Why in the world is healthy food so high?

Why do we eat? We eat to fuel our bodies. I find junk food prices high. I can't afford chips or cookies. They might taste good, but they have 0 food value. OK maybe not 0, but they don't have much food value. It's empty calories. So it's like throwing my money down the drain. I don't get the fiber, vitamins and minerals my body needs when I eat them. I might as well eat a few tablespoons of sugar and be done with it. I buy foods like rice, beans, quinoa, oats, barley, lentils, groats, cornmeal, kasha etc. They are delicious, healthy and inexpensive. Breads like Wonder Bread and other soft white breads are garbage. They might appear to be cheep, but there is no food value so you are really throwing your money down the drain. That in my book is expensive. If you buy Wonder Bread, you are getting 0 food value for your dollar, so that is actually more expensive than spending $3 or $4 for a loaf of real good bread and getting high food value. Rye, pumpernickel,100% real whole wheat with the bran are much healthier. Also a better food value. Read the labels. You are actually getting something for your money. That means it is really cheaper in the long run. Juicy Juice is mostly sugar water. Over priced sugar water. Just because it says juice on the label doesn't make it so. Read the ingredients. There should not be any sugar in juice with the exception of lemonade. As for wic, wic is a nation wide charity, paid for by hard working people who pay taxes. Those who get the free handouts have no reason to complain about what they do and don't get. It's charity.

Well, the problem is the companies that sell these junk foods love the profit they get from it. You would be in a tough position demanding that they increase their prices; they wouldn't want to lose customers. Even if they did increase prices, people would still buy those foods because they are hooked on. it's all been planned out by those big corporations.

the unhealthy food is very processed and can be produced more in quantities. that rule would not work because of supply and demand. the best you could probably do is to grow some healthy food in your yard if you have one. that's what i'm starting to do.

This is a very common point of view: here in the UK, one of the TV cook guys (I think it was Jamie Oliver) made a point of always giving healthy recipes and ideas that wouldn't cost a bomb to make. As you say, it's all very fine and good to encourage people to eat well but if you price it out of their reach, it's kinda dumb.

You know, the healthiest foods you can have are also some of the cheapest... fruit and vegetables, grains, rice, meats like chicken and beef... with things like that, you can feed a family of 8 for around $20, in where it would cost double that to eat at a fast food restaurant, getting the more basic items. Even better, grow your own, even with just pots and soil, you can grow all sorts of things, which take a bit of work to grow them up, but if you have a yard, and children to help you out, then you can be making loads of things to feed them really well. Don't be getting things like "Good Healthy Juice", get regular juice, that's straight from the fruit, or even better, get the fruit and juice it yourself. The prices can be really cheap, if you're willing to do the work to make it right.

When I got pregnant, I decided to give up food I had and I get to eat healthy. So I gave up fast food dishes like I dropped the acid juices in fact and in the free acid, more water, and the candy is out because I was not consuming anyway. I started eating more fruits, milk, boiled or grilled meat more. Since we adopted this way, frankly, I feel much better and so I used and family ...

Hello Dear Walking! Having gone through your discussion, I would like to say that the Companies making the so called as healthy foods are not doing it for charity purpose! They are business people and they mean it when it comes to promote and sell these products. They make us feel that the products are healthy and thus make us feel to buy them at very high prices as they are healthy foods. Unfortunately in the developed countries this concept of ready made foods like the one you have mentioned,juices which have been extracted in the factories and then bottled to sell to the people! But while doing so they add some preservatives and added flavours and colors too to the product to make it much attractive and people tend to buy it for two reasons first being the healthy food another reason is its presentation! But in the developing countries the juices of fruits are extracted at the home and thy are better than these bottled juices and they work out to be much cheaper too! Similarly in India the country in which I live we too do have fancy Malls and big departmental stores where we do get all the food materials prepared and packed by big food companies which are very expensive when compared to the food materials purchased from local market! For example if we purchase fish or Chicken from local market we are getting them at much cheaper rates and we are getting the live ones getting slaughtered in front of us, which makes sure that we are getting a fresh and clan meat. Similarly in the vegetable market we get vegetables grown locally at much cheaper rates and they are as fresh as garden plucked ones as they have arrived the market from near by places only! India basically does have lot of rural population when compared to the urban ones! In rural population they have their own cattle and they have their own produced milk and dairy products which are very tasty and nutritious than the products available from the factories! Still today we have got pretty old people living in rural India who are absolutely fine state of health and thy never had the so called healthy foods sold in the Malls or Departmental stores! All thy had is naturally grown food materials and home made food products! Thus in conclusion, all the food materials what we think as healthy ones, which we often see in the Malls or Departmental stores may not be really healthy, though they may carry a big price tag on them as there are many hidden things in them which only surface up if some thing happens wrong with their use, till that time these products are sold as legitimate healthy food stuffs. There have been many things happened in Indian market and many a food stuffs imported for selling the people have been banned in Indian market for the ill effects of these packed food stuffs. there is a long list of banned food stuffs in India which can be presented! Thus in my opinion procuring the food materials in natural form and cooking them in a traditional way should b the best option to have a healthy food at competitive prices, to beat the sky touching prices of these ready made healthy food materials! Thanks for the discussion!

