Tag Archives: Food

How Much To Eat Healthy

Fruit

Some time ago we discussed the cost of eating per month specifically as it pertains to food stamps:

We much more generous than the average as described by the democrats.In fact, an individual can earn up to $14,532 and still qualify for $200 a month.  To be sure, 14k a year isn’t much money at all; rent surely would take most of it.  But, 50 bucks is a bunch more than $31.50.  If I had an extra 20 to spend in my challenge I could almost certainly afford a twelve pack.

Where it gets really interesting, however, is at the 2 household range.  There a person can earn $19,680 a year and still qualify for $367.00 a month.  In fact, if approved, an individual could earn $30,000 and qualify for that amount.

As I mention in the post later on, “not the life of luxury”.

Now, what does it cost to go from a poor diet to a healthy diet?

If you want to eat a more healthful diet, you’re going to have to shell out more cash, right? (After all, Whole Foods didn’t get the nickname “Whole Paycheck” for nothing.)

But until recently, that widely held bit of conventional wisdom hadn’t really been assessed in a rigorous, systematic way, says , a cardiologist and epidemiologist at the Harvard School of Public Health.

So he and his colleagues decided to pore over 27 studies from 10 different developed countries that looked at the retail prices of food grouped by healthfulness. Across these countries, it turns out, the cost difference between eating a healthful and unhealthful diet was pretty much the same: about $1.50 per day. And that price gap held true when they focused their research just on U.S. food prices, the researchers found in their of these studies.

One dollar fifty American.

That’s less than $50 a month – the average amount played on the lottery.  And much MUCH less than the weekly food stamp challenge and certainly dramatically less than the amount allocated by the state currently.

The money line, pardon the pun?

“Just as an excuse to not eat healthy,” he says, “for most Americans, I think price is not an excuse.”

Indeed.