Costs of not eating healthy

I hear people say that eating healthy is expensive. When someone tells me why they have been eating unhealthy foods, their reason is often the price of food. There is a common perception that healthy foods cost more than unhealthy foods.
Sometimes, in certain situations, this is true. For the most part, the statement: healthy food is more expensive is actually false. There are a few myths and misconceptions at play here.

I would like to take a closer look at those situations to determine why eating healthy can be more expensive. But more importantly, I want to break down the numbers and show how healthy food is often cheaper to purchase. We already know that there are more significant long-term costs to eating an unhealthy diet. I also want to break down some of those actual costs to see just how much it costs to eat healthy and how much it costs when you don’t.

Misconception #1
In General: Healthy food is more expensive than unhealthy food

This is something that I hear a lot. You see the value menu prices and compare them to the costs of fruits, vegetables and other fresh items and it’s easy to say, at first glance, that the value menu is cheaper. It only costs a dollar to get a sandwich. It only costs another dollar to get a side or a beverage.

How could something that was purchased at the store and prepared at home be cheaper? Well, let’s do the math: For $20, you can buy many combinations of food. Let’s say you just buy 20 $1 burgers from a fast food restaurant. That is 20 sandwiches for $20. Now let’s say you go to the store to buy the ingredients for 20 sandwiches. You need bread: $2 loaf, 1 lb. of meat for $8, a tomato for $1, cheese for another $2, a head of lettuce or spinach for $1. So far, we are able to make 20 sandwiches with as much nutritional value for only $14. We also lean meats of much higher quality than you get at a fast food restaurant. If you wanted to, you could make these sandwiches MUCH cheaper by skimping on quality, which is exactly what they do at the restaurant to make that sandwich so cheap for you to buy. You can upgrade the bread and add other veggies while still keeping the cost under $1 per sandwich.

As you can see, cheaper is not healthier. More importantly, healthier is not more expensive. You can make good foods at home without spending any more money. In fact, often, you can buy and make foods for less money than you would spend by eating out.

Reality
It actually costs more to eat out.

Misconception #2
Eating healthy food is not important to maintain good health

Many people think that as long as they are buying food from a familiar place, they are eating healthy. What’s worse is that often people think that what they eat doesn’t have a big impact on their health. The truth is: eating healthy is very important! If you don’t eat well, you don’t get good results from your body. Food is what fuels us and when we don’t get good fuel in, we don’t get good results out.

This is why so many Americans are tired, cranky and depressed. It is also why so many people need caffeine, don’t get as much done as they would like and just feel an overall dissatisfaction with their lives. The diet has a significant role in helping us do good things and helping us feel good about those things.

As we continue to abuse our bodies by putting in more fat, calories and chemicals, we start to develop other problems. The most common is excess weight. The body can only burn so many calories. Since most of us are not getting enough exercise to begin with, the fast-food combo becomes extra dangerous because we are packing in double, triple or even more calories on a daily basis. An obese individual spends about $2000 more each year on healthcare- medications and other procedures. They spend another $2000 on other incidentals throughout the course of a year. That is $4000 extra dollars spent, just because they are overweight. That doesn’t even include the extra money going toward all the extra food.

What are some of these other problems? How about Diabetes? A person with Diabetes spends an extra $900+ each year compared to a person that does not have the disease. This is due to medical costs, testing equipment and supplies as well as other procedures that are routine for them.

Those are the most common and immediate issues that come from eating unhealthy. We also know that there are some more severe consequences. Heart attacks and strokes cost people their lives every day in our country. For those that survive or their loved ones if they don’t, these events can cost over a million dollars each. When it comes to hospital stays, follow-up treatments and medications, these costs add up fast and don’t go away on their own.

Reality
Eating healthy is very important to maintaining good health

As you can see, there are many costs to NOT eating healthy. The longer we pretend that a dollar cheeseburger is a good deal, the more health issues we will be dealing with in the future. Even if the cost of a healthier choice were slightly more expensive, the results would lead to cheaper living for the rest of your life. The fact is, healthy food is NOT more expensive, so the excuse is no longer valid. Can you spend more money at the grocery store in a month than you spend on fast food? Of course you can, but that doesn’t mean you are getting as much food and certainly doesn’t mean that you are getting the nutrition that you need to live healthy.

There are more costs involved than simply the price the food. As illustrated above, you can spend more money on medication and medical treatments than you will ever spend on healthy foods. The bonus is that the healthy foods will actually prevent the need for medication and prevent you from needing medical treatment of any kind. We have known for centuries that healthy foods are the best medication. They are the best and they are the cheapest. Healthy food doesn’t cost more. It cost you more NOT to eat healthy.