Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
You illustrate my point to a tee. You CAN eat healthful food more cheaply than fast food or packaged food if you are willing to cook and research your choices.
Who says you have to eat brown rice? You can just as easily eat white rice, and have a healthful meal. You can buy a 20# bag of white rice at your local asian market for about $10. Did you know how many healthful calories there are in that bag of rice? About 60,000. That's a lot of servings. Same goes for all kinds of legumes.
You can regularly find bulk frozen meats on sale for $1/lb or less! I see bags of frozen chicken parts all the time for around 49c a pound. Buy the vegetables that are in season and on sale, why do you have to have that expensive salad? You don't! Buy cabbage and carrots and make home made coleslaw. Pasta and sauce are dirt cheap. Buy a bread maker and start making your own bread for about a buck a loaf instead of spending $3-4/loaf.
Geeze, people, it's not rocket science. For the same $3-4 that you spend on your nasty-tasting box of hamburger helper and ground beef (that will not serve a whole family anyway) I could make a meal that costs about the same and will feed twice as many people much more healthfully.
White rice is right up there with hamburger helper in my book. It raises blood glucose and aids in diabetes. I thought we were talking about healthy eating? Brown rice is healthier and therefore more expensive to buy, which proves my point.
I would love to see a healthy meal that you have prepared for 3-4 dollars and feeds 4-6 people. Post a picture when you have accomplished this feat.
Six people aren't going to be able to make much of a meal out of $4 worth of junk food, either.
It would be quite a bit healthier just to soak some cheapo bulk beans in water and cook up some bean soup with whatever else, if anything, you've got. Look around for whatever bulk grains are on sale at the time. Might be barley; might be lima beans; might be oats; might be lentils.
I had a long post wiped out by the daily reset so the short version(prices not best or 'sale' prices and rounded UP............just from my cupboard/fridge right at the moment.
3 lbs chicken legs at 59¢...... $ 1.80
4 servings Uncle Ben's Brown Rice $ 1.60
1/2 bag carrots........................ $ 1.00
Total $ 4.40
Throw in 1/2 bottle of apple juice.........75¢ (you didn't add what 4 drinks woould be in cost or content)
You can make that 99¢ cheesburger at home with more expensive, less fatty meat and REAL cheese for about 75¢
Spend the extra 25¢ on a whole wheat bun and get better nutrition .
I make a hearty, filling and healthy sweet potato/lentil/tomato stew that would serve 6 easily for under $4.00. I call it Caribbean Hot & Hearty.
Ingredients:
Two large sweet potatoes, cut into cubes (peeled or not, your choice)
one small-medium onion, chopped
2-4 cloves garlic, minced
1.5 cups lentils, dry
one can diced tomatoes (or fresh when in season or from your garden), plus four cups water, add more as necessary when cooking.
Spices of your choice (I use black pepper, a bit of cayenne, some curry powder and a bit of ginger and cinnamon).
Bring to boil and then lower heat and simmer for an hour.
When cooked, take half and put in blender to puree into a creamy consistency and add back into the stew.
In lieu of lentils, you can use black beans instead.
Can serve with corn bread if desired--or another bread of your choice or a green salad...not necessary, though, this is a complete meal by itself.
I serve as a main meal--it's very filling with the taters and the lentils and high in healthy plant protein and fiber. A good cold weather meal.
White rice is right up there with hamburger helper in my book. It raises blood glucose and aids in diabetes. I thought we were talking about healthy eating? Brown rice is healthier and therefore more expensive to buy, which proves my point.
You do know the difference between white rice and brown rice, don't you? Or maybe you don't.
White rice is just brown rice with the outside removed, so if white rice is so "bad" for you, you shouldn't be eating brown rice either. Sure, brown rice has more fiber and a bit more nutritional value than white rice, but that doesn't mean white rice is unhealthful. Plus, you're not going to contract diabetes from simply eating white rice.
Quote:
I would love to see a healthy meal that you have prepared for 3-4 dollars and feeds 4-6 people. Post a picture when you have accomplished this feat.
I believe that should be "a healthful meal". Food is healthFUL. People are HEALTHY.
There are tons of such recipes online if someone wants to move their chubby little fingers a little bit and use Google. I don't need to post them here. Besides, even if I did you would still stubbornly insist that it's impossible to feed a family of four a healthFUL meal for under $5 or whatever. If that were the case, my family would be fat or dead.
Oh...and the article you posted? It agrees with me. It doesn't say fast food is cheaper than healthful food. It says people are stressed out and looking for an easy meal, and not willing to cook anymore.
White rice isn't 'unhealthy', but it is empty calories. Brown rice has some nutritional value. So is white rice better than McDonalds? Absolutely. If you have the choice, should you eat brown or whole grain rice instead? Yes to that as well.
White rice isn't 'unhealthy', but it is empty calories. Brown rice has some nutritional value. So is white rice better than McDonalds? Absolutely. If you have the choice, should you eat brown or whole grain rice instead? Yes to that as well.
