≡ Menu

The True Cost of Food

by on August 7, 2012

Don’t let the sale price fool you…

Many people are concerned about the increased cost of organic or health food.  They say it’s too expensive and therefore they are unable to eat higher quality food.  

Do you find yourself playing into this mindset?

Here’s a little food for thought.

 

Question:

Why is it that the most highly processed and nutrient deficient calories in the grocery store are also the cheapest?

 

For a dollar you can get 6 times more calories of cookies than carrots and 5 times more calories of soda than orange juice.  (Disclaimer: we are not saying that carrots and orange juice are the answer to America’s health problems) In essence, real foods cost substantially more than fabricated foods.

Answer:

$25 billion a year are paid out as subsidies by the government to farmers who produce the big five: corn, wheat, soy, rice and cotton.

 

The vast majority of processed foods are made of some combination of corn, wheat or soy and are very cheap because of the subsidies.   The sales prices of these foods are artificially low.

 

The true cost of food is much higher.

According to the Centers for Disease Control, 75% of the $2.3 trillion annual healthcare expense is spent on “preventable chronic disease” aka processed food related disease.

 

When we add the $25 billion in subsidies to the estimated health care cost we get a grand total of
$1.78 trillion being spent because of the current eating trends in America.

 

This equates to an additional $493 per person per month.  Tack this amount onto your monthly food bill per person you are feeding with cheaper, lower quality processed foods.

 

The next time you go to the store, skip the processed foods, invest a few dollars extra on real food and save yourself the time, money and trouble of having to deal with your own health crisis in the future.

(see this post for a little additional motivation)

 

The moral of the story

Never eat food that you will have to pay for twice.

 

For a complete list of real foods you should be eating along with meal plans, recipes and cooking tips, check out our new book NRG Your Diet and Lifestyle Compass

 

{ 107 comments… add one }

Leave a Comment

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Next post:

Previous post:

Find Us On Facebook

Recent Tweets

Categories

This site rocks the Classic Responsive Skin for Thesis.

WP Admin