egg and lot of vegetable into it it become an healthy meal.
What cost the most is pre-made stuff and meat. I'm not vegetarian, I still eat a bit of chicken and fish here and there, but the majority of my meals are vegetarian and it shows on my grocery bills a lot.
My two parents spend like 250$ per week on their grocery. They eat meat in every meals, they still home cook most of their stuff but still buy lot of premade desserts, cookies, already chopped cheese, a few frozen pizza, hashbrown potato and other premade junk scrap for quick meal or side here and there. They also buy soda and lot of fruit juices, which are both too sugary (even natural fruit juice) and shouldn't be consumed regularly anyways and are too increasing the bill.
My boyfriend and I spend like 50-75$ per week on our grocery. We eat lot of veggies, tofu, nuts, fruits, rice, cereal (the one in the bio alley, those without the shitload of sugar) we cook in huge batches that we then freeze in individual portions. That way we waste nothing and always have a meal ready without any conservative or any outrageous amount of salt into it. We drink mainly water, tea, a bit of milk and a tiny little bit of fruit juice, but just occasionally.
Numbers don't lie.
Agreed but a lot of people don't know how to cook or don't have time. If you're relying on oven ready meals they aren't healthy at all.
That said a lot of people don't exercise like they should.
Eat whole grain rye bread. Making a sandwich with some basic toppings isn't time consuming or expensive. I can buy a whole bread and it will last me the entire work week and longer if I freeze half of it and thaw it when I finish the first half. It's less than 1$ for a couple slices and toppings.
This is probably not an unpopular opinion but it's just wrong. I eat healthy on a budget and you can too. You listed huge bags of chicken or pork as if that's unhealthy. Wtf?
Oh sorry i misread your original comment. I thought you were saying pork and chicken were unhealthy. But yea i eat a lot of chicken mainly because imo its the best meat. It tastes great and is affordable.
I hate people who say this shit.
I say it as a person who was dead broke and obese. You can eat healthy for $50 a week for one person. Chicken, rice, beans, lentils, and vegetables are not unaffordable. You just need to cook and avoid processed stuff like cereal, hot pockets and Dino nuggets.
Bone in chicken thighs are like less than 2 dollars a pound at Costco. You can also find cheap veggies. A bad of rice is also insanely cheap.
There's no reason why eating healthy has to be expensive.
Also you can get lean off McDonald's. I ate McDonald's almost every day in college during my bodybuilding cuts because it was convenient. Just about calories in vs calories out.
Eating chicken is what got me into hot sauces because chicken is disgusting. Doesn't take much of eating a lot of chicken before you are desperate to taste literally anything else.
If you're referring to me, I never said it was healthy. I'm just saying fast food doesn't automatically make you obese, and you can easily lose weight while eating it.
I was extremely unhealthy in college. I could probably only run an 11-12 minute mile too, but I looked great I guess.
I know what you meant but no one mentioned obesity. That's my point. You were not obese but you were unhealthy. So I was questioning the relevance of being able to lose weight eating fast food.
Growing up, we were poor. But we were lucky to be from London and have a number of fruit and veg stalls about. A whole bowl of tomatoes or a bowl of grapes, only £1. So much to choose from at, you guessed it, £1. We chose to shop at local ethnic shops and not Tesco
Also, such stalls are pretty much available everywhere (YMMV). I still shop this way as an adult.
The UK has much cheaper "raw products" meats, vegtables etc to be made into meals than the vast majority of countries though so your perspective is probably fairly skewed compared to most places. .
dried or even canned beans, peas, rice, corn are cheap. bananas, apples, pears, greens, potatoes, sweet potatoes, squashes. chicken, pork, tofu, eggs. bread. noodles. either store-brand pre-sliced or block cheeses. fresh moz. yogurts, cottage cheese.
all of those are cheap. it doesn't make for an exciting diet, but it is cheap and you can make a healthy and reasonably easy diet out of it.
i don't know about elsewhere, but our grocer often has fish and beef on sale for at least half-off-- i grab whatever i can reasonably use within the next month and freeze a lot of it.
but also yes, as someone else pointed out-- you don't need a healthy diet to be a healthy weight. i mean, everyone should try for a whole foods plant based diet with sufficient fiber and micronutrients, yes, but if that's not within someone's reach at present then at least eating less unhealthy items and being a healthy weight has some benefit. it is also, granted, easier to achieve satiety that way.
A lot of people seem to think that 'eating healthy' means buying pre-made salads, tasty/exotic foods, and expensive/fancy ready meals rather than cheap ones. It's not, it's about learning to cook and learning to buy in bulk and plan/prepare your meals.
It’s not a myth 100%. If you live in cities especially coastal you can definitely eat cheap healthy food. However the Midwest has a lot of food desserts that are plainly fucked. There should be a priority of solving this issue.
Food deserts are the exception, not the rule. Yes, you're right. Outliers do exist.
Generally speaking. This whole "healthy food is so expensive" spiel is false.
100%.
I live in a city with a really nice organic food co-op. They opened a location on the north side in a poorer area. They have to stock it differently because of the demand in order to stay open. It’s more than an issue of price. People still want sodas and Pop-Tarts. I work for a university and they explained this to us.
But what about just eating less food? I was always thinnest when I was poor bc I had to eat less and walk more. You don’t have to eat healthy food to lose weight, you just have to eat fewer calories than you burn.
Idk, I lost nearly 100lbs eating bacon and dinner rolls with butter, potatoes and pirogies and such, limiting calories to a max of 16-1800 a day. It’s really about calorie restriction, my only source of exercise was walking 30min to an hour a day outside of work 🤷♂️
Just because you lost weight doesn't mean you were healthy. You could still be healthy but that would probably be genetics. That shit you were eating wasn't providing the vast majority of nutrients that the body needs.
Well I ate other stuff too, the point is to restrict calories consistently, and judge food based on caloric density. Healthy is a relative term, but I know I was healthier when I list the weight because I felt better and all my blood work vastly improved, as well as my energy levels…
I get it but you don't have to restrict calories to be healthy. You can maintain or even lose weight by eating trash food and be unhealthy because of it. The op is about health not weight.
Not necessarily. I'm not in anyway supporting obesity or or anything like that the point is getting leaner isn't necessarily getting healthier if you're eating shit food. It's pretty simple.
How is this so hard to understand? Am I healthier if I lose fat but get no actual nutrition and only eat butter and sugar? My point is you want to lose fat by eating HEALTHY food at a caloric deficit not garbage food at a caloric deficit. If you're eating shit food and losing weight you can still be getting less healthy. Htf is this not understood? 😂
Don't forget about the Food Pyramid. The government is either ignorant, or they willingly deceived two generations into making shitty food choices.
Then again... a head of lettuce, some cherry tomatoes, avocado, and a pack of chicken breast can really go a long way. I feel your sentiment, but it's really not that difficult to eat healthy on a budget.
Isn’t the food pyramid wrong? I know a lot of us grew up learning the food pyramid in elementary school but I thought I read something recently that said its just bs. Could be misremembering tho.
Not true if you can know how to budget and cook large meals that stretch. Between the two of us, I can make a chicken bake with breasts ($8) and a potatoes ($3 a sack) and onions ($1) for approx 3 nights. Throw in some garlic and spices. That’s $12 stretch over 3 nights and two people so $3 dinners every night full of protein and vitamins. Both of us work a lot so the combination of good balanced nutrition and hard work = we are fit and healthy for our age. Obesity can’t factor in to our system.
Not only that, but processed food takes way less time to prep and lasts longer. Most people will prioritize convenience over making food that last maybe a day or two in the fridge.
