Eating Well on a Budget

[zenpawn]

Research continually finds socio-economic trends in those who eat well and those who don't, with much of it placed on cost disparities between healthy and unhealthy foods. Any thoughts? Solutions?

[sparrowrose]

I fall below the poverty line, so this is a topic that is very close to my heart.

Before I turned to heathier foods, ramen noodles was a staple of my diet. Obviously, I don't eat ramen now because of the high sodium and chemical content. I also have discovered a strong gluten intolerance so I don't eat noodles at all.

I had to find a new dietary staple and I found it in bananas. When I'm lucky, I can find bananas at $0.28/pound (the ripe ones the store is trying to get rid of before they spoil.) When the cheap bananas are sold out, I pay $0.48/pound. Banana (weighed with skin) has about 98 calories per pound or 204 to 350 calories per dollar.

By comparison, my local stores sell ramen at 10 to 25 cents per packet which has 380 calories. That's 1520 to 3800 calories per dollar. So far, ramen looks like a better deal (calorie-wise, anyway) right?

But I had to eat at least two packets of ramen at a meal to feel full and often that wasn't enough and I'd go back to eat two more. So 12 packets of ramen a day at $1.20 to $3 and 4568 calories (small wonder I was obese.)

I find that I'm stuffed and happy after three bananas. So 12 bananas a day at $0.84 to $2.16 and 1200 to 1800 calories (no wonder I've lost 100 pounds.) If I add in some greens (a bit less than $2/day) I get complete nutrition according to my DietPower software. Of course I try to throw in other fruits and vegetables as much as I can afford, but I feel confident that I'm getting good nutrition, even on days when I can't afford more than bananas and spinach or kale.

When I compare calories-per-dollar, bananas look more expensive than ramen. When I compare what I actually eat to feel satiated, bananas are much cheaper than ramen, much healthier for me, and give my body a level of calories that assist my weight in normalizing rather than ballooning. (There are other healthier foods that are more cost-effective than ramen as well. Before I went raw, I was losing weight and getting healthier with dried beans and brown rice for very cheap.)

So poverty, in my opinion, is not the only thing holding people back from health. Education is as important -- if not more important -- in making healthy choices. Because I took the time to experiment, keep notes, and run some calculations (and because I have some basic algebra experience enabling me to do calculations quickly and easily) I have healthier food for less money.

It seems to me that one important element in helping people living in poverty to eat better is making sure that better foods are in their stores but another important element is to help people undertand the *true* economics (not just in cash but in health as well) of their food choices.