A study estimates that more than one billion people are affected and reveals that nutritional imbalances continue to rise. Childhood obesity has quadrupled over the course of three decades
Something I haven’t seen other commenters bring up that can have a huge impact, is the overall lifestyles people are living.
The unhealthiest years of my life were when I was working 2 jobs and struggling to keep a roof over mine and my 3 kids heads. Stress and depression were huge problems and money was tight, so sometimes the little bit of dopamine or serotonin from eating a “treat” were the highlights of the day. Add to that, the guilt of not being around to cook regular meals for my kids lead to 1) making large amounts of food on my one day off that could be eaten as leftovers throughout the week or 2) easy convenience foods (frozen pizzas, boxed Mac and cheese, etc) that the kids could make when I wasn’t around.
Fast forward many years - my kids are adults taking care of themselves and I’m down to 1 good job that offers financial stability. My diet and health have completely changed. I actually have the time and energy to cook and plan better.
I’m not saying this to shift blame or responsibility, but to bring a different experience. When I hear (hopefully well meaning) people suggest “just cook healthier meals” it strikes me about the same as “stop eating avocado toast and you could afford a house.”
Lack of free time to cook healthy food with a busier and more expensive life with salary raises that don’t keep up with inflation or layoffs for many people definitely doesn’t help. Healthy food ends up costing twice as much, if not more than unhealthy food. It’s a multi-faceted problem and should be treated as such.
I don’t think healthy food is necessarily more expensive, at least not if you know what you’re doing. My personal experience is actually the opposite.
The problem, as you mentioned is the time, and the emotional and physical labor of figuring out something the whole family will want to eat and cooking it. Those things are all expenditures in their own ways, but not financial.
You’re not feeding 4 people on a red baron pizza and no one is getting fat from sharing one with 4 people. Fast food is expensive, and so is pre packaged meals. To many people get home from work and just eat shit instead of learning to cook.
Steamed veggies are cheap, rice is cheap, beans are cheap, grab some seasoning and a pack of chicken breasts and you can eat good for a few days for less than a single trip to McDonald’s for 2 people now.
I guess the dinner I served saturday night was just a drug induced hallucination then, afterall… You seem to clearly know what I do and have done better than I do.
Funny how the goalposts shift from “its easy and cheap to eat healthy” to “You’re not who we’re talking about, we’re talking about other, more convenient and strawmannable people”
That’s not shifting the goal post, it’s calling out your bullshit that somehow a $5 red Baron pizza for 4 people is enough to make people fat. 380 calories is 1/4 of a red Baron Pepperoni pizza, if you ate one 3 a day, that’s less than most adults can survive on, you’re going to lose weight. So no I’m not the one moving some goal post or creating a strawman, that’s your doing.
Ingredients: rice, black beans, eggs, onion, garlic.
The night before, let the beans soak. Before cooking, change the water on the beans. Heat until boiling, change the water again, add salt and let the beans boil slowly for 1.5-3h.
Slice the onion and garlic in small chunks.
Fry in a shallow pot, in just a bit of olive oil. Add some oregano or whatever spices you enjoy. When it is fried to your taste, add the rice. Mix it for a bit, and then add 2.5 cups of water for each cup of rice.
Let it boil until the water doesn’t cover the rice, then turn the heat down until it’s just evaporating water (I like my rice dry).
Meanwhile, fry a couple eggs, use a strainer to get the beans out, and add everything to the rice (or you can serve the eggs on the plate).
• 1kg of rice: 2€
• 1kg black beans: 4€
• A carton of eggs: 2.5€
YMMV but this is tasty and pretty inexpensive, if you don’t count the 2h of boiling beans, but I prefer them on the soft side :P
Beans and rice. (Red beans and rice, black beans and rice, garbanzo beans in curry on rice, you can make probably a hundred delicious variations on beans and rice)
A can of pureed pumpkin and a can of white beans with seasoning and a little chicken broth, heated and blended, makes a healthy and delicious soup.