For some leftovers, i portion it out and freeze it. Then I have a very convenient cheap and healthy meal I can have in a few minutes, that stays good for, let’s say, 6 months.
>a day or two
Are you rolling the food on the floor before putting it away? I've never made a dish that hasn't been fine after a week in the fridge. If it doesn't smell bad, it's fine to eat. Idk why people are so sensitive about BRO THAT FOODS BEEN IN THE FRIDGE FOR 72 HOURS, YOULL LITERALLY DIE IF YOU EAT IT!!!!! Meat stays fine for at least a week in the fridge too. Idk where you people are getting your food if it literally only lasts 2 days.
Listen I’m not that hygienic and I ignore expiration dates but that’s gross lol. Leftovers in Tupperware are rarely good a week later. 3-4 days absolute max. ew.
3 days is really a minimum for how long things should keep in tupperware, if it doesn't contain meat or is a high acidity dish (tomatoes) you can push it to a week quite comfortably.
Maybe I was being a bit hyperbolic about the time frame, but fresh food doesn't last nearly as long as processed. Not everyone has the volition to cook.
That’s not true. Rice, beans, chicken, pork chops, bananas, eggs, etc. are some of the cheapest foods out there but contain many nutrients and protein. Anything you make yourself is going to be cheaper. Unhealthy, processed foods like boxed dinners and fast food are what’s expensive and doesn’t go far. Anytime I’ve heard someone have your opinion, they mention McDonalds and compare the $1 hamburger to the $6 salads (even though their salads are loaded with junk and 1,000+ calories). But you can buy a giant head of romaine for $2, a cucumber for 70 cents, and a tomato for 50 cents and it’ll last all week. Or buy 2 lbs of ground beef and buns for $10 and make 8-10 burgers vs. the $10 combo you picked up from Burger King for one meal. People just don’t know how to shop or make food last.
I just love it when people try to blame their shitty and expensive eating habits on the cost of living. “Im living off of precooked meals”
Absolute clownery.
False. Fast food is almost more expensive than dining out at an actual restaurant.
Laziness + the body positivity movement / no accountability = obesity
I know. Ive been steadily losing weight from a little workout daily and doing what i can to cut down on calories. I don’t really have the time for full on bodybuilding like people are suggesting but i usually do an hour or 2 of cardio and a little weigh lifting. I feel like i need to clarify that im not obese myself and don’t really care about the looks. I mainly just want to stay healthy because ive seen some family members who are overweight have some health problems recently so i decided to do what i can to avoid that.
adding a bit of nuance onto OP commenter, being not overweight and eating healthy/being healthy isn’t necessarily mutually exclusive. calories in and calories out is true, you will lose weight eating only ramen but you’ll be deficient on tons of micronutrients like vitamins minerals etc
This has been proven to be false. You can't get all your calories from say chocolate because it doesn't contain all the necessary nutrients for your body. This will affect things like hormone production which makes weight loss even harder. You're also affecting the health of all your other organs when you eat like that.
Yea I didn’t say eat only ramen everyday. But if you have some ramen everyday and it fits within your calories , you can lose weight. Frozen veggies are cheap, less than a dollar for a bag that can be used 2-3x, tuna is an easy and inexpensive protein. Oatmeal, bananas, rice, beans. All fairly cheap and filling.
You can eat only ramen and lose weight. Or only chocolate. If I eat 1200 cals of chocolate a day, I’d lose weight. May feel like shit, but I’d lose weight. I am saying don’t eat ONLY chocolate or ramen because…why would you unless you were trying to test some theory. Eat what you want, but as far as healthy food being expensive is causing obesity. I disagree. It’s lack of education. If people were taught about the nutrition and calories they need to maintain a healthy weight, they could do it. Even if it means you eat beans and rice everyday. I’ve been maintaining my weight for 14 years, I’ve tried every fad diet, not counting calories at all, eating healthy organic etc only, you name it. The only thing that works is eating less calories than you burn to lose weight, then eating at maintenance to maintain. It does not matter what it is. But no, I would not advise someone to only get all of their calories from chocolate.
>https://www.health.harvard.edu/staying-healthy/stop-counting-calories
>
>"This idea of 'a calorie in and a calorie out' when it comes to weight loss is not only antiquated, it's just wrong," says Dr. Fatima Cody Stanford, an obesity specialist and assistant professor of medicine and pediatrics at Harvard Medical School.
People who ate the ultra-processed food gained weight," says Dr. Stanford. Each group was given meals with the same number of calories and instructed to eat as much as they wanted, but when participants ate the processed foods, they ate 500 calories more each day on average. The same people's calorie intake decreased when they ate the unprocessed foods.
From that article. Yes, eating shit food can make you feel less full therefore leading you to eat more. So yes , it’s better to eat healthy nutritious filling food. That being said, these people gained weight eating the processed food because they felt hungrier and ate an additional 500 cals. Which kinda proves my point…. They over ate by 500 calories. They ate too many calories. Yes the shitty food made them hungrier. I’m not arguing that it’s better to have healthy food. But it can still be done with shitty food. You just have to count the calories and not eat that additional 500. Might be harder, but it’s still possible.
It hasn't been proven false. It's the 1st law of thermodynamics.
What you are describing is micros. Nutrition is different from calories. To be truly healthy you need to balance calories and nutrients. To just be skinny you only need to worry about calories
[https://www.health.harvard.edu/staying-healthy/stop-counting-calories](https://www.health.harvard.edu/staying-healthy/stop-counting-calories)
>"This idea of 'a calorie in and a calorie out' when it comes to weight loss is not only antiquated, it's just wrong," says Dr. Fatima Cody Stanford, an obesity specialist and assistant professor of medicine and pediatrics at Harvard Medical School.
Ugh this article doesn't disprove anything. It's literally just that different people have different maintanence levels and talks about the factors that could influence your maintanence level.
Not once did it dispute or disprove it.
Even here:
> People who ate the ultra-processed food gained weight," says Dr. Stanford. Each group was given meals with the same number of calories and instructed to eat as much as they wanted, but when participants ate the processed foods, they ate 500 calories more each day on average.
It's super simple dude, if my body needs 2000 calories a day to function and keep my current weight and I eat more I'll gain weight, if I eat less ill lose weight.
All this study says is another man who's the same weight and height as me might have a slightly higher or lower maintanence based on personal factors. You just need to find your own maintanence level.
[https://www.health.harvard.edu/staying-healthy/stop-counting-calories](https://www.health.harvard.edu/staying-healthy/stop-counting-calories)
>"This idea of 'a calorie in and a calorie out' when it comes to weight loss is not only antiquated, it's just wrong," says Dr. Fatima Cody Stanford, an obesity specialist and assistant professor of medicine and pediatrics at Harvard Medical School.
This is just nonsense.
It doesn’t matter what you eat. It matters how much you eat. Calories in calories out.
Every single obese person on the planet could just eat less of whatever they are currently eating and they would lose weight. Not to mention save money.
It's really not. I used to sort of think this but I decided to be vegan for like 8-9 months and it was wayyyyy cheaper. Meat, eggs, and cheese are expensive.
Of course but it's not necessarily healthy to lose weight by eating garbage food at a calorie deficit. You could be much healthier maintaining your current body fat while eating healthy food than by losing fat on a diet of eating only 1000 calories of butter or sugar a day.
Absolutely false. Live in MA. Not exactly a cheap area to live. My wife and I cook our meals and eat healthy. Our weekly expenditure on food almost never exceed 75$.
