Economics of Healthy Living
 

For Aliantha...

Not only is buying healthy and organic foods expensive, but contrary to claims that its better for the environment, its worse for the environment when the organic food has to be shipped 3,000 miles to the consumer.

I don't buy all organics, but do when its not much more expensive. Probably half of my little one's food is organic. My mom's visiting in 2 weeks and will only eat ALL organic. Its going to be a pain. Oatmeal has to be organic slow cook - no quick cooking Quaker Oats.

One of the funny things is there are 2 stores nearby that carry a good selection of organic foods. One is incredibly expensive. About once a month I get a $10 coupon in the mail from them, so I go shopping there then. The other store isn't too bad on price, but their selection is hit and miss. And their farther away. There's another store that carries some organics, but its 20 miles away, but way cheaper on everything. So usually once a week I go there. My husband says I waste time, and money on gas, but when a box of cheerios is $1 cheaper, and its the larger box (x 3 boxes a week), and the diapers are $2 cheaper, and the chicken is $3 cheaper (x 3 packs of chicken), and the baby food is 20 cents cheaper a jar (x 18 jars of baby food)... it adds up quickly. My husband thinks it funny I remember all the prices.

I was thinking of going organic toys for little one with all the scare over lead in childrens toys (it is IMPOSSIBLE to find toys not made there). But organic toys are incredibly expensive. So I figured I'll take the risk along with the millions of other parents who buy the China toys.

Just save all your organic packaging, and next time your mom visits, decant all your regular crap into them ;)

Buy second hand toys -not only is it cheaper and more environmentally friendly, but someone else's kid will have pre-chewed the lead paint off for you :)

I'm a mine of helpful tips, aren't I?


Seriously, resale stores are great places to get good domestically made toys at a reasonable price.

You're in Arlington. Have you been to Kinderhaus toys? They have many more high quality toys there than you will find in Toys R Us. They moved to Clarendon, so you have to pay for a meter spot, or park in a garage.

Well thanks for making a thread to tell me something I already know aimeecc. :)

I wasn't specifically talking about organic food though. I was talking about having a whole food diet wherever possible regardless of it's organic status.

It's cheaper and more filling to eat a packet of ramen noodles than it is to buy an orange, particularly if they happen to be out of season. The oranges not the noodles of course.

eta: About the lead in the paint on kids toys, you should lobby your government about not allowing such things into the country. In Australia, led in paint is illegal and toys found to contain led either in the mechanism or the paint are rejected. Of course, that doesn't stop things like bindi beads from arriving here. :D

btw, you could look at another discussion on the topic of organic food here.

lol. I know you know. Just wanted a diversion from other topics.

I was listening to NPR the other day and they were talking about how in DC (and I'm sure a lot of other inner cities), the poor really only have unhealthy options. There's not an abundance of grocery stores, so if you're poor, without a car, its much more cost effective to go to MacDonalds than to try to get to a grocery store, and pay high prices for healthy food.

Or as I said to my wife once, "I can get two donuts across the street from my office for $1.58. What the $#%$*() kind of healthy breakfast can I get for that much?"

SD, please clarify. The wording of this statement can be misconstrued to imply that donuts are not "healthy."

Combined with a Coke, they make for a nutritious and delicious breakfast.

Tis true: watch previously posted evidence here.

Well poo...says video no longer available?

That was the one with the little chocolate donuts?

Buy a jar of peanut butter and a loaf of 100% whole wheat bread for a total of about 4.50. It will last you at least a week and put your daily breakfast at the cost of about .90. Half of what you pay for your dough nuts. And it will be healthier than dough nuts. Not perfect, but healthier.

Why the hell am I getting all serious?

Yes, darnit. So funny.

@ case: yummmm peanut butter!

Box of multi-grain cheerios, $2.99, 1/2 gallon of soy milk, 3.50... So a dollar a day for my breakfast. Of course I'm hungry by nine. Cheerios aren't that filling.

I just scoop up a pot-full of mud from down near the creek, mix it with some of the naturally-occurring vegetation from the back yard, maybe add some elk droppings when I can find them fresh, and I've created a very cheap and wholesome meal.

And it's 100% organic!

