The cost of good health

The most common questions I was asked during this experiment were about the cost of this type of diet. Beyond my own experience I did a little research to help answer this and here is what I have found.....

For starters, My grocery bill went down in the month I bought nothing processed. The week prior to starting I spent a bit more on groceries then typical to stock my pantry with ingredients new to my kitchen (agave nectar, masa harina, brown rice flour, rolled oats etc.) Some of these ingredients were a bit pricey but, as I have come to include them in my list of pantry staples I am finding them to be easy to incorporate into my regular budget.

I also noticed that a diet built completely upon processed foods, especially if you shop at a discount grocery store, was much cheaper. When you can buy 4 cans of veggies for $1 or sugar laden boxes of cereal for #1.99 and hot dogs or chicken nuggets in bulk for under $10 it is easy to see how some families keep a monthly grocery bill extremely low. There is no was financially to compete with that.

HOWEVER, my most shocking discovery was that the highest budget was a combination of the 2 extremes. In my findings it seems that if you buy half your food processed and half fresh your bill will be highest. I am assuming that is because most of us don't have time to shop 2 or more stores. We simply find a store that offers the fresh produce and meat we like and pick up "a few" processed things while we are there. In doing so we pay more for the box of rice mix, or canned soup then the discount grocery stores.

Every grocery budget is different just like every families list of groceries is different. I would challenge you to look at your groceries or family staples and pick 1 item a week to convert from processed to "homemade". This could mean making a loaf a bread, or your own rice mix, or even buying fresh ground peanut butter (many stores offer this now and the kids LOVE watching the peanuts turn into PB).

I believe subtle changes happening at a consistent rate will change the typical American family diet. Few of us are ready or able to convert from 1 extreme to the other but if we change out 1 item at a time before you know we will have a new generation of people cooking at home and avoiding the dangers of additives and preservatives in our food.

This is such a huge topic that I will revisit it often with more ideas and facts I find to help answer the questions I get on how expensive it is convert from a processed foods diet to a fresh "natural" foods diet.

here are just a few of my price findings at a local grocery store over the past few weeks....

Black Beans name brand 15oz can $1.59
organic brand 15 0z can $2.79
store brand dry beans 4 lb bag $6.39 (cooked makes appx. 16 cans)


Corn name brand 11oz can $1.09
organic brand 15 oz can $2.39
frozen 16 oz $2.50
frozen organic $3.69
fresh $0.20 per ear (appx. 4 ears = 1 can of corn)

Peanut Butter name brand $3.89 for 17.3oz
organic brand 2.99 18oz
natural brand (just ground peanuts) $3.69 16oz

Basil dry name brand $7.09 for 1.25oz
fresh 3.99 16 oz (appx. 3 cups of fresh basil equals 1c.(about 4 bottles)dried


Just a little food for thought!!!