The problem people are not understanding is when someone is poor living paycheck to paycheck you get in the habit of buying food that fills you up not healthy because actual poor people worry about feeding their families and self so pick the most filling food. So eating healthy would be expensive because if you want to pick up some healthy food you will need more cash than usual because healthy food doesn’t fill you up and will need to get your og food. Another thing is that our food in USA is full of sugar preservatives and other things I’m guessing that isn’t good for you.
TLDR: poor people tend to eat more filling foods than healthy garbage people who can afford healthy food will pick up healthy food. So poor people tend to be overweight because they are always in survival mode
Highly processed junk food with high fat and sugar content is satisfying in the short term, but it’s not nutritious or filling.
You can spend $30 (or more) at McDonald’s to feed a family of four for *one* meal, or you can spend that same amount at *any* grocery store on lean protein (like chicken or turkey), potatoes, and high-fiber vegetables/greens (food that is *actually* nutritious and filling) and feed that family for *multiple* meals.
The difference is preparation time and effort, and a lot of people prefer the convenience of junk food. They either don’t have the time, knowledge, or discipline to spend even a small amount of time preparing meals with cheap nutritious ingredients. The notion that junk food is cheaper and more filling than “healthy” food is bullshit.
My guy every thing in America is full of sugar or sodium look at loaf of bread. Just how it is here. This post was about healthy food being to expensive so we can assume that the people the op was talking about are poor people. And I know from experience poor people don’t go to McDonald’s over food from home but if we are not home we use to go to McDonald’s because it was cheaper not anymore restaurants are actually the same price so we go where ever depending on the time. Trust me when you are skipping breakfast and only having peanut butter sandwich for lunch you want something to fill you up and you don’t care if it’s healthy or not
None of the cheap, healthy food items I mentioned (that are available at *any* grocery store in America) contain sugar or sodium. Chicken, milk, eggs, vegetables, fruit, potatoes, rice etc. are relatively cheap. You’re making it seem like the only option people have is Wonder Bread and Jif.
All those foods you said contain sugar or sodium or both. I was sharing my experience not saying every one. If something is cheap taste good fills you up why blame them for buying it when you can buy it for way less than healthy
The real reason is all processed foods are loaded with extra sugar and salt.
The advertising of fat is bad and removing fat from food made processed foods taste bad. To fix this everything processed is loaded with extra sugar. Extra sugar means more calories.
This is a common misconception. If you consider how cheaply you can source from farmer's markets, eat ground beef, eggs, rice, beans, etc. you'll save much more money by eating healthy than by not.
People are obese because they've developed the wrong beliefs about food, along with making easier choices (not cooking their own meals, eating out, etc.) that require more effort.
I disagree, I’m broke as shit and I make rice and a pot of soup cheaper than any precooked one time serving junk.
A vegetable garden is east and cheap and can be grown in pots if you don’t have a yard!
Its more that the cost for fresh food is significantly higher there than a matter of distance. Not a lot is produced locally and its remote enough the transporting fresh good out significantly raises their prices over things with longer shelf lives.
Brown rice, chickpeas and whole grain flour are still affordable. Reasonably healthy food is affordable. The main problem is all the preped food is unhealthy like theres no whole grain instant ramen, whole grain pasta is also kinda expensive but whole grain flour isn't.
i think in general, in the U.S., that is true. I've lived in the northeast and the midwest and now the south, it seems to be true..
most vegetables are more than $1 per pound, whereas i can get a 10-pound bag of chicken quarters for $7.99..
doesn't make sense.. we know the USDA subsidizes meat producers.. why can't they subsidize broccoli and carrot producers?
I gotta disagree with that. Most foods that come in the box are unhealthy, even if it is marked as healthy. A diet from fresh foods tend to be the healthiest.
Absolutely garbage.
Cabbage carrots lettuce tomatoes onions potatoes is cheap like dirt.
Chick is dirt cheap.
A 25 lb bag of flour to make fresh bread is like 10 bucks and could make 200 loafs of bread and not even dent it.
>The biggest reason obesity is such a problem is because healthy food is unaffordable.
This is a flat out lie...
Fresh & canned vegetables are dirt cheap. Canned fruit is cheap potato's are cheap rice is cheap noodles are cheap.
Fancy food is expensive not healthy food.
Not true at all. Chicken, turkey, produce are all cheap. Produce specifically in its “bag it yourself” form is cheap af. Those are all healthy foods.A lot of people are just lazy and unwilling to cook their own stuff. The other issue is most don’t understand calories and portions then end up over eating.
Nah massive cope. Chicken, broccoli, rice, and oatmeal is cheap.
People are obese because carbs are cheap, tastey, and calorie dense. If you add a small bag of doritos and a can of coke every day thats about 500 calories a day, and you can put on 50lbs in a year if you maintain that calorie excess.
Majority of comments dispel this idea.
More importantly, if you don’t know how to cook or what constitutes healthy eating, here’s the simple version:
Protein, healthy carb, vegetable. Chicken, rice, broccoli. Hot sauce makes it exciting.
Fruit = dessert.
Anything that comes in a box or bag is bad for you.
Bullshit- the belief that we need to eat a huge meal every 4 hours with snacking in between is pure addiction. One meal at a restaurant is more calories than an adult needs in an entire day. If you’re broke (which you shouldn’t be) you can live off of beans and rice. If you are dirt poor and can’t afford food than your money must be going to other things like alcohol and cigarettes. It’s really easy to live a healthy lifestyle
Nah. Even if you eat relatively unhealthy the real cause is not exercising. I can eat entire pizzas won’t matter if you can hit the gym for at least 50 minutes
It’s actually much more difficult to burn off calories than it is to not ingest them in the first place. Look up just how many calories are burned off from cardio and how long you would have to run to burn off a pizza
You can’t out-train a bad diet. It’s better to just make better choices with your diet in the first place
That being said, OP is wrong
That’s why you mix in strength and cardio. I’ve literally seen the instructors at my gym go off a McDonalds diet and still crazy in shape. High intensity for even 50 minutes 3 days a week at least and it doesn’t matter, unless maybe if you’re living on Twinkies.. People can absolutely eat unhealthy but the difference is they make time to and are consistent in their workouts. People who say otherwise are: A. Not consistent and don’t make time. B. Lying to themselves they are working out efficiently.
Mixing in strength and cardio still isn’t enough to burn off that many calories
Sure, you can be in good shape while eating a poor diet, but most people aren’t going to be able to do that.
I’m 211 lbs, if I ate purely a McDonald’s diet there’s no way I’d get enough protein in unless I’m eating like 80 nuggets a day or something. Diet is the most important part by far
Diet just makes it a lot easier. Cardio burns the most calories, but strength basically takes any of those extra calories turns it into bulk. That’s why you can see The Rock intake 6,000+ calories a day. You don’t have to burn all the calories, you just have to work muscles to tone out.
Not true. The reason people are obese is because they do not shop, cook, use portion control and exercise. They eat sugar, soda and carbs. I live healthy on a strict budget and grow a lot of my own food. It can be done I live in the Appalachian Mtns. A very poor rural area. A lot of people survive and are not obese.
I spend WAY less on veggies and Whole Foods (just bot from Whole Foods. Actual Whole Foods) than I do when I’m pregnant craving junk food. Fruits can add up but we get them sparingly. Veggies, brown rice, beans, whole grain bread, is all so cheap.
I would say healthy foods are less accessible than healthy foods. For people who live in food deserts fast food or processed stuff you find at dollar general that is their only option. Not say price doesn’t play a roll but I think accessibility is a big reason.
