Think Eating Healthy is Too Expensive? Consider the Alternative

Note: This article is not intended for the number of people who are struggling financially or those living in food deserts, where healthy foods are simply unavailable. That is an important discussion for another article.

This article is for people I have encountered who tell me, “It is too expensive to eat healthy or to eat organic foods.” In every case, the person I am speaking to has the means to eat healthier with the extra cost not making a substantial dent in their pocketbooks. In these cases, cost is a mindset and is relative to what the person deems to be of value.

My point is that people choose to spend money on what they value, and because many people do not see the value of eating a diet rich in organically grown plant foods, they don’t see spending extra money to do so. The question is, how is it possible to educate people of the importance of eating well?

The problem today is that many people get their information about what to eat from media, and the media has a schizophrenic approach to diet, the facts keep changing like the weather.

But if we take a closer look, the changes are subtle, and there is a pattern to them. Popular diets for the past few decades have included the foods that people simply don’t want to live without.

With government subsidization of animal agriculture and dairy, these products have become cheaper and more available. Along with the increase in consumption of animal foods and dairy, American obesity rates have risen accordingly.

When I taught 3rd grade in 1992, I was responsible for teaching the Food Guide Pyramid to my students. Though the guide was far from perfect (the base staple being breads, cereals, rice and pasta, without the stipulation of whole grain, making the diet high in simple carbohydrates) there was a focus on eating a variety of fruits and vegetables.

Of course a diet based upon simple carbohydrates was a recipe for disaster, but what has happened since that time is that all carbohydrates have been shunned. This is has been a tragic turn of events for many because even with this war on carbs, people are still gaining weight, and, more importantly, getting sicker and sicker.

I am going to make an analogy here that has helped me to focus on the the cost/benefit of eating well. Years ago, my family had quite a menagerie of animals. On a whim, I decided to adopt a kitten for each of my three sons, so they could say they had once raised their own pet. We already had two cats and a dog. Then we moved to the country, where we inherited a few more cats, another dog, and one of the cats we adopted had kittens before we could get her spayed. All in all, we ended up with about six cats and two dogs.

As parents of three teenagers and a young daughter, my husband and I were not in the financial position of taking these animals to the vet, so I focused on keeping them as healthy as possible, by forgoing the cheapest dog and cat foods and buying more nutritious, but also more expensive, brands.

My plan, thus far, over 15 years later, has worked. Other than regular vaccinations, I have not had to take a single animal to the vet for any reason. At the same time, I have friends who feed their dogs human foods and snacks, and they take their pets regularly to see the veterinarian. These same friends say that the pet foods I buy are simply too expensive.

The truth is that the foods I buy are slightly more expensive, but compared to the cost of taking even one pet to the veterinarian, I am saving much more than I would be spending.

This same philosophy works with my food. In the three years since I began seriously eating a whole food plant-based diet, I have only gone to the doctor for a yearly visit, which has been covered 100% by insurance as a wellness checkup. My daughter and I have not been to the doctor for an illness once during this time.

Because I am over 55, if I were to adopt the Standard American Diet, it is clear that I would need medical care more often to regulate my cholesterol and blood pressure. In 2013, my doctor told me I was prediabetic, which if I kept going in the same direction, would mean a progression into Type II diabetes. This proves to me that as our bodies age, it is even more important to eat well.

As in the pet food example, the choice to eat well, to consume more fruits and vegetables, and to buy organic whenever possible, is a value judgment. Unfortunately, many people don’t sit down and do the math, and the reason for that is usually that they are being told that what they are eating is not the cause of their disease.

In fact, the leading cause of death for both men and women in the U.S. is heart disease, a lifestyle disease for the majority of people, brought on by what we put on our forks and knives. Though doctors will tell patients their heart disease is genetic, the choices we make about what to eat play a powerful role in preventing the expression of genes.

While heart disease may run in families, it is possible to prevent the disease by eating a low-fat plant-based diet.  According to Caldwell B. Esselstyn, Jr., in his book Prevent and Reverse Heart Disease, “If you maintain a cholesterol level of under 150 mg/dL, or LDL under 80 mg/dL, you and all other relatives who inherited these genes–will be free of heart disease.”

Writing about the mindset around the cost of eating healthy is important to me because daily I watch people I love get sicker and sicker because of the food choices they are making. They have bought into the mainstream argument that it is just too expensive to eat well. While I believe another reason for this reluctance to look at their food choices is their liking for less healthy options, I think the media, the food corporations, and the government play a large role in the confusion around food.

There are many ways to eat healthy while saving money. Buying bulk, buying produce in season when it is plentiful, therefore less expensive, and using guides, such as Environmental Working Group’s Dirty Dozen and Clean Fifteen, that track the foods we absolutely must eat organic to prevent a toxic load to our bodies of the many agricultural chemicals being used today, and choosing the ones that have fewer chemical residues, are a few options.

The bottom line is that eating well for most people is a choice. While there are populations who need our assistance to eliminate food deserts and provide more fresh options, many people are simply choosing to cut corners when it comes to what they put on their plates.

A majority of what is sold in grocery stores today is processed and unhealthful, but the snack and soda aisles keep growing. In the end, the ballooning cost of healthcare and the ballooning waistlines of Americans are going to implode. The system will collapse due to unsustainable costs, and individuals will collapse due to ill health.

It is time to stop looking at government to provide answers. Each individual has the responsibility to take charge of his/her health. Every dollar that is spent is a vote towards what companies will provide. When consumers begin choosing more fruits and vegetables, producers will start providing more of them. It is a simple lesson in economics. Production of organic foods has exploded in the past decade, and as demand increases this growth will continue.

Taking a look at our mindset around the cost of healthy eating is a first step towards health. What seems cheap today can turn out to be expensive in the long run, and the same goes for paying more for organic and clean produce, consuming a majority of clean plant foods, while forgoing processed foods, can lead to substantial savings and to greater health in our future.

Photo by Artur Rutkowski on Unsplash