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Eating healthily
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Fresh food with the best nutrients is expensive.
Cheap shit tinned and frozen food filled with water and sugar is much more available within budgets.
Convenience counts too. The hours people have to work to support a household and then the maintenance on top means fe people have the time to plan, buy at the correct time and prep whole healthy meals. |
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By (user no longer on site) 46 weeks ago
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When I compare it to ready meals and what fast food costs these days, I'd say that it definitely isn't more expensive. Although I only cook for myself, I know what foods to buy to stretch the week and it definitely isn't as expensive as people think. |
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"Fresh food with the best nutrients is expensive.
Cheap shit tinned and frozen food filled with water and sugar is much more available within budgets.
Convenience counts too. The hours people have to work to support a household and then the maintenance on top means fe people have the time to plan, buy at the correct time and prep whole healthy meals."
Add to that the cost of electric or gas to cook, plus many don't have the skills to cook healthily depending on the upbringing. |
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By (user no longer on site) 46 weeks ago
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It's probably time poor, skill poor, and "taste" poor that is hitting us as much as cost.
It takes a minutes for a microwave and even oven ready meals are easy and plentiful.
And we demand variety which means that making a big pot of something for the week seems out the question too.
Cost is a factor, but it's lower down the list in my view than others. |
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Prey’s right. As usual.
Eating well is a privilege. I try never to take it for granted.
I’m lucky to have the money to buy fresh ingredients. The money to buy a house with a good kitchen to prepare them in. And in a good area that means I have access to quality food. The freedom to spend time cooking. The lack of responsibilities to afford me that time and freedom. To have had the education to know how to cook for myself.
Not everyone has all those privileges. And for some people convenience and cost are the most important factors. |
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A microwave pasta meal for one is about £2.50. A big bag of pasta is 85p. Tin of tomatoes, chopped veg, maybe a bit of cheese, tuna, ham or sausage added. The home cooked meal is a fraction of the price and much healthier. |
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All honesty it works out about the same for me (Mr) to eat healthy home cooked meals and food prepped ones delivered to my door.
It costs me about £75-£90 a week if I do all my own food prep, usually a two week batch and freeze most of it.
I can buy two weeks worth of good quality meal prep meals for £50 a week and I’ll spend about £25 plus on my other meals that I like fresh |
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"is expensive.
I've seen this written and heard people say it many times.
Is it more expensive than eating 'unhealthyily ' ? "
Vegetables are good value at supermarkets. Including Cabbage, brocoli, cauliflower (other Vegetables are available), frozen veg is good value too. |
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I’ve no idea if it’s more or less expensive, but I do know that basic fruit and vegetables are pretty cheap. Broccoli, cauliflower, carrots and potatoes, swede, cabbage etc. Buying a whole chicken is no more expensive than buying just two chicken breasts, but you’ll get far more meals out of it. Eating healthily doesn’t have to mean Quinoa and blueberries and pumpkin seeds, which are expensive. It can be achieved with basic ingredients and the willingness (or time) to prepare and cook Xx |
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I microwave jacket potatoes, microwave chopped veg, add a dash of olive oil and seasoning, put in oven for 20 minutes with something like a quiche, fishcake, chicken Kiev and it's no trouble at all. |
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"A microwave pasta meal for one is about £2.50. A big bag of pasta is 85p. Tin of tomatoes, chopped veg, maybe a bit of cheese, tuna, ham or sausage added. The home cooked meal is a fraction of the price and much healthier. "
And what is the price of the upbringing and education needed to know - or even to care about - all of that? The cost of the education and opportunities needed to have a job that pays for a home with a decent kitchen? The price of a lifestyle that affords you the freedom to even have half an hour spare to spend cooking it?
Cost isn’t as simple as a price tag. There’s more to it. |
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By (user no longer on site) 46 weeks ago
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"A microwave pasta meal for one is about £2.50. A big bag of pasta is 85p. Tin of tomatoes, chopped veg, maybe a bit of cheese, tuna, ham or sausage added. The home cooked meal is a fraction of the price and much healthier.