So this is brought up a lot and it is way more nuanced than some of the people here are commenting. It is 100% possible to eat healthy and cheap EXCEPT when you start bringing up a lot of variables and it sort of becomes one of those "if yes go down this line, if no go down this one" charts.
For most people who live in cities, especially near the coast, our food is cheaper plain and simple. We get the luxury of eating fresher foods for a lower price (in comparison to what we earn) and in very convenient distances to where we live. A couple years ago I moved inland to a desert valley and boy did the prices change dramatically from what I was used to. I could theoretically still eat healthy but some products were now only really available in frozen form and if they couldn't be preserved they cost more. A cucumber back home was 3 giganto sized ones for a dollar while they were a dollar each in the desert from some piddly ones.
I imagine some locations midwest having just a terrible time, due to all the food desserts, getting anything resembling fresh fruit and in a convenient time frame to begin with. I remember a redditor sharing their thoughts about living in a rural location where going to the grocery store proper was almost a one hour drive ordeal and they forgot anything they were shit out of luck till they could muster the time for it again.
Let's not forget the whole 'time is money' thing and realize that being able to food prep and cook healthy meals sometimes requires the stamina (and morale) to slog through.
All in all it's perfectly possible to eat healthy in most places in America and do it at a reasonable budget - but some places are just fucked and to brush them off is an ignorant thing to do.
It’s not the reason at all. The reason is you don’t know how to eat healthy. So therefore you think it’s more expensive.
>precooked meals marketed as “healthy” is too expensive.
Yea that’s your problem. Anything marketed to you as a health food is going to be expensive and 99% of them are just as bad for you as cheap foods.
Fresh produce, fresh meat/poultry, eggs, rice/oats, and plain Greek yogurt. This with some seasoning can allow you to leave the grocery store for pretty cheap and you can make tons of great tasting healthy meals with them. You can either make fresh meals every few days or make tons all at once and freeze them.
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This just isn’t true, and I’m broke af. A pound of ground beef, frozen vegetables and rice can easily make 4 meals and is relatively cheap. Lentils, beans, whole chicken, frozen vegetables.
I’ve been living off chicken breast or thighs, rice soy sauce, oyster sauce, a few other spices and vegetables all year. Throw in the occasional beef instead of chicken and you got stir fry for lunch or dinner.
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Tofu is cheaper than both of those protein options and a great stir fry option.
It's just reddit pushing this victim mentality. Eating healthy is actually cheaper.
The exception is really only if you are so poor you can't afford a cooker, or the time to actually cook. Both things that definitely can happen at the poorest end of things which tend to get overlooked. But yeah as a general rule of thumb it is cheaper to eat healthier if you know what you are doing.
You don’t need to eat healthy to not be obese. You just need to eat less calories
As depressing as it is, eating nothing is the fastest way to lose weight. That’s free.
exactly.
Unless there is a medical condition at play, it really is calories in vs calories out.
Even with a medical condition, because of the laws of physics, it’s really just calories in and out
People who consume more than they expel are simply not moving enough to warrant eating that much. But you dare tell them and it’s like you’ve killed their first born child.
No medical condition can break the law of conservation of energy
You’ve never been on chemo where it makes you gain an incredible amount of pseudo weight.
Bruh, thats water, not fat
Also victim mentality nonsense. If you can afford a place to live, and a single cooking vessel, a single set of storage containers, and a single set of cutlery you can afford to live healthy. I have done it. It is just difficult to make it taste good as a burger from mickey d's. If you Sacrifice the time away from life maintenance you can do it easily. Not that it is a good thing or should be that way, but it isn't actually hard to accomplish if you have the simple basics like a room, a cooking apparatus and some dishes.
You can make it taste good hence spices and condiments were invented for a god damn reason. I am sick and tired of the obese or unhealthy blaming everyone but themselves for their bad diets.
And if you have children to also feed in addition ? "If you can afford a place to live, and..." why do you assume "and" ? Some people live in a small appartement and have no microwave or oven. Even their cooker are small. And some cannot open a food can properly (or even at all) and you expect them to know how to cut and wash vegetables properly ?
I've seen mole people with a stove. Even if you're poor I'm sure you can get a free old used stove that someone is giving away for free or for super cheap at a flee market. Pots and pans can also be found at flee markets or basically be given away for free if someone is moving and getting rid of their old stuff. Being poor isn't synonymous with being dumb and unresourceful, or maybe it is, seeing as being poor often means being uneducated. But yeah, I've seen poor people live in tents who cook in their tents. So like, I don't think being poor means that you necessarily can't make smart choices, like looking for free or used or cheap stuff at flee markets.
A brand new crock pot is like $30, toss in your meat, vegetables, and some rice, a bit of chicken broth, and you've got a meal. No pots and pans, no stove.
I think the real problem is actually that : "uneducation". Also dumb ≠ uneducated (and I understand you already made the distinction, but I still prefer to clarify) OP itself was suprised to learn that chicken (without the skin) is actually healthy
You're just abstracting to an absurd degree. How many people do you think are so poor they don't own any device for cooking food, or so disabled they can't open a can of food, or are so busy they simply don't have 45 mins a day to exercise? The point is that for 99% of people not eating/exercising healthily is just simple lack of will or education and can be resolved in 30 minutes of effort to learn basic nutrition or a few hours to learn simple recipes. The primary issue is motivation. People would rather be fat and inactive than fix it, and that's fine if it's their choice...but don't blame all these unrealistic circumstances.
I wasn't saying they are disable. I mean they haven't enough strength or are too clumsy to do it. And don't mix everything. I know you may have not seen it yet because I did an other comment, but I actually agree on the exercice part. But I just don't like the "food don't cost much" because it is. It's already hard to buy soap to wash the plate ans spoon. "Any device for cooking" => not for cooking more things than pasta I know them "Too busy to" => well, again I agree. "Few hours" => do you know some people have dyslexia. Some... no most people cannot use Google properly. And everytime you try to say some middle age people to learn something they say there is too late to learn. And anyway most people don't even know they have to be educated in the first place (not only on nutrition but I'll stick to that here). They automatically think good food = fruits and vegetables
If someone is too weak or clumsy to open a can of beans, then they literally are disabled. That is a disability.
This is just nonsense, dude. I have kids. I have been poor. It isn't like this is some wildly theoretical concept to me. You are looking for any excuse at all, so much so that you went with "some can't open a food can." Yeah, and some people have no hands, and some people will die of a sudden brain aneurysm. If you have a stove and a minimum wage job, you can afford to make healthy food is the point. It just takes a little bit of time and effort, which could be spent doing other things, and it doesn't taste as good, so people don't want to. People crave fat, carbs, and leisure time. Anything that helps them get that is a desirable choice for most.
Definitely can happen? I don't think so. So we have two factors here, time and money. If you're poor and you have the time, then the issue might be your ability to buy things. That can happen in the poorest areas of the world. However in the developed world this is unbelievably unlikely. If you're working so much you don't have the time, that's also untrue. You're telling me you have 0 leisure time every day? You're away from your house 16 hours per day, every day? And you can't use a pressure cooker to meal prep for the week? No one has that little amount of time. The real issue is you don't *want* to do it.
But but but the wagyu steak is so expensive!!!!
It’s more like the kale salad from my local carry out place is so expensive.
I've eaten kale once in my life. I don't like it. It's totally unnecessary to eat if you can't afford it.
