For many people, the habit of eating healthily seems to be out of reach due to the affordability of healthy food. Unhealthy food, on the other hand, is generally seen to be more economical, leading to the hesitation of following “healthy eating” lifestyle from consumers with tight budgets. While this opinion has been proven by many studies, there are other sides of “healthy eating” story that also need to be taken into consideration.
What is “Healthy Eating”?
Healthy eating, by definition, is an eating pattern providing you with sufficient amount of nutrients for your overall health from a variety of healthy foods. Considering individual physical and mental health needs, each person will make different food choices to form his own pattern. Most people, generally, will kick-start their healthy eating journey by following the food pyramid, which includes the recommendations of food groups as well as and each group’s proportion to be consumed on a daily basis.
Why healthy eating is judged to be expensive?
When healthy diets become a rising trend, their costs, consequently, become the center of attention. Many studies have been carried out, only to point out that healthy meals are rather more expensive than their unhealthy counterparts. In 2013, British Medical Journal (BMJ) shared their findings that healthy meal preparation cost $1.50 more than eating junk food. Additionally, Cambridge University also claimed in their 2014 study that the expense of healthy diets was three times than that of unhealthy ones, after examining 100 popular food items in the UK market, also predicted that the price gap would be widening in the future. Both of these studies using the same method, which is comparing the prices between healthier and less healthy diets containing the same amount of calories.
With science backs up, it seems that healthy eating is an expensive habit which cannot be afforded by low-income people. However, it is proven that studies of this topic using another evaluating method will deliver a different result.
Different Approach: Cost-per-kilogram Measurement
For people pursuing healthy eating habit to lose weight or build muscle, calorie quota is of importance, however, for the general public who adopt healthy diets only to provide nutrients for their body, the total weight of intakes seems to be more significant. Thus, studies analyzing healthy meal costs per unit weight should be taken into account as well.
According to the 2017 IEA Discussion Paper examining the cost-per-kilogram of 20 typical unhealthy and 20 healthy food products from 2 supermarkets in the UK, the costs of junk food, including snacks, chips, and processed foods appeared to be much more expensive than lean meats, grains, vegetables, and fruits. Specifically, fruits and vegetables were the cheapest, and only lean meats (fish and chicken) shared similar prices with unhealthy food, although they were still cheaper than processed food. Not only in Britain, there are several similar research in America that also delivered the same result, such as the study of Stewart et al. in 2011.
In order to review this finding in real life circumstance, I have done a small test to compare the expense-per-calorie and kilogram of roughly 1000 kcal unhealthy and healthy meals, with all the products brought from a popular supermarket in Australia.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w1tLPXN3y6M&feature=youtu.be
It can be seen from the video that the prices of unhealthy and healthy food products in Australia share the same characteristic with that in Britain and America. To be more precise, the price of an unhealthy meal is a little cheaper than healthy one based on the cost-per-calorie while when considering the cost-per-kilogram, the result is opposite.
Overall, these findings have shown a different aspect of healthy eating, proving that this lifestyle is completely not unaffordable as the general public’s view, and thus there should be ways for people on a budget to pursue it.
Consequences of Poor Eating Habit
When consuming junk food might be a budget-friendly choice for people in the short-term, in the long-term, this habit will lead to health and financial problems. Poor nutrition can contribute to the risk of developing several chronic diseases and health problems such as obesity, diabetes, heart disease. The costs to manage these health conditions, obviously, can seriously damage your financial situation.
Giang Huong Nguyen, a 24 years old student from Swinburne University who has followed healthy eating lifestyle for 4 years, sharing that the cost of unhealthy eating is much more serious than what people usually think. “Due to my busy schedule in university, there was a time period when I always turned to junk food,” she said, “I gained a lot of weight and always feel tired. I think my immune system was affected as well because I got sick very easily at that time, especially when the weather changed. It was a bad experience, not only my study result suffered from my health condition but also my confidence was impacted because of being overweight.”
After that time, Giang decided to commit to healthy diets. She shares that heathy eating is totally different from her expectation, which is that healthy eating is a strict and expensive diet. However, she found out that this diet is flexible and she can customize her own meals based on her preferences and budget. “Healthy eating allows me to lose weight, to feel more confident and take care of myself better. There are a lot of food choices to choose from, now I really enjoy going shopping for my meal.”
Tips to eat healthily on a budget
There are many ways to adopt a healthy eating habit without emptying your wallet. Here are some tips from Viet Nguyen, admin of Gym Fact, a Vietnamese popular Gym/Physical Fitness Fanpage:
1. Cooking at Home
Cooking at home is always cheaper than eating out, also, you will know exactly what food products you are consuming. For people who want to lose weight by reducing calories in everyday meals, preparing their own foods allows them to calculate the calorie intake more precisely.
2. Eating seasonally and locally
The “in season” as well as local products are those at the peak of their supply, therefore, their costs will be cheaper than that in other time. Also, eating seasonally and locally means that you will be able to enjoy the best taste and all the health benefits from these foods, which is a big plus!
3. Choosing affordable alternatives to expensive healthy foods:
This is an advantage of healthy eating that people tend to overlook. There are a variety of choices in each food group that we can choose regarding our own financial condition. For example, mackerel and sardines can be cheaper substitutes for salmon, yet they contain similar nutrition.
