Our children shouldn't be doomed. . .

See, here Safeway is the more expensive store. Albertsons is good but I'm still spending $40-50 just on chicken breasts/fish/pork.

There is one Albertons nearby, but Savemart is going to be taking them over..I like when Safeway has their buy one get one free deals...

Well. Glad that's proven and settled, then.

Some other people apparently think it's somewhat possible that you're somewhat wrong.

I doubt that anyone's really going to take the time to read through the study, so I linked to the section that seemed most relevant. Skim away.

Nevermind, no use stating the obvious.

Let's compare that to feeding the same number of people from KFC takeout. You made a marginally heathier meal for virtually the same price (yours is probably still more) and took much longer to do it.

And if we're talking about anyone who's actually poor, where the hell are they going to get a spare hour and a half every day? You did it one time. You did it in a situation where you did not have other concurrent demands on your time. Try doing that every day. Twice. And you can't just run out and shop without dragging 3 kids along. And you're already tired from working an 8-10 hour shift and commuting. That hour and a half start looking like a significant time investment.

That's actually pretty expensive. Pasta and sauce would probably have been a better example.

If you can't afford to buy fresh fruits and vegetables for your family, stop paying for a damn porn site and go apply for food stamps. There is no shame in needing help.

Apesamongus, if you go grocery shopping once or twice a week after an 8-10 hour work day and commute (like I do), it takes about 20 minutes to get a good nutritious dinner on the table.

I don't understand the people who are putting your leisure time above the health of your children. That makes no sense to me whatsoever.

but pr0n = good, fruits and vegetables = icky.

And i don't think Aleska is indicating that she can't afford to buy healthy food for her child, i think she's working with a tight budget, like many single parents do. I personally don't get any help from the mother of my child, most of my time is spent with my child, so i actually come here to interrelate with people. The Fairy Oddparents, Spongebob and Happy Feet are cool, until you don't have much else to watch.

leisure time for single parents is a fine line. I was supposed to go to an SG meet tonight in Columbus, only to find out that my ex-wife couldn't keep my daughter overnight like she told me she could. I had planned my entire day around getting everything i needed to accomplished so that i would have enough time to make it to the event. Everything was pretty much on plan until my ex-wife called

Unfortunately in a matter of minutes, my adult leisure time was shit all over and i was at home watching the Barbie Diaries for the fifty gabillionth time with my daughter. I wouldn't give it up for the world, but it's rather disappointing, i was looking forward to meeting Metiv, Bully was going to be there, i wanted to talk to Meow and Copper some more.

But, my daughter and her mental and physical health comes first.

BrokenAndHostile, I'm not talking about you, dude. I'm not talking about anyone in particular. I just keep hearing "I can't afford it" and "it takes too much time."

Shopping using bargain-hunting and eating healthy generally costs me $1.50 or less per meal if I don't get any junk add-ons for fun (just did the math on an average dinner, enough food to feel overly full). Usually takes me 30 minutes or less to make (that long only if I need to simmer something like rice.. and those sorts of things you can make a few days worth at a time).

-30 minutes prep time
-$30 per week per person

Yeah, I could do that too if I wasn't so lazy.

For a long time, I'ved wished that my mom would have fed me more, healthier foods when I was a kid. I figure then, I would like more of them today.

Yeah, but wasn't there a fireman in the Village People? Perhaps the Indian was a fireman at the reservation.

If parents would skip fast food completely, that would be an obvious help. That's a huge "if" unfortunately.

I'm sort of lucky in the obesity thing. I can eat anything and everything, I pretty much never gain a pound.

I spend entirely too much food, largely because I shop at Costco. I could probably eat for four months without shopping, though the spaghetti would get to be a drag after a while.

Largely I eat this way because I'm a diabetic and not really much of a cook. Plus I don't believe in spending more time preparing food than I do eating it. And I eat pretty damned fast.

Where the diabetes (type 1, not something my eating or weight has brought on me, it's genetics, had it since I was a scrawny nine year old) comes in is that I have to count carbs (and fat, long story) to calculate the amount of insulin I need to cover each meal. I CANNOT correctly guesstimate the amount of carbs in a meal. When I go out to eat at a restaurant I inevitably guess wrong and either run sky-high afterwards or overestimate and have insulin reactions (dangerous).

Restaurants with "good food" are out, but the fast food joints actually give you accurate nutritional information on their web sites. If I go out for good food I'd have to probably take my digital scale with me. Ain't going to happen. The last few times I "made food" myself, it was a nightmare. I'm weighing and doing cross-products for various ingredients, figuring the amount of carbs and fats, doing my blood test and boluses, and by the time I was ready to eat the meal, it was pretty much cold. Wasn't worth the effort. Did I mention I then had pots and pans to clean? Fuck that.

If I had a normal metabolism, I'd probably be 400 lbs.

I read it. It really seems that this study is saying that higher income families eat better...not that the food costs more.

Why do you consider it marginally healthier? Marginally healthier compared to what? What did you compare it to? Did you compare my meal to a garden salad off KFC's menu?

My meal cost more than what? You're not offering anything in the way of comparison...but saying that the meal I cooked is priced the same or more than this phantom KFC meal.

Why does everybody assume that because you are "poor" you do not have the time to properly care for your family?

As far as "You did it one time"......I do it all the time. I am the default cook on my shift because I'm the only one who actually likes to shop & cook.

As far as not having concurrent demands...you don't know what you're talking about. Do I have children to look after? No. I am, however, shopping for & preparing meals while at work. This means...in addition to preparing the meal...I am also performing my work duties...concurrently.

I'm tired after my 24 hour shift...but I still go home & do the things I need to do...because I need to do them. Most people are tired when they get home from work...but feeding your family is something you need to do.

It is not that fucking hard to cook a goddam meal. That hour & a half you keep quoting is the time from preparation to eating it. It took about 20 minutes of prep time. The rest of it was spent waiting for the fucking food to be cooked. It's not like you are chained to the the stove for an hour & a half.

Expensive compared to what?

Pasta & sauce would not have been a better example because pasta & sauce is not a meal. Pasta & sauce is PART of a meal.

it's habit too. it takes a lot more time and effort. junk food is lazy food and just a bad habit.

there is nothing wrong with getting a pizza on saturday or eating out once a week or picking up fast food for the family if you are REALLY BUSY OR TIRED. or have tons of crap going on in your life.

but the rest of the week it's really not hard at all to put together a decent meal with practice. like shalome said, you go to the store after work 2-3 times a week instead of grocery shopping once every two weeks at costco. you pick up what you need for that week and have 4 or 5 homecooked meals. make more food and you can even have it the next day again! or stick some in the freezer to defrost!

even if your kid doesn't eat much of the dinner they get a taste for different foods. plus you really should sit together at the table. if your kid isn't eating the veggies at least they see you eating them.

as a very small kid i loved asparagus, artichoke, baby green peas with butter (mmm, split pea soup), mashed potatoes, baby carrots, corn on the cob and creamed spinach. i HATED broccoli (still kind of do), cauliflower, brussel sprouts, eggplant, peppers and tomatoes. there are certain things certain kids like. how are you supposed to know what they are if you never give them anything but McNuggets?

if my mom never bothered to introduce me to all those different vegetables that would have been sad. i find it much easier to prepare healthy meals since i had them myself as a kid.

Well, then it seems you missed the part that mentions evidence that heavily suggests that healthier food actually does cost more.

Actually, that part more leads toward backing Cash's point then your