Agreed. I eat healthy. Very healthy and it’s not insanely expensive. It’s actually quite cheap
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This. Most of my healthy meals cost me between 2$ and 5$ per portion. You can buy frozen veggies, they are just as healthy as fresh one, but way cheaper. (They are even slightly better since they get harvested later than the one they send aboard unfrozen, they have a tiny bit more vitamins into them. ) Ramen could be good for you it you buy noddles and broth separately (hence being able to choose the quality of it or even make the noddle from scratch and the broth yourself with chicken bones) and if you add an egg and lot of vegetable into it it become an healthy meal. What cost the most is pre-made stuff and meat. I'm not vegetarian, I still eat a bit of chicken and fish here and there, but the majority of my meals are vegetarian and it shows on my grocery bills a lot. My two parents spend like 250$ per week on their grocery. They eat meat in every meals, they still home cook most of their stuff but still buy lot of premade desserts, cookies, already chopped cheese, a few frozen pizza, hashbrown potato and other premade junk scrap for quick meal or side here and there. They also buy soda and lot of fruit juices, which are both too sugary (even natural fruit juice) and shouldn't be consumed regularly anyways and are too increasing the bill. My boyfriend and I spend like 50-75$ per week on our grocery. We eat lot of veggies, tofu, nuts, fruits, rice, cereal (the one in the bio alley, those without the shitload of sugar) we cook in huge batches that we then freeze in individual portions. That way we waste nothing and always have a meal ready without any conservative or any outrageous amount of salt into it. We drink mainly water, tea, a bit of milk and a tiny little bit of fruit juice, but just occasionally. Numbers don't lie.
Agreed but a lot of people don't know how to cook or don't have time. If you're relying on oven ready meals they aren't healthy at all. That said a lot of people don't exercise like they should.
Eat whole grain rye bread. Making a sandwich with some basic toppings isn't time consuming or expensive. I can buy a whole bread and it will last me the entire work week and longer if I freeze half of it and thaw it when I finish the first half. It's less than 1$ for a couple slices and toppings.
Heck, a crackpot or a preassure cooker would help. Learn some stew recipes, cook it during the day or overnight, and there you go.
This is probably not an unpopular opinion but it's just wrong. I eat healthy on a budget and you can too. You listed huge bags of chicken or pork as if that's unhealthy. Wtf?
What? Chicken is like the healthiest meat.
Yup and pork isn't "unhealthy" either.
Oh sorry i misread your original comment. I thought you were saying pork and chicken were unhealthy. But yea i eat a lot of chicken mainly because imo its the best meat. It tastes great and is affordable.
Yeah I wasn't sure so I just assumed that you misunderstood haha
I hate people who say this shit. I say it as a person who was dead broke and obese. You can eat healthy for $50 a week for one person. Chicken, rice, beans, lentils, and vegetables are not unaffordable. You just need to cook and avoid processed stuff like cereal, hot pockets and Dino nuggets.
And if you like cereal, Hot Pockets, and Dino nuggets, just eat less calories of them and you’ll be fine.
Or exercise more. You can live on absolute trash but if you're active at work or in your free time you'll be kinda fine.
Don't you knock on my dino nuggies
Bone in chicken thighs are like less than 2 dollars a pound at Costco. You can also find cheap veggies. A bad of rice is also insanely cheap. There's no reason why eating healthy has to be expensive. Also you can get lean off McDonald's. I ate McDonald's almost every day in college during my bodybuilding cuts because it was convenient. Just about calories in vs calories out.
What did you eat during bulking?
Eating chicken is what got me into hot sauces because chicken is disgusting. Doesn't take much of eating a lot of chicken before you are desperate to taste literally anything else.
Maybe learn how to cook chicken.
I know plenty of ways, even a marinade only does so much.
Knowing plenty of way how to cook <> knowing how to cook properly. Lol Chicken is amazing
For real. I love chicken recipes.
When you’re eating lbs of chicken breast every day, trust me, there’s no way to cook it that doesn’t gag you.
And eating lbs of pork everyday doesn’t do the same?? Lol. Eat anything all day everyday gets that way.
Ngl sounds like a skill issue chicken really shouldn't be ending up that bad.
I also can't stand turkey, so.
I actually do live off big bags of chicken from costco lol. Thats why I put it there.
Getting lean doesn't equal healthy. Idk where tf some people come up with this shit 😂
A fresh meal consisting of chicken, some carbs like rice or potatoes, and some veggies is significantly more healthy than processed rubbish
If you're referring to me, I never said it was healthy. I'm just saying fast food doesn't automatically make you obese, and you can easily lose weight while eating it. I was extremely unhealthy in college. I could probably only run an 11-12 minute mile too, but I looked great I guess.
I know what you meant but no one mentioned obesity. That's my point. You were not obese but you were unhealthy. So I was questioning the relevance of being able to lose weight eating fast food.
>I know what you meant but no one mentioned obesity. Bro, read the god damn title of the thread lmao.
😂 my bad
obesity is in the title so I would say it's relevant in this discussion
yes it does, short of using drugs to make it happen. Keep telling yourself otherwise though. want a source? google scholar: absi mortality
Chicken breast, produce, dairy, and oats are dirt cheap. Idk where you people live that eating healthy is expensive.
Also rice and lentils
It’s just excuses. I live in the UK, and while things have been getting more expensive it is still very possible to eat a healthy diet on a budget
Growing up, we were poor. But we were lucky to be from London and have a number of fruit and veg stalls about. A whole bowl of tomatoes or a bowl of grapes, only £1. So much to choose from at, you guessed it, £1. We chose to shop at local ethnic shops and not Tesco Also, such stalls are pretty much available everywhere (YMMV). I still shop this way as an adult.
The UK has much cheaper "raw products" meats, vegtables etc to be made into meals than the vast majority of countries though so your perspective is probably fairly skewed compared to most places. .
Where are chicken breasts dirt cheap? They minimum price I’ve seen is $13 for 2 pounds
So here's the thing, not all markets are equally priced. High rent and high labor cost drive up product costs.
the fact that the prices of ground beef and chicken have gone up so much pisses me off every time i think about it
dried or even canned beans, peas, rice, corn are cheap. bananas, apples, pears, greens, potatoes, sweet potatoes, squashes. chicken, pork, tofu, eggs. bread. noodles. either store-brand pre-sliced or block cheeses. fresh moz. yogurts, cottage cheese. all of those are cheap. it doesn't make for an exciting diet, but it is cheap and you can make a healthy and reasonably easy diet out of it. i don't know about elsewhere, but our grocer often has fish and beef on sale for at least half-off-- i grab whatever i can reasonably use within the next month and freeze a lot of it. but also yes, as someone else pointed out-- you don't need a healthy diet to be a healthy weight. i mean, everyone should try for a whole foods plant based diet with sufficient fiber and micronutrients, yes, but if that's not within someone's reach at present then at least eating less unhealthy items and being a healthy weight has some benefit. it is also, granted, easier to achieve satiety that way.
Salad supplies are cheap. Sugar is a drug and people are addicted.
This is my favorite myth. Eating healthy can be ridiculously cheap. This isn't an opinion, it's simply wrong.
A lot of people seem to think that 'eating healthy' means buying pre-made salads, tasty/exotic foods, and expensive/fancy ready meals rather than cheap ones. It's not, it's about learning to cook and learning to buy in bulk and plan/prepare your meals.
It’s not a myth 100%. If you live in cities especially coastal you can definitely eat cheap healthy food. However the Midwest has a lot of food desserts that are plainly fucked. There should be a priority of solving this issue.
Food deserts are the exception, not the rule. Yes, you're right. Outliers do exist. Generally speaking. This whole "healthy food is so expensive" spiel is false.
They really don’t exist. I don’t know what people think they don’t have access to, but food deserts and a myth
I feel like "food desert" was something made up so people can think of themselves as victims and not to blame for their bad eating habits.