And what is the price of the upbringing and education needed to know - or even to care about - all of that? The cost of the education and opportunities needed to have a job that pays for a home with a decent kitchen? The price of a lifestyle that affords you the freedom to even have half an hour spare to spend cooking it?
Cost isn’t as simple as a price tag. There’s more to it."
I think the education is there though if people actually want to make a difference in their diet. YouTube videos about meal prep and making food stretch has been my education having grown up on convenience foods due to both parents being too busy and those videos are an easy source for anyone looking to start in my opinion. |
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"A microwave pasta meal for one is about £2.50. A big bag of pasta is 85p. Tin of tomatoes, chopped veg, maybe a bit of cheese, tuna, ham or sausage added. The home cooked meal is a fraction of the price and much healthier.
And what is the price of the upbringing and education needed to know - or even to care about - all of that? The cost of the education and opportunities needed to have a job that pays for a home with a decent kitchen? The price of a lifestyle that affords you the freedom to even have half an hour spare to spend cooking it?
Cost isn’t as simple as a price tag. There’s more to it."
This is very interesting. When my parents were young, right into their adults lives, what you describe above wasn’t any kind of privilege, it was the only way to live. Have we really lost the basic skills to survive, such as being able to cook pasta on a hob, in just two generations? What does that say about the priorities of our society when people cannot - either through a lack of education or kitchen utensils - cook for themselves a basic meal using simple and readily available ingredients? If true, what an indictment of the utter failure of society. |
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*if* you have a freezer, storage for tins, utensils and a two ring hob plus more importantly money, I believe you can eat healthily as cheaply as unhealthily. Take one of more of those things out of the equation and you're in trouble |
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"I think the education is there though if people actually want to make a difference in their diet. YouTube videos about meal prep and making food stretch has been my education having grown up on convenience foods due to both parents being too busy and those videos are an easy source for anyone looking to start in my opinion."
All true, but you have to reframe your point of reference a bit. ‘Everyone’ could be more inclusive.
Imagine your only Internet access is through your phone. That’s pretty common. And your pay-as-you-go credit has to last until the end of the week. (You always live week-to-week. That’s when your money comes in.) You have to keep credit on your phone so that you can phone about work shifts. Or childcare. You can’t afford to use it up watching YouTube. If you want to watch YouTube you’ll have to go do it at the library. But that means getting a bus and you’d have to take the kids with you because you can’t leave them at home and you can’t really spare the money for the tickets.
I’m taking this to extremes to make the point, but … people’s daily realities can be very different from our own. It’s healthy to try and see things from other perspectives now and then. |
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By (user no longer on site) 46 weeks ago
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People have very different ideas of what healthy looks like.
If you're comparing to prepared meals with the same nutritional values it would be far, far cheaper to cook from scratch.
If you're comparing cheap rubbish to a home cooked meal it's more complex but providing you have the time along with the resources - equipment, herbs & spices etc. it's still possible to eat healthily on a budget. |
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I used to buy the pasta they sell as lunch. Now I just make my own. Large bag of pasta 1.49. Jar of pesta .99. Pine nuts and mozerella 2.00.
So for about ?5.00 I can make about 8 meals and it takes 15 minutes to prepare.
Roast veg. Jacket potato. I buy a gammon joint and it lasts me 3 days. |
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Perhaps it's a bit more time expensive than in money terms.