Not quite accurate.
Here's a comparison chart for many kinds of rice. Rebecca Blood :: Brown and White Rice Nutritional Comparison Chart
Since rice isn't the only food that is inexpensive and plentiful, this part of the post is really beside the point.
I just don't like to let wrong information sit uncontested.
Point being there are multitudes of things to eat better and cheaper than from fast food places.
There are also a multitude of meals that take only minutes to prepare so time isn't even the real issue.
Not quite accurate.
Here's a comparison chart for many kinds of rice. Rebecca Blood :: Brown and White Rice Nutritional Comparison Chart
Since rice isn't the only food that is inexpensive and plentiful, this part of the post is really beside the point.
I just don't like to let wrong information sit uncontested.
Point being there are multitudes of things to eat better and cheaper than from fast food places.
There are also a multitude of meals that take only minutes to prepare so time isn't even the real issue.
Thanks for catching me on that. I was thinking of the health difference between white and whole grain...I might have been off a little.
You do know the difference between white rice and brown rice, don't you? Or maybe you don't.
White rice is just brown rice with the outside removed, so if white rice is so "bad" for you, you shouldn't be eating brown rice either. Sure, brown rice has more fiber and a bit more nutritional value than white rice, but that doesn't mean white rice is unhealthful. Plus, you're not going to contract diabetes from simply eating white rice.
I believe that should be "a healthful meal". Food is healthFUL. People are HEALTHY.
There are tons of such recipes online if someone wants to move their chubby little fingers a little bit and use Google. I don't need to post them here. Besides, even if I did you would still stubbornly insist that it's impossible to feed a family of four a healthFUL meal for under $5 or whatever. If that were the case, my family would be fat or dead.
Oh...and the article you posted? It agrees with me. It doesn't say fast food is cheaper than healthful food. It says people are stressed out and looking for an easy meal, and not willing to cook anymore.
Kthxbye now.
And you know this because you have a degree in nutrition or are in the medical field?.....like I am. Okey dokey.
Well...
1). Technology: I grew up in the 1980s-1990s (mostly 1990s...since I was born in 1985). So in my lifetime I went from CDs being novelty items to universal cell phone use. Yes, even as late as the mid 1990s, kids were playing outside and sports. With more sophisticated video games, and the rise of the internet, there is less of a need/want for physical activity.
2). Food industry: During this same time period, portion sizes actually increased. So, as physical activity decreased due to increased technology use, there was an increase in portions. Not a good relationship. Plus, during this same time period a larger portion of marketing occurred. Coke in schools started in the 1990s. Now it is commonplace practice. Vending machines in our public schools make it easy to purchase sugary, unhealthy drinks.
3). Economy: Pressures from abroad and increased costs of living coupled with stagnant wages means that parents spend more time at work. Thus, its easier to giver Jr. a few dollars than to bake that tuna noodle casserole. Mom and dad are busy at the office. Telecommuniting never really caught on. With lower income families it actually is cheaper to buy fast food than to make food from scratch.
4). City planning: Most Americans live in suburbs. We live in the first century in which the majority of Americans live in suburban areas. Thus, one commutes to work by car, goes shopping in a car, and visits friends/relatives by car. There is no walking as in the city. No hard physical labor as in the country as well. What occurs is a lack of physical activity. Some isolated exburbs don't have neighborhood shopping plazas. Or very few to the point in which many areas are not serviced.
5). Education: There is a lack of nutritional education. Less emphasis on the science behind what we eat.
There are probably other reasons, but these are the main ones I can think of off the top of my head.
That's a good list.
I think part of it has been engineered by schools/govt/food companies.
There's zero education in school on nutrition, the body, weight gain, sugar, etc. It's drink a sugary coke first, ask questions later. Encouraged, promoted by the Pepsi Generation, Coke, etc?
You don't know the relationship between food companies, soda companies and schools.
-Increase in portion size, I dont understand. Do people require that many more calories in the 2000's vs the 50's for example? Compare original meals at McDonalds in the 50's to the ones now. Yet from 1900-50, to 1970, we didnt have the suburban life we have now, more physical labor, etc. Why would the drinks be four times bigger if we're doing less than we did then?
I see that as more of a broader dumbing down, by schools that don't encourage students to ask questions, media that doesn't ask questions (and only follows what their sponsors want). They want a populace that feels out of control (and thus advertisers can solve).
-The quality of the food is not the same. I dont know all the facts, but I know burgers sold in the 50's through 80's are different than the ones today. There's more synthetic food now. Why? Greed, its cheaper. More demand from shareholders of McDonalds to cut costs or improve sales?
-Technology...its about the same. It seems more exciting now (thanks to more aggressive marketing). But the transistor radio/walkman is now an ipod or iphone. How much more time do people spend with tech gadgets now vs in the past, I dont know. But video games, internet....we had arcades not that long ago.
But we live an isolated life. Food companies, etc have probably taken advantage of that.
Last edited by John23; 02-18-2009 at 05:09 PM..
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