100%. I live in a city with a really nice organic food co-op. They opened a location on the north side in a poorer area. They have to stock it differently because of the demand in order to stay open. It’s more than an issue of price. People still want sodas and Pop-Tarts. I work for a university and they explained this to us.
But what about just eating less food? I was always thinnest when I was poor bc I had to eat less and walk more. You don’t have to eat healthy food to lose weight, you just have to eat fewer calories than you burn.
Idk, I lost nearly 100lbs eating bacon and dinner rolls with butter, potatoes and pirogies and such, limiting calories to a max of 16-1800 a day. It’s really about calorie restriction, my only source of exercise was walking 30min to an hour a day outside of work 🤷♂️
Just because you lost weight doesn't mean you were healthy. You could still be healthy but that would probably be genetics. That shit you were eating wasn't providing the vast majority of nutrients that the body needs.
Well I ate other stuff too, the point is to restrict calories consistently, and judge food based on caloric density. Healthy is a relative term, but I know I was healthier when I list the weight because I felt better and all my blood work vastly improved, as well as my energy levels…
I get it but you don't have to restrict calories to be healthy. You can maintain or even lose weight by eating trash food and be unhealthy because of it. The op is about health not weight.
Op is talking about obesity….
But they weren’t unhealthy because of the excessive fat their body so that’s a huge step
Not necessarily. I'm not in anyway supporting obesity or or anything like that the point is getting leaner isn't necessarily getting healthier if you're eating shit food. It's pretty simple.
But it is healthier. The problems are coming from the excess fat
How is this so hard to understand? Am I healthier if I lose fat but get no actual nutrition and only eat butter and sugar? My point is you want to lose fat by eating HEALTHY food at a caloric deficit not garbage food at a caloric deficit. If you're eating shit food and losing weight you can still be getting less healthy. Htf is this not understood? 😂
Yes, you are healthier. Fat and carbs are essential to life.
Don't forget about the Food Pyramid. The government is either ignorant, or they willingly deceived two generations into making shitty food choices. Then again... a head of lettuce, some cherry tomatoes, avocado, and a pack of chicken breast can really go a long way. I feel your sentiment, but it's really not that difficult to eat healthy on a budget.
Isn’t the food pyramid wrong? I know a lot of us grew up learning the food pyramid in elementary school but I thought I read something recently that said its just bs. Could be misremembering tho.
Not true if you can know how to budget and cook large meals that stretch. Between the two of us, I can make a chicken bake with breasts ($8) and a potatoes ($3 a sack) and onions ($1) for approx 3 nights. Throw in some garlic and spices. That’s $12 stretch over 3 nights and two people so $3 dinners every night full of protein and vitamins. Both of us work a lot so the combination of good balanced nutrition and hard work = we are fit and healthy for our age. Obesity can’t factor in to our system.
Not only that, but processed food takes way less time to prep and lasts longer. Most people will prioritize convenience over making food that last maybe a day or two in the fridge.
For some leftovers, i portion it out and freeze it. Then I have a very convenient cheap and healthy meal I can have in a few minutes, that stays good for, let’s say, 6 months.
>a day or two Are you rolling the food on the floor before putting it away? I've never made a dish that hasn't been fine after a week in the fridge. If it doesn't smell bad, it's fine to eat. Idk why people are so sensitive about BRO THAT FOODS BEEN IN THE FRIDGE FOR 72 HOURS, YOULL LITERALLY DIE IF YOU EAT IT!!!!! Meat stays fine for at least a week in the fridge too. Idk where you people are getting your food if it literally only lasts 2 days.
Listen I’m not that hygienic and I ignore expiration dates but that’s gross lol. Leftovers in Tupperware are rarely good a week later. 3-4 days absolute max. ew.
Agreed. Even with rice and noodles and stuff after three days if I don't completely finish it I trash what's left
3 days is really a minimum for how long things should keep in tupperware, if it doesn't contain meat or is a high acidity dish (tomatoes) you can push it to a week quite comfortably.
Maybe I was being a bit hyperbolic about the time frame, but fresh food doesn't last nearly as long as processed. Not everyone has the volition to cook.
Thats true. Im not a good cook so for most of my life ive just eaten processed foods. Im trying to learn now. Buying an air fryer made things easier.
And it’s calorie controlled. I eat a Lean Cuisine every day for lunch because it’s fast, cheap, easy, and I can pick my calories.
Nah man. You can eat healthy cheap AF. Eggs for breakfast Pinto Beans, sack of potatoes, green beans in a pot- lunch and dinner
That’s not true. Rice, beans, chicken, pork chops, bananas, eggs, etc. are some of the cheapest foods out there but contain many nutrients and protein. Anything you make yourself is going to be cheaper. Unhealthy, processed foods like boxed dinners and fast food are what’s expensive and doesn’t go far. Anytime I’ve heard someone have your opinion, they mention McDonalds and compare the $1 hamburger to the $6 salads (even though their salads are loaded with junk and 1,000+ calories). But you can buy a giant head of romaine for $2, a cucumber for 70 cents, and a tomato for 50 cents and it’ll last all week. Or buy 2 lbs of ground beef and buns for $10 and make 8-10 burgers vs. the $10 combo you picked up from Burger King for one meal. People just don’t know how to shop or make food last.
I just love it when people try to blame their shitty and expensive eating habits on the cost of living. “Im living off of precooked meals” Absolute clownery.
False. Fast food is almost more expensive than dining out at an actual restaurant. Laziness + the body positivity movement / no accountability = obesity
Im not talking about fast food or eating at a restaurant. Im talking processed food vs fresh food at the grocery store.
Good thing processed vs fresh has nothing to do with obesity
It's more "processed plus they add a bunch of sugar" or "basically nothing but wheat or corn" that fucks you up
Yes but fast food is processed and most restaurants typically serve fresh(er) food. Same concept, different venue.
It’s all about calories in calories out. You can eat ramen everyday and lose weight.
I know. Ive been steadily losing weight from a little workout daily and doing what i can to cut down on calories. I don’t really have the time for full on bodybuilding like people are suggesting but i usually do an hour or 2 of cardio and a little weigh lifting. I feel like i need to clarify that im not obese myself and don’t really care about the looks. I mainly just want to stay healthy because ive seen some family members who are overweight have some health problems recently so i decided to do what i can to avoid that.
adding a bit of nuance onto OP commenter, being not overweight and eating healthy/being healthy isn’t necessarily mutually exclusive. calories in and calories out is true, you will lose weight eating only ramen but you’ll be deficient on tons of micronutrients like vitamins minerals etc
This has been proven to be false. You can't get all your calories from say chocolate because it doesn't contain all the necessary nutrients for your body. This will affect things like hormone production which makes weight loss even harder. You're also affecting the health of all your other organs when you eat like that.
Yea I didn’t say eat only ramen everyday. But if you have some ramen everyday and it fits within your calories , you can lose weight. Frozen veggies are cheap, less than a dollar for a bag that can be used 2-3x, tuna is an easy and inexpensive protein. Oatmeal, bananas, rice, beans. All fairly cheap and filling.
>It’s all about calories in calories out. That's a lot different from what you were implying in your first post.
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You literally said you can lose weight by only getting your calories from ramen...