It's interesting to see education and social deprivation being brought up. I was brought up in a household where getting food on the table was an issue. Which meant we had to grow a lot of our own. Which meant having to have basic cooking skills. Food wastage was not an option, so even if it tasted horrible we ate it. It would have been unimaginable for my parents to buy convenience food, that was the reserve of the better off. Strange how it has all turned around. |
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I am not convinced. It might be if compared eith ready meals or takeaways. However to eat food prepared with high quality ingredients is not. Might be ok if for example you buy the cheapest chicken wings but good quality organic meat costs a lot. The same with good quality and varied fruit, not the supermarket often tasteless stuff. You probably can do it but requires serious planning, good cooking skills and time.Many people sadly don't have those skills, money, time or whatever as was said by others. There are lots of people struggling to make ends meet and I will never assume tbey could do better. Like on those poor house, rich house stuff or those celebrities doing programmes to people can live on a fiver and fail miserably. More skills, education, support yes of course.  |
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"If you batch cook it's cheaper to eat healthily and great for those evenings after work when I really can't be bothered. "
Batch cooking isn't as helpful if you don't have the freezer space and many people on low incomes can't afford or don't have space for a freezer. You have to batch cook a large amount for a family of 4, for example. We are lucky to be able to have a large chest freezer that is kept outside. |
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By (user no longer on site) 46 weeks ago
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"If you batch cook it's cheaper to eat healthily and great for those evenings after work when I really can't be bothered.
Batch cooking isn't as helpful if you don't have the freezer space and many people on low incomes can't afford or don't have space for a freezer. You have to batch cook a large amount for a family of 4, for example. We are lucky to be able to have a large chest freezer that is kept outside. "
Also - freezers cost a bloody fortune to run! Most of my electricity goes on my fucking freezers |
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"You've gotta be a bit thick if you can't put together a decent healthy meal for cheap. "
You gotta be a bit heartless to not read the above!!
Heating, utensils, time, energy, bulk buying, storage, transport….
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"You've gotta be a bit thick if you can't put together a decent healthy meal for cheap.
You gotta be a bit heartless to not read the above!!
Heating, utensils, time, energy, bulk buying, storage, transport….
"
they also didn't answer.. yes you can knock a reasonably cheap meal together that's healthy but.. it is still cheaper to put a meal together from unhealthy stuff |
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"You've gotta be a bit thick if you can't put together a decent healthy meal for cheap.
You gotta be a bit heartless to not read the above!!
Heating, utensils, time, energy, bulk buying, storage, transport….
"
Yep. We consider ourselves very lucky to have the means, the equipment etc to eat healthily. We don't have huge amounts of time but we do have a slow cooker and the means to store batch cooked food and to buy in bulk to reduce time spent shopping. We are very aware not everyone has those luxuries. |
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By *irthandgirthMan 46 weeks ago
Camberley occasionally doncaster |
"is expensive.
I've seen this written and heard people say it many times.
Is it more expensive than eating 'unhealthyily ' ? "
No. It isn't. Especially if you batch cook.
I eat *really fkn well* and most of my meals come in at just over £2-2.50. And my protein intake is higher than most. |
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am i right in saying the only thing fresh is in the fruit and veg isles.
what i mean is anything in a packet or plasic or selophane , even what you think is healthy like salmon , steak etc all has loads of aditives in it , i dont think these aditives are healthy and havent even heard of half of them..
so healthy eating would mean fresh veg , meat from the butchers , fish from the fishmongers etc etc
even jars of curry sauce n stuff , spag bol sauce , all full of wierd ingredients.. |
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I cook from scratch most days - I eat a lot of chicken, rice and so forth which I buy in bulk. A big paella will take me probably 5 mins of actual work ( 20/25 mins end to end from the time I start) and cost 2 or 3 quid. A “convenient” microwaveable dish might be a ten mins faster end to end but would cost a lot more, would be much smaller (and so I would still be hungry) and would taste much worse.
I don’t claim to be a good cook at all but I do eat well and it doesn’t cost me that much from scratch.
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"is expensive.
I've seen this written and heard people say it many times.
Is it more expensive than eating 'unhealthyily ' ? "
Not at all.
Healthy meals prepared from scratch cost us about £1 per head per meal.