I don't know but i agree and i am disgusted by the fact! I swore i responded to this discussion and i come back to check how it furthered but maybe that was one of the dicusssion on which an error came up when i tried to post my response and it was deleted in the process. I hate the fact that frozen chips are cheaper than buying whole potatoes from the fruit and veg section in my country bananas are at $13.00 per kilo and strawberries are $6.00 per punnet! The prices are ridiculous and i am outraged that i can hardly afford to buy fruit and vegtables for my soon but i could go to the otherside of the supermarket and buy frozen and packaged food that would last twice the time. It is not on and i think its the MAIN reason for the obessity epidemic in so many places. People dont have enough money to eat healthily anymore. That's scary. It's cheaper to buy soft drink than it is to buy juice here too.

Hi Walking2010, I feel the same way about organic food. I went to the market just now, and the seller kept on pushing organic products, saying that it was better. The price was better for her, since a packet of organic red beans cost four times more than the usual beans. I can understand the additional cost of labor in producing organic food, but I cannot understand why the price difference is four times instead of just double. I think the government has to do something to curb the cost of healthy food. The government is the ultimate winner when everyone eats healthily, after all it can save money by not having to subsidy for so many patients. I think paying for healthy food on the part of the government is better than paying for heart bypass surgery!

Now this is reality. If it's good for your body, you need to pay the price. If it's not going to make you healthy, then by all means, it's cheaper in price. I won't be surprise anymore because those junk foods are really something catchy and you will really buy it compared to healthy foods which are pricey. I guess even food supplements in the market are also expensive compared to those synthetic products that will trigger disease and a health hazard. That's how it goes, not only in your country but also in our country. So the only people that can afford to buy such are the rich and wealthy people.

Hi walking, I know its really hard to take that the price in groceries store are so high when it comes to healthy foods. Well, my alternate place for that is the local market, I buy fruits and vegetables there, I don't buy juices stuff because some companies add another artificial sugar there to become more tasty, but a juicer will do if it comes from a fresh fruit. Groceries is where the large company set traps. like they put some cheaper foods but of course unhealthy and put some healthy foods(sometimes includes artificial stuff) with very high and discouraging price, So that people like us will go to much cheaper for budget for a month. But seriously, I take that high price as an investment for my healthy lifestyle. I can't spend my days in a hospital checking up everyday to look for infections that comes from unhealthy foods. But the choice is yours to make. Safety and Peace!

I have always wondered that my self!Why does it cost so much to eat healthy things and all the junk food is cheap I don't think it is fair!! I am going to try and grow my own garden!!

I wonder too. I would think it would cost more to add insecticides than not too or add sugar than not too. I think they need to mark the healthy stuff down too if society is really concerned bout obesity.

I've been down this road before, I've researched everything that people eat and why buying healthy food is so important. Unhealthy is directly or indirectly the cause of 85% of the world's diseases, most can be prevented with a health diet and exercise. You dont have to buy everything healthy but if you can get your meat/dairy at a farmer's market that would be a really good choice for you and your kids in the long run, trust me