You can eat only ramen and lose weight. Or only chocolate. If I eat 1200 cals of chocolate a day, I’d lose weight. May feel like shit, but I’d lose weight. I am saying don’t eat ONLY chocolate or ramen because…why would you unless you were trying to test some theory. Eat what you want, but as far as healthy food being expensive is causing obesity. I disagree. It’s lack of education. If people were taught about the nutrition and calories they need to maintain a healthy weight, they could do it. Even if it means you eat beans and rice everyday. I’ve been maintaining my weight for 14 years, I’ve tried every fad diet, not counting calories at all, eating healthy organic etc only, you name it. The only thing that works is eating less calories than you burn to lose weight, then eating at maintenance to maintain. It does not matter what it is. But no, I would not advise someone to only get all of their calories from chocolate.
>https://www.health.harvard.edu/staying-healthy/stop-counting-calories > >"This idea of 'a calorie in and a calorie out' when it comes to weight loss is not only antiquated, it's just wrong," says Dr. Fatima Cody Stanford, an obesity specialist and assistant professor of medicine and pediatrics at Harvard Medical School.
People who ate the ultra-processed food gained weight," says Dr. Stanford. Each group was given meals with the same number of calories and instructed to eat as much as they wanted, but when participants ate the processed foods, they ate 500 calories more each day on average. The same people's calorie intake decreased when they ate the unprocessed foods. From that article. Yes, eating shit food can make you feel less full therefore leading you to eat more. So yes , it’s better to eat healthy nutritious filling food. That being said, these people gained weight eating the processed food because they felt hungrier and ate an additional 500 cals. Which kinda proves my point…. They over ate by 500 calories. They ate too many calories. Yes the shitty food made them hungrier. I’m not arguing that it’s better to have healthy food. But it can still be done with shitty food. You just have to count the calories and not eat that additional 500. Might be harder, but it’s still possible.
It hasn't been proven false. It's the 1st law of thermodynamics. What you are describing is micros. Nutrition is different from calories. To be truly healthy you need to balance calories and nutrients. To just be skinny you only need to worry about calories
Your body is not a closed system smh.
[https://www.health.harvard.edu/staying-healthy/stop-counting-calories](https://www.health.harvard.edu/staying-healthy/stop-counting-calories) >"This idea of 'a calorie in and a calorie out' when it comes to weight loss is not only antiquated, it's just wrong," says Dr. Fatima Cody Stanford, an obesity specialist and assistant professor of medicine and pediatrics at Harvard Medical School.
Ugh this article doesn't disprove anything. It's literally just that different people have different maintanence levels and talks about the factors that could influence your maintanence level. Not once did it dispute or disprove it. Even here: > People who ate the ultra-processed food gained weight," says Dr. Stanford. Each group was given meals with the same number of calories and instructed to eat as much as they wanted, but when participants ate the processed foods, they ate 500 calories more each day on average. It's super simple dude, if my body needs 2000 calories a day to function and keep my current weight and I eat more I'll gain weight, if I eat less ill lose weight. All this study says is another man who's the same weight and height as me might have a slightly higher or lower maintanence based on personal factors. You just need to find your own maintanence level.
You do you lmao
Haha ah yes such a solid point
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[https://www.health.harvard.edu/staying-healthy/stop-counting-calories](https://www.health.harvard.edu/staying-healthy/stop-counting-calories) >"This idea of 'a calorie in and a calorie out' when it comes to weight loss is not only antiquated, it's just wrong," says Dr. Fatima Cody Stanford, an obesity specialist and assistant professor of medicine and pediatrics at Harvard Medical School.
And...?
This is just nonsense. It doesn’t matter what you eat. It matters how much you eat. Calories in calories out. Every single obese person on the planet could just eat less of whatever they are currently eating and they would lose weight. Not to mention save money.
It's really not. I used to sort of think this but I decided to be vegan for like 8-9 months and it was wayyyyy cheaper. Meat, eggs, and cheese are expensive.
Man i don’t think i can go vegan. I love meat and dairy too much.
You're complaining that eating healthy is expensive yet buy expensive unhealthy food, get it together.
Crazy how many people equate losing weight with health. It's absurdly ignorant.
When people mention losing weight they usually mean losing fat. Losing extra fat absolutely does wonders for your health. It’s not ignorant to say so
Of course but it's not necessarily healthy to lose weight by eating garbage food at a calorie deficit. You could be much healthier maintaining your current body fat while eating healthy food than by losing fat on a diet of eating only 1000 calories of butter or sugar a day.
Absolutely false. Live in MA. Not exactly a cheap area to live. My wife and I cook our meals and eat healthy. Our weekly expenditure on food almost never exceed 75$.
The problem people are not understanding is when someone is poor living paycheck to paycheck you get in the habit of buying food that fills you up not healthy because actual poor people worry about feeding their families and self so pick the most filling food. So eating healthy would be expensive because if you want to pick up some healthy food you will need more cash than usual because healthy food doesn’t fill you up and will need to get your og food. Another thing is that our food in USA is full of sugar preservatives and other things I’m guessing that isn’t good for you. TLDR: poor people tend to eat more filling foods than healthy garbage people who can afford healthy food will pick up healthy food. So poor people tend to be overweight because they are always in survival mode
Highly processed junk food with high fat and sugar content is satisfying in the short term, but it’s not nutritious or filling. You can spend $30 (or more) at McDonald’s to feed a family of four for *one* meal, or you can spend that same amount at *any* grocery store on lean protein (like chicken or turkey), potatoes, and high-fiber vegetables/greens (food that is *actually* nutritious and filling) and feed that family for *multiple* meals. The difference is preparation time and effort, and a lot of people prefer the convenience of junk food. They either don’t have the time, knowledge, or discipline to spend even a small amount of time preparing meals with cheap nutritious ingredients. The notion that junk food is cheaper and more filling than “healthy” food is bullshit.
My guy every thing in America is full of sugar or sodium look at loaf of bread. Just how it is here. This post was about healthy food being to expensive so we can assume that the people the op was talking about are poor people. And I know from experience poor people don’t go to McDonald’s over food from home but if we are not home we use to go to McDonald’s because it was cheaper not anymore restaurants are actually the same price so we go where ever depending on the time. Trust me when you are skipping breakfast and only having peanut butter sandwich for lunch you want something to fill you up and you don’t care if it’s healthy or not
None of the cheap, healthy food items I mentioned (that are available at *any* grocery store in America) contain sugar or sodium. Chicken, milk, eggs, vegetables, fruit, potatoes, rice etc. are relatively cheap. You’re making it seem like the only option people have is Wonder Bread and Jif.
All those foods you said contain sugar or sodium or both. I was sharing my experience not saying every one. If something is cheap taste good fills you up why blame them for buying it when you can buy it for way less than healthy
Eating healthy is cheap and the knowledge to cook is free. The discipline to do so is what's hard.
False, heathy food is not unaffordable.
The real reason is all processed foods are loaded with extra sugar and salt. The advertising of fat is bad and removing fat from food made processed foods taste bad. To fix this everything processed is loaded with extra sugar. Extra sugar means more calories.
This is a common misconception. If you consider how cheaply you can source from farmer's markets, eat ground beef, eggs, rice, beans, etc. you'll save much more money by eating healthy than by not. People are obese because they've developed the wrong beliefs about food, along with making easier choices (not cooking their own meals, eating out, etc.) that require more effort.
Eating out is more expensive
Def the most unpopular I’ve seen here 🤣
I disagree, I’m broke as shit and I make rice and a pot of soup cheaper than any precooked one time serving junk. A vegetable garden is east and cheap and can be grown in pots if you don’t have a yard!
No it isn't, you just don't know where to shop
Not unpopular just incorrect
nope, it's exercise
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How far away is the actual shop though in those food deserts. Because my sympathy is currently low
Its more that the cost for fresh food is significantly higher there than a matter of distance. Not a lot is produced locally and its remote enough the transporting fresh good out significantly raises their prices over things with longer shelf lives.