A can of tomatoes, an onion, a couple dried Chiles and a can of pinto beans also makes an incredible pureed soup.
Up until recently I’d have said eggs and toast, but eggs are expensive lately. Still probably under $5 to feed 4 though.
We bought a frozen turkey cheap after Christmas and my God that made so many meals, I still have 3 quarts of stock too.
I don’t think a frozen pizza is a good deal in terms of nutrition but we do sometimes have that or the Little Caesars one if I can’t cook that night.
None of us are fat, husband is overweight but fit, and the rest of us are on the thin side.
Love how everyone is like “beans and rice!” and totally ignoring the energy and time it takes to make such things. And not everyone is a fan of beans and rice. At the end of the day being able to have a slice of pizza may be the only bright spot when you’re living paycheck to paycheck.
Well said, that’s what we call canard advice. Unhelpful advice that’s obvious to everyone and does no fucking good to say whatsoever. You can cook more when your primary financial needs are met, so you can just work 40 hours in a week. That and the RTO mandates going around are robbing people of a significant chunk of time yet again ontop of overemployment. When you have to work a 10 hour day and commute an hour plus each direction, then come home and “cook” something, it usually translates to heating up frozen shit and then wishing you weren’t miserable.
Yep. My boomer dad: “When I was a kid, we walked everywhere! Nobody walks anymore!” Also my dad: “I’m afraid to drive into Portland because my truck might get stolen.”
Something I haven’t seen other commenters bring up that can have a huge impact, is the overall lifestyles people are living.
The unhealthiest years of my life were when I was working 2 jobs and struggling to keep a roof over mine and my 3 kids heads. Stress and depression were huge problems and money was tight, so sometimes the little bit of dopamine or serotonin from eating a “treat” were the highlights of the day. Add to that, the guilt of not being around to cook regular meals for my kids lead to 1) making large amounts of food on my one day off that could be eaten as leftovers throughout the week or 2) easy convenience foods (frozen pizzas, boxed Mac and cheese, etc) that the kids could make when I wasn’t around.
Fast forward many years - my kids are adults taking care of themselves and I’m down to 1 good job that offers financial stability. My diet and health have completely changed. I actually have the time and energy to cook and plan better.
I’m not saying this to shift blame or responsibility, but to bring a different experience. When I hear (hopefully well meaning) people suggest “just cook healthier meals” it strikes me about the same as “stop eating avocado toast and you could afford a house.”
Lack of free time to cook healthy food with a busier and more expensive life with salary raises that don’t keep up with inflation or layoffs for many people definitely doesn’t help. Healthy food ends up costing twice as much, if not more than unhealthy food. It’s a multi-faceted problem and should be treated as such.
I don’t think healthy food is necessarily more expensive, at least not if you know what you’re doing. My personal experience is actually the opposite.
The problem, as you mentioned is the time, and the emotional and physical labor of figuring out something the whole family will want to eat and cooking it. Those things are all expenditures in their own ways, but not financial.
Tell me a healthy meal I can make for the same 5 bucks that I can feed 4 people with by buying a red baron pizza.
You’re not feeding 4 people on a red baron pizza and no one is getting fat from sharing one with 4 people. Fast food is expensive, and so is pre packaged meals. To many people get home from work and just eat shit instead of learning to cook.
Steamed veggies are cheap, rice is cheap, beans are cheap, grab some seasoning and a pack of chicken breasts and you can eat good for a few days for less than a single trip to McDonald’s for 2 people now.
I guess the dinner I served saturday night was just a drug induced hallucination then, afterall… You seem to clearly know what I do and have done better than I do.
Cool, then everyone in your family must not be what they’re talking about in this thread since you probably don’t eat 5000 calories a day.
Funny how the goalposts shift from “its easy and cheap to eat healthy” to “You’re not who we’re talking about, we’re talking about other, more convenient and strawmannable people”
That’s not shifting the goal post, it’s calling out your bullshit that somehow a $5 red Baron pizza for 4 people is enough to make people fat. 380 calories is 1/4 of a red Baron Pepperoni pizza, if you ate one 3 a day, that’s less than most adults can survive on, you’re going to lose weight. So no I’m not the one moving some goal post or creating a strawman, that’s your doing.