The unspoken part of my quote was "what kind of healthy breakfast that I can leave my house and quickly pick up at or on the way to work without any prior preparation or planning on my part."

Most of the fast food chains have a fruit cup option. That's if you can subsist until lunch on just a fruit cup. If you get to work. Eating the fruit cup while driving is hazardous. Not as hazardous as trying to eat cole slaw while driving, but still hazardous.

There goes all your healthful benefits right out the window (pun intended.)

"He was a good man. Kept a nice yard. Was healthy, well until he slammed into that semi while he was trying to eat his fruit cup."

I've heard this argument before, and I just don't believe it. Sure, fresh vegetables are expensive, and organic food is even moreso--but your basic beans and rice is both healthier and cheaper than McDonald's. And they can be bought in bulk, so you're not going to the grocery store as often. Same with oatmeal, pancake mix, vegetable oil, pasta, potatoes, Velveeta, evaporated milk... it won't be the healthiest diet, but it'll still be better than McDonald's. Fast food will easily cost you $5 per person per meal, and conscientious shopping will cost much less, even if you have to add in bus/taxi fare to get to the store every 2-3 weeks.

That's just it, though, isn't it. You have to put a little effort in yourself, like get up five minutes earlier in order to put a bowl of "organic slow cook" oatmeal in milk in the microwave for 2 minutes, stir, two minutes, eat, leave the house five minutes later because you don't have to stop for donuts ...
:neutral:
(no I don't do it every morning, but I try to do it some mornings ;) )

Isn't a healthy diet all about variety - we range from Pot Noodle (Ramen equivalent, I suppose) to locally bred organically grown butcher meat in this house.

Apparently, too much soy is now indicated in breast, cervical, ovarian and uterine cancers, so my medical friends were saying. Haven't had time to research this yet (conversation was yesterday, in no hurry because we don't use soy substitutes)

Its more that I already have the Quaker Oats, and now I have to go buy the organic oats. In fact, we have 3 bug tubs of quaker oats - and we don't eat it that often. We're more of a bowl of cheerios in the morning family. I'm always late out the door. Always. I haven't been on time for anything since little one.

My mom's organic only has alienated the family. But only because the sisters/sisters-in-law would ask before she visited "anything special I can get for you?" and she would answer no, then she would refuse to eat anything served and insist on being driven to the local organic market so she could go shopping. I am in the position of already knowing she'll do this, so I'm going to go ahead and stock up ahead of time. And she'll still want to go grocery shopping. But since I know this already, its ok.

I did a quick google...
So the verdict is still out. But the American Institute for Cancer Research is all for soy. But are these the folks from "Thank you for Smoking"?
http://www.aicr.org/site/PageServer?...e=dc_foods_soy
We are a soy family. I've always disliked milk. I only like skim milk, which my husband hates. And I like soy milk and so does my hubby. So the choice was easy.

I just ate a completely un-healthy breakfast.

Good old multi-grain cheerios in soy milk for my family this morning.
I am looking forward to this weekend. Probably a blueberry pancake and sausage weekend. I really love breakfast. In particular, big, unhealthy breakfast's.

Bran freakin muffin....again - gotta get my cholesterol down :(

Oatmeal

Oat meal, bberrys, oj, prunes. Beer.

I think the trick is to not buy expensive organic produce on top of all the other stuff you buy, just adding to the cost--it's to replace processed food, which is more expensive, with more healthful stuff.

If you buy mostly produce, organic or not, and less processed food, you will still save money.

Speaking of prunes.... I saw the intersection of this thread and the WTF thread in the store the other day.

Individually wrapped prunes.

I shit you not. Haw haw. A cylinder of single prunes, each in their own little wrapper. What a load of packaging.

oh, but you left out the best part. They're packaged for kid's lunches . . . and made to look like candy.

Eating healthy doesn't have to be expensive. Brown rice, fruit (albeit that can add up), whole wheat bread or english muffins go a long way, oatmeal, black beans and of course the assorted veggies. Add meat (fish, chicken, turkey) in moderation....and stir. :p

It sounds like there's a good deal of parental power-tripping here that's not really related to any desire to eat organic.