Easy, cheap, nutritious and varied. |
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By (user no longer on site) 46 weeks ago
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Using my air fryer more as seeing the odd reports about microwaves having a negative impact on the nutritional value of the food.
Anyone having further information on this? |
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By (user no longer on site) 46 weeks ago
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"is expensive.
I've seen this written and heard people say it many times.
Is it more expensive than eating 'unhealthyily ' ?
No. It isn't. Especially if you batch cook.
I eat *really fkn well* and most of my meals come in at just over £2-2.50. And my protein intake is higher than most."
Any recipes you have i'd apprieciate if you'd like to share some i'm on tight budget & want high protein healthy meals |
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I think a lot of it depends on if you can cook and your cooking skills. If you can’t cook you will spend loads on ready made foods, I’m a decent cook so I’m serving up gourmet meals without spending alot |
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"A microwave pasta meal for one is about £2.50. A big bag of pasta is 85p. Tin of tomatoes, chopped veg, maybe a bit of cheese, tuna, ham or sausage added. The home cooked meal is a fraction of the price and much healthier. "
How do you stick the foil down before you microwave a home made one? |
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"A microwave pasta meal for one is about £2.50. A big bag of pasta is 85p. Tin of tomatoes, chopped veg, maybe a bit of cheese, tuna, ham or sausage added. The home cooked meal is a fraction of the price and much healthier.
And what is the price of the upbringing and education needed to know - or even to care about - all of that? The cost of the education and opportunities needed to have a job that pays for a home with a decent kitchen? The price of a lifestyle that affords you the freedom to even have half an hour spare to spend cooking it?
Cost isn’t as simple as a price tag. There’s more to it.
I think the education is there though if people actually want to make a difference in their diet. YouTube videos about meal prep and making food stretch has been my education having grown up on convenience foods due to both parents being too busy and those videos are an easy source for anyone looking to start in my opinion."
I’m a qualified personal trainer and I’ve studied nutrition. I can cook healthily from scratch from a variety of cuisines. I also know how to prep food for the freezer, and how to cost-effectively batch cook. At any time I usually have around 40 portions of healthy and balanced meals in my freezer.
I still can’t cook for my small 5ft body as cheaply as I can buy junk food. |
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There are two types of cost. Capital costs and revenue costs. Think of one being equipment whilst the other is ingredients and energy.
Plant milk in the shops is very expensive. Mine costs pennies but I use a plant milk maker costing £180. I am well in profit over the long term. I also have a bread maker (5 ingredients rather than 13-15 ingredients from shop). Then there is the air fryer to reduce energy costs. A slow cooker, cheap as chips in energy terms and ingredients. A soup maker for leftovers. And there are other items of kit. Yes, healthy eating is as cheap or cheaper as long as you have got £1,000 in equipment. |
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By (user no longer on site) 46 weeks ago
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"You've gotta be a bit thick if you can't put together a decent healthy meal for cheap.
You gotta be a bit heartless to not read the above!!
Heating, utensils, time, energy, bulk buying, storage, transport….
Yep. We consider ourselves very lucky to have the means, the equipment etc to eat healthily. We don't have huge amounts of time but we do have a slow cooker and the means to store batch cooked food and to buy in bulk to reduce time spent shopping. We are very aware not everyone has those luxuries. "
Most people have a stove/cooker and a couple of pans/saucepans, a small amount of money and a shop they can go to.
I'm sure there are some marginal people without those luxuries but the vast majority of people have access to a basic cook set up. You don't need any fancy plug in contraptions to make good cheap grub. You can do it whilst camping in fact on a fire whilst living in a cloth bag nailed to a field. I despair that people thing making something healthy is something technical or requires a load of equipment and time. |
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"You've gotta be a bit thick if you can't put together a decent healthy meal for cheap.
You gotta be a bit heartless to not read the above!!
Heating, utensils, time, energy, bulk buying, storage, transport….
