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Urban food myth #1: it costs more to eat healthy than to eat fast food

I get so tired of hearing this:

"It costs less to buy a burger from McDonald's that to eat healthy food from the supermarket."
"Low-income families just buy processed food, they don't cook their own food anymore."

That always sounded questionable.  Here is a study showing in great detail that fast food is much more expensive than healthy food bought at the supermarket.

Also, it turns out that the vast majority of meals eaten by low-income families are prepared at home:
Blisard N, Stewart H. How low-income households allocate their food budget relative to the cost of the Thrifty Food Plan. Economic research report, United States. Washington, DC: Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service, 2006;20.

What is true is that buying healthy vs. unhealthy foods can cost $1.50/person/day more, at retail prices.  However, when health cost consequences are factored in, unhealthy foods cost twice as much.



Comments

  1. Thanks for rising such an important topic! People should understand that this myth isn't true. The dark side of junk foods is not an unknown fact. Even knowing that fact that it may even cause cancer, people keep eating it. I recommend you reading this post http://www.agsinger.com/fighting-cancer-by-controlling-angiogenesis-foods-to-avoid/ in order to find out which foods are worth to be excluded from your nutrition plan.

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