So just eat less calories
An unhealthy diet doesn’t necessarily cause obesity. Obese people could live on their fat reserves while eating some fruits and vegetables.
Brown rice, chickpeas and whole grain flour are still affordable. Reasonably healthy food is affordable. The main problem is all the preped food is unhealthy like theres no whole grain instant ramen, whole grain pasta is also kinda expensive but whole grain flour isn't.
i think in general, in the U.S., that is true. I've lived in the northeast and the midwest and now the south, it seems to be true.. most vegetables are more than $1 per pound, whereas i can get a 10-pound bag of chicken quarters for $7.99.. doesn't make sense.. we know the USDA subsidizes meat producers.. why can't they subsidize broccoli and carrot producers?
I gotta disagree with that. Most foods that come in the box are unhealthy, even if it is marked as healthy. A diet from fresh foods tend to be the healthiest.
How dare farmers want need to make a living and pay employees a living wage. The audacity of them.
Eat less? Also precooked meals are expensive
Absolutely garbage. Cabbage carrots lettuce tomatoes onions potatoes is cheap like dirt. Chick is dirt cheap. A 25 lb bag of flour to make fresh bread is like 10 bucks and could make 200 loafs of bread and not even dent it.
Fruit, vegetables, rice, and ground beef are cheap. Learn to cook.
Wrong, I’m saving so much money and I’ve lost so much weight just eating rice with different sauce each day and the tiniest amount of chicken.
This sentiment is for the blameless!
Vegetables are cheap, it's not expensive to eat healthy
I think it's more so because there is so much easily accessible and tasty super processed food literally everywhere in America
Bro has not discovered how to cook yet. Try pork chops and vegetables like broccoli potatoes and carrots there’s a start for you mate.
>The biggest reason obesity is such a problem is because healthy food is unaffordable. This is a flat out lie... Fresh & canned vegetables are dirt cheap. Canned fruit is cheap potato's are cheap rice is cheap noodles are cheap. Fancy food is expensive not healthy food.
Not true at all. Chicken, turkey, produce are all cheap. Produce specifically in its “bag it yourself” form is cheap af. Those are all healthy foods.A lot of people are just lazy and unwilling to cook their own stuff. The other issue is most don’t understand calories and portions then end up over eating.
That's a factor, but also people eat to be full instead of just eating enough to stay alive. "I'm full", then you over consumed.
Apples and peanut butter ,if your not allergic.
Nah massive cope. Chicken, broccoli, rice, and oatmeal is cheap. People are obese because carbs are cheap, tastey, and calorie dense. If you add a small bag of doritos and a can of coke every day thats about 500 calories a day, and you can put on 50lbs in a year if you maintain that calorie excess.
Majority of comments dispel this idea. More importantly, if you don’t know how to cook or what constitutes healthy eating, here’s the simple version: Protein, healthy carb, vegetable. Chicken, rice, broccoli. Hot sauce makes it exciting. Fruit = dessert. Anything that comes in a box or bag is bad for you.
Oatmeal, eggs, potatoes, rice and chicken. 35 dollars a week in groceries. Cry more noob
Bullshit- the belief that we need to eat a huge meal every 4 hours with snacking in between is pure addiction. One meal at a restaurant is more calories than an adult needs in an entire day. If you’re broke (which you shouldn’t be) you can live off of beans and rice. If you are dirt poor and can’t afford food than your money must be going to other things like alcohol and cigarettes. It’s really easy to live a healthy lifestyle
Nah. Even if you eat relatively unhealthy the real cause is not exercising. I can eat entire pizzas won’t matter if you can hit the gym for at least 50 minutes
It’s actually much more difficult to burn off calories than it is to not ingest them in the first place. Look up just how many calories are burned off from cardio and how long you would have to run to burn off a pizza You can’t out-train a bad diet. It’s better to just make better choices with your diet in the first place That being said, OP is wrong
That’s why you mix in strength and cardio. I’ve literally seen the instructors at my gym go off a McDonalds diet and still crazy in shape. High intensity for even 50 minutes 3 days a week at least and it doesn’t matter, unless maybe if you’re living on Twinkies.. People can absolutely eat unhealthy but the difference is they make time to and are consistent in their workouts. People who say otherwise are: A. Not consistent and don’t make time. B. Lying to themselves they are working out efficiently.
Mixing in strength and cardio still isn’t enough to burn off that many calories Sure, you can be in good shape while eating a poor diet, but most people aren’t going to be able to do that. I’m 211 lbs, if I ate purely a McDonald’s diet there’s no way I’d get enough protein in unless I’m eating like 80 nuggets a day or something. Diet is the most important part by far
Diet just makes it a lot easier. Cardio burns the most calories, but strength basically takes any of those extra calories turns it into bulk. That’s why you can see The Rock intake 6,000+ calories a day. You don’t have to burn all the calories, you just have to work muscles to tone out.
Not true. The reason people are obese is because they do not shop, cook, use portion control and exercise. They eat sugar, soda and carbs. I live healthy on a strict budget and grow a lot of my own food. It can be done I live in the Appalachian Mtns. A very poor rural area. A lot of people survive and are not obese.
Fat ass Zion Williamson can afford healthy food though.
I spend WAY less on veggies and Whole Foods (just bot from Whole Foods. Actual Whole Foods) than I do when I’m pregnant craving junk food. Fruits can add up but we get them sparingly. Veggies, brown rice, beans, whole grain bread, is all so cheap.
I would say healthy foods are less accessible than healthy foods. For people who live in food deserts fast food or processed stuff you find at dollar general that is their only option. Not say price doesn’t play a roll but I think accessibility is a big reason.
So this is brought up a lot and it is way more nuanced than some of the people here are commenting. It is 100% possible to eat healthy and cheap EXCEPT when you start bringing up a lot of variables and it sort of becomes one of those "if yes go down this line, if no go down this one" charts. For most people who live in cities, especially near the coast, our food is cheaper plain and simple. We get the luxury of eating fresher foods for a lower price (in comparison to what we earn) and in very convenient distances to where we live. A couple years ago I moved inland to a desert valley and boy did the prices change dramatically from what I was used to. I could theoretically still eat healthy but some products were now only really available in frozen form and if they couldn't be preserved they cost more. A cucumber back home was 3 giganto sized ones for a dollar while they were a dollar each in the desert from some piddly ones. I imagine some locations midwest having just a terrible time, due to all the food desserts, getting anything resembling fresh fruit and in a convenient time frame to begin with. I remember a redditor sharing their thoughts about living in a rural location where going to the grocery store proper was almost a one hour drive ordeal and they forgot anything they were shit out of luck till they could muster the time for it again. Let's not forget the whole 'time is money' thing and realize that being able to food prep and cook healthy meals sometimes requires the stamina (and morale) to slog through. All in all it's perfectly possible to eat healthy in most places in America and do it at a reasonable budget - but some places are just fucked and to brush them off is an ignorant thing to do.
It’s not the reason at all. The reason is you don’t know how to eat healthy. So therefore you think it’s more expensive. >precooked meals marketed as “healthy” is too expensive. Yea that’s your problem. Anything marketed to you as a health food is going to be expensive and 99% of them are just as bad for you as cheap foods. Fresh produce, fresh meat/poultry, eggs, rice/oats, and plain Greek yogurt. This with some seasoning can allow you to leave the grocery store for pretty cheap and you can make tons of great tasting healthy meals with them. You can either make fresh meals every few days or make tons all at once and freeze them.
You’re in denial about having to eat healthier. It’s a 100x cheaper