Yep. We consider ourselves very lucky to have the means, the equipment etc to eat healthily. We don't have huge amounts of time but we do have a slow cooker and the means to store batch cooked food and to buy in bulk to reduce time spent shopping. We are very aware not everyone has those luxuries.
Most people have a stove/cooker and a couple of pans/saucepans, a small amount of money and a shop they can go to.
I'm sure there are some marginal people without those luxuries but the vast majority of people have access to a basic cook set up. You don't need any fancy plug in contraptions to make good cheap grub. You can do it whilst camping in fact on a fire whilst living in a cloth bag nailed to a field. I despair that people thing making something healthy is something technical or requires a load of equipment and time."
Harsh but accurate. |
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By (user no longer on site) 46 weeks ago
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"There are two types of cost. Capital costs and revenue costs. Think of one being equipment whilst the other is ingredients and energy.
Plant milk in the shops is very expensive. Mine costs pennies but I use a plant milk maker costing £180. I am well in profit over the long term. I also have a bread maker (5 ingredients rather than 13-15 ingredients from shop). Then there is the air fryer to reduce energy costs. A slow cooker, cheap as chips in energy terms and ingredients. A soup maker for leftovers. And there are other items of kit. Yes, healthy eating is as cheap or cheaper as long as you have got £1,000 in equipment."
Soya milk is about 60p in Sainsbury's and Lidl. No equipment needed. |
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"You've gotta be a bit thick if you can't put together a decent healthy meal for cheap.
You gotta be a bit heartless to not read the above!!
Heating, utensils, time, energy, bulk buying, storage, transport….
Yep. We consider ourselves very lucky to have the means, the equipment etc to eat healthily. We don't have huge amounts of time but we do have a slow cooker and the means to store batch cooked food and to buy in bulk to reduce time spent shopping. We are very aware not everyone has those luxuries.
Most people have a stove/cooker and a couple of pans/saucepans, a small amount of money and a shop they can go to.
I'm sure there are some marginal people without those luxuries but the vast majority of people have access to a basic cook set up. You don't need any fancy plug in contraptions to make good cheap grub. You can do it whilst camping in fact on a fire whilst living in a cloth bag nailed to a field. I despair that people thing making something healthy is something technical or requires a load of equipment and time."
We are both perfectly capable cooks, thank you for your assessment. We use the slow cooker to batch cook while we are out at work because I cannot stand up to cook for long and my husband doesn't have time to do absolutely everything. Therefore, I put the slow cooker on while I work from home. It enables this family, with one disabled adult (and main income earner) to cook healthy food. |
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By (user no longer on site) 46 weeks ago
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"You've gotta be a bit thick if you can't put together a decent healthy meal for cheap.
You gotta be a bit heartless to not read the above!!
Heating, utensils, time, energy, bulk buying, storage, transport….
Yep. We consider ourselves very lucky to have the means, the equipment etc to eat healthily. We don't have huge amounts of time but we do have a slow cooker and the means to store batch cooked food and to buy in bulk to reduce time spent shopping. We are very aware not everyone has those luxuries.
Most people have a stove/cooker and a couple of pans/saucepans, a small amount of money and a shop they can go to.
I'm sure there are some marginal people without those luxuries but the vast majority of people have access to a basic cook set up. You don't need any fancy plug in contraptions to make good cheap grub. You can do it whilst camping in fact on a fire whilst living in a cloth bag nailed to a field. I despair that people thing making something healthy is something technical or requires a load of equipment and time.
We are both perfectly capable cooks, thank you for your assessment. We use the slow cooker to batch cook while we are out at work because I cannot stand up to cook for long and my husband doesn't have time to do absolutely everything. Therefore, I put the slow cooker on while I work from home. It enables this family, with one disabled adult (and main income earner) to cook healthy food. "
What assessment?
I was just pointing out it's a piece of piss to make cheap healthy food with a minimum of equpment or fuss. I don't care how you personally go about it. |
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