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this post was submitted on 12 Aug 2023
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Unpopular Opinion
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A massive contributor to obesity is the cost of healthy food versus non healthy food.
I agree. The cost of pre-made foods with a bunch of chemicals is way cheaper than fresh.
I can go to my local store and pay $40(USD) for some steak versus $4(USD) for a box of hamburger helper and $6(USD) for a pound of hamburger or even $6(USD) for a bag of fresh carrots versus 50 cents for a can of carrots, with preservatives.
Another thing too is the fact that pre-made foods are quicker to cook than fresh foods. Once again the hamburger helper contrast. It takes about 15 minutes to make the “meal” versus 45 minutes to an hour to cook the same dish from scratch with fresh food.
Why are you looking at steak? Chicken is far cheaper. If you can make friends with a hunter you can probably get cheap meat of some variety from them.
Used to be people knew how to plan ahead for meals.
It was an obvious example. Not meant as a literal
The higher price point of steak makes it more of a special meal, and not that obvious. Chicken, Pork, or Ground Beef would be a more approachable example to use.
It was just a quick reply using the steaks, I guess I could have made it more viable if I had specified beef stroganoff hamburger helper to actual beef stroganoff
It would certainly change the math somewhat. Lots of stroganoff recipes do call for steak though.
We also need to look at the price per meal though. I'm going to get more meals out of home made than from the box.
Don’t get me wrong, I cook from scratch consistently. I am on a cardiac diet, low fat no added salt, and these boxes “meals” have upward of 70% your daily intake of sodium in one serving. Not to mention the additional sugar they seem to think a meal needs when it doesn’t need any.
Another thing, you can’t get away with chicken as the meat in a lot of meals. For example tonight we are having Philly steak sandwiches, can’t use chicken for a proper philly
Well, that's because a proper Philly doesn't use chicken.
You did bring up another excellent point though, your home made food is likely to be healthier.
By far. I made pizza last night, I even make my crust from scratch. The only ingredients I didn’t make from scratch was the sauce and cheese. The rest of the ingredients were organically sourced
Sauce is pretty easy. Can of Tomato sauce, some tomato paste, assorted spices, maybe some sugar
Biggest thing is using it up fast enough.
That is one thing I’m still working on, how much is too much and how much isn’t. Also the pizza I make is bacon, tomato and spinach with an Alfredo sauce using low moisture mozzarella cheese
How much sauce goes on the pizza? I know with tomato you want to spread it out real thin, just enough to coat the dough. It usually comes out to 2 soup spoonfuls of sauce for me. I'd imagine it's similar for an Alfredo sauce.
Something my spouse really loves is when the pizza is cooked in cast iron pan. It makes for a great crust, cause it's fried.
I use about 2 coking spoons worth of sauce. Technically I do a lot of my cooking by eyeballing the amount of sauce or seasonings. with two 15-16 inch pizzas i use about half a small jar of alfredo sauce in total. (approximately 3 oz total between the two)
Hamburger helper and ground beef is way healthier and cheaper than the fast food or microwave meals that so many people eat.
Until you take the sodium content into consideration. Too much salt/sodium causes hog blood pressure, and can lead to an increased chance of stroke or hear attack. So actually it’s healthier than microwave meals or fast food, but not by much
You made my argument for me.
You missed the major selling point on my comment.
Not really, it's healthier. You saying it's not enough does not negate that. Btw you switched from the overwhelming obesity problem to a smaller one of salt. But on the salt front, you also don't need to put in the whole flavour pack. If you don't each much processed food, you may actually need to increase your salt. You see this in very healthy circles, they cut out processed foods and they don't get enough salt in their diet. They have to add it in again. So having some things like hamburger helper while cutting out truly processed foods (should I say hyper processed foods?) is actually about right.
I will agree with the hyper processed food comment. I don’t add salt to anything that is processed due to the amount of salt/sodium products they use.
When I make my meals where they are 100% from scratch I do add some salt. On average maybe a 1/2 to 1 tsp of salt. But I do disagree with adding salt to processed foods. And salt can lead to obesity also, due to too much salt intake your body will begin craving sweets to offset the salt. Hence you eat more empty calories from the likes of soda, cakes, candy etc…
What everyone seems to forget is you have to have balance in your nutrition. Unfortunately, for most people, they have squandered away their time to achieve that balance with fad diets, fast food or even hyper processed food. We as a society have become very lazy when it comes to our body’s well being. Ask just about anyone about their meal planning, and they will simply reply with “who has time for that?”
But then complain about being overweight or out of energy. We have forgotten how to eat properly, instead we eat in excess.
I'm not talking a specific meal or a specific day. If you have no processed food in your diet you will need to add salt. So if you eat processed foods sometimes that will be your salt intake.
I think you're really overplaying this salt thing. Salt is not the reason for this obesity epidemic.
Because they don't know how to cook basic meals. This is my whole point. We need to teach people how to cook, make it mandatory.
And you are the slowest cooking when you are a beginner. When you know how to cook it's much easier to bang out a meal. This is also why we need to teach it early so people can get their practice in. In school in the perfect opportunity.
No salt is not the main cause of obesity, but it does help contribute to it.
The main cause of obesity is the inability to control your food intake.
Snacking on healthy foods is not bad, but eating the amount for a meal as a snack throughout the day is.
I know the half a cup serving isn’t enough for majority of people. Serving sizes are based on caloric intake v activity. But most people don’t feel as though they get enough to eat based on caloric intake. 3000 calories a day may be fine for some people, but not everyone. Once again it’s calories versus activity. And society as a whole has become pretty lazy.
Aren't vegetables and seeds cheaper than processed food?
but then you have to cook th... wait a second
No, not here any way.
Sorry to hear
Rice, beans, and even basic meats are cheap.
Processed meat, yeah. Which is full of shit.
I can go and get a bag of chips and two packs of pies/pasties/cheap steak for maybe £6.
Doing it properly with fresh veg will cost a minimum of of 3/4 times as much.
Ground beef is cheap. Actual processed meat like sausages, deli meat, bacon, is expensive.
Here i have to pay 2 dollars for 500 grams of broccoli
7 dollars for 500 grams of minced beef
1.8 dollars for a liter of milk
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That's a huge part of it, but being equipped with knowledge still makes a pretty big difference, making something like an Aglio e Olio is going to be quite a bit healthier comparatively than a can of chef boyardee overloaded with sugar and salt and for a minimally longer time investment.
veggies are incredibly cheap
Not here they’re not. It must vary from one country to another.