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Ok, yes on everything but damned if Chicken is cheap. Just noted as $6+/lb the other day…
Maybe I gotta take advantage of being out in the farm fields and get some of those yard chickens.
Where are you located? It’s only $3.10 here, and $2.80 or less when it’s on sale (fairly often).
Western MN, in part possibly because it’s a small shop
Ouch, most major shops it’s like $3 a lb on average.
Ingredients: rice, black beans, eggs, onion, garlic.
The night before, let the beans soak. Before cooking, change the water on the beans. Heat until boiling, change the water again, add salt and let the beans boil slowly for 1.5-3h.
Slice the onion and garlic in small chunks. Fry in a shallow pot, in just a bit of olive oil. Add some oregano or whatever spices you enjoy. When it is fried to your taste, add the rice. Mix it for a bit, and then add 2.5 cups of water for each cup of rice.
Let it boil until the water doesn’t cover the rice, then turn the heat down until it’s just evaporating water (I like my rice dry). Meanwhile, fry a couple eggs, use a strainer to get the beans out, and add everything to the rice (or you can serve the eggs on the plate).
• 1kg of rice: 2€ • 1kg black beans: 4€ • A carton of eggs: 2.5€
YMMV but this is tasty and pretty inexpensive, if you don’t count the 2h of boiling beans, but I prefer them on the soft side :P
Black bean tacos with onion and bell pepper.
Pasta and homemade tomato sauce
Basically anything lentil based
Rice and beans
Tacos and burritos.
Pre marinated carne asada or pork is fairly cheap. A pound can go pretty far, at least 15 tacos.
Pre marinated pork for tacos is $3.29/lb Tortillas $2.49 Premade Salsa $3.99
It comes to about $0.54 a taco. So two tacos a person it’s a bit over $4. 3 tacos and it’s $6.50 for a family of 4.
Serve refried beans and rice instead of another taco and it’ll be even cheaper.
You could get that down if you marinated your own meat.
Beans and rice. (Red beans and rice, black beans and rice, garbanzo beans in curry on rice, you can make probably a hundred delicious variations on beans and rice)
A can of pureed pumpkin and a can of white beans with seasoning and a little chicken broth, heated and blended, makes a healthy and delicious soup.
A can of tomatoes, an onion, a couple dried Chiles and a can of pinto beans also makes an incredible pureed soup.
Up until recently I’d have said eggs and toast, but eggs are expensive lately. Still probably under $5 to feed 4 though.
We bought a frozen turkey cheap after Christmas and my God that made so many meals, I still have 3 quarts of stock too.
I don’t think a frozen pizza is a good deal in terms of nutrition but we do sometimes have that or the Little Caesars one if I can’t cook that night.
None of us are fat, husband is overweight but fit, and the rest of us are on the thin side.
Love how everyone is like “beans and rice!” and totally ignoring the energy and time it takes to make such things. And not everyone is a fan of beans and rice. At the end of the day being able to have a slice of pizza may be the only bright spot when you’re living paycheck to paycheck.
and some combination of beans and rice is the only example they can come up with.
Who wants to eat beans and rice every single day for the rest of their lives?
Well said, that’s what we call canard advice. Unhelpful advice that’s obvious to everyone and does no fucking good to say whatsoever. You can cook more when your primary financial needs are met, so you can just work 40 hours in a week. That and the RTO mandates going around are robbing people of a significant chunk of time yet again ontop of overemployment. When you have to work a 10 hour day and commute an hour plus each direction, then come home and “cook” something, it usually translates to heating up frozen shit and then wishing you weren’t miserable.
Been there and done that, fuck hustle culture.
Yep. My boomer dad: “When I was a kid, we walked everywhere! Nobody walks anymore!” Also my dad: “I’m afraid to drive into Portland because my truck might get stolen.”