"Who wouldn't want to eat healthier if it were affordable?" A friend says.
"That's what I said!"
This friend has been telling me that it's simply too expensive to eat the way I do, but then I remembered my husband saying to me, "We spend less now on both of our grocieres than I used to spend on myself..."
I told this friend:
I was thinking about what you said about the cost per day. We spend $100 a week usually for the both of us, so that's $50 a person per week which is 7 dollars and 14 cents a day -- but, keep in mind, that $25 of that $100 is usually spent on "Raw Snacks" which are pre-package super-expensive things. (Things that are $10 a pound on average.) We buy those things because we enjoy them, and we like supporting the people who make them and because they are super high-quality in health and flavor, but they are not required at all. So if we were not buying them, it would be more like $75 a week, which is $37.50 a person a week: $5.35 cents a day.
I need to do some careful looking at what we actually buy and the conventional alternatives and what we eat daily to see why it works out that way in more depth. Part of the critical things to understand is that the more mineral rich your diet, the less food you crave. I no longer have those moments where I'm like: "Wow, I really must have that [insert addictive food here] right now!!!" Rather, I just think, "Eating sounds nice right now."
I used to eat these huge giant bowls of granola and not feel full, but after a bowl not even half the size now I feel extremely satisfied and energized. While it looks like we're not eating very much, both of us do eat our fill. Everything is so rich in nutrition that less is required to feel full and satisified. That probably plays a larger role than people realize.
Another part of it may be that most people buy large amounts of milk and meat, which are fairly expensive per pound even when they are conventional (and are very expensive per pound when organic/grass fed.) Since we are not buying any dairy or meat products, that leaves the space for us to indulge on Raw 'Snacks.'
Another aspect may be that we waste very little, if any usually. The more produce you buy, the better you get at picking out perfectly ripe and best-tasting produce. It's rare that we pick up something that goes bad before we eat it.
I notice that my mother buys a lot of things because they are "on sale" or because it's "cheap" and then wastes it. When you're spending $6.00 a pound on something, and you know it's extremely good for you, and you put effort and love into preparing it just-so, then you really respect it's worth and you make sure that none of it goes to waste one way or another.
I'll try to come up with some hard data about it though, and make an entry on my blog about it within a week or so. When we move back to Buffalo, NY there will often be a meal before games that you'll be able to participate in, and if you came early enough we could show you what's going into it and how we make it.
*hugs*
~Raederle
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