Another media myth
It's expensive to lose weight. And usually, if you read the entire article, someone explains that it is processed food that is expensive, not fresh or frozen.It's January so newspapers are promoting their diet plans which probably have tie-ins with processed food companies, TV reality shows, and pharmaceuticals. News articles will also encourage coupon use, because they print them (they are ads that exercise your scissor muscles). Coupons cover up price increases and introduce the 15th type of Ritz cracker.
It's not expensive to eat fresh food, or even food labeled "organic," although that probably doesn't make a lot of difference, except to increase the cost slightly. The advantage to your health of not buying food fertilized or contaminated by sewage is probably huge, but by the time you get down to the minuscule, unmeasurable amounts of herbicide and pesticides on commercially grown food, which is where we are today with our health gate keepers who want to return American women to long food queues like Europe, the cost and health benefit is pretty small. You have a much better chance of getting Grandma's genetic links to cancer and heart disease than developing problems from eating too much fish or chicken on hormones. News flash. If you live long enough, everyone gets cancer or their heart gives out.
Anyway, today for lunch I took out about 5 spears of tender, fresh asparagus, rinsed them, and arranged a few "baby" (peeled) carrots from a bag, (always, always rinse) on a glass plate and zapped in the microwave uncovered for 1 minute. Add a dollop of low fat sour cream, a little salt and pepper, and enjoy. Then I had my sliced apple and 1/2 cup of walnuts, because I missed breakfast due to exercise class. The entire lunch/breakfast probably didn't top $2. You couldn't make and eat a bagel sandwich with potato chips for less than $4.
One thing mentioned in the USAToday article on dieting that I agree with is that half of all food dollars are spent eating out or take out. Combined with my morning coffee and our Friday date night, that's certainly true for us. However, I count about half of that as "leisure and entertainment."
Real food is cheaper
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5 comments:
..AND THE PRICE OF EXERCISE EQUIPMENT!! our Sunday paper was just full of ads..Now I have a manual treadmill,which most people wouldn't have,and I use it in winter...it was around $100.00 a few years back...and use weights...I plan to get a stationary bike this summer at a garage sale,if I can find one...it isn't just the food for diets,its everything,club memeberships,trainers,special drinks,etc. Gotta be a lota money in it for someone..I'll keep doing things my low budget way...it seems to work for me.
Right! Eat less move more, but no one can get rich on that plan. I've got a stationary bike--sits between the cars and gathers dust. It used to gather laundry in the basement.
I agree completely. The best exercise equipment involves good quality, supportive shoes - and walking outside.
Norma, thanks for leaving the link at my blog. I forwarded it to my daughter. Thanks.
Shoes, yes. I used to be in an exercise class where the instructor recommended replacing athletic shoes (not worn for fashion) every 3 months to have proper support and protection from impact.
Truth is its less what you eat but how much you move. A study of Old Order Amish a few years ago showed that fresh foods and low processed foods even if they were high fat and calories didnt pack on pounds... but these folks move around 10 times as much as we "Englishers" do that seems to be the secret. We need to walk as much as we can. that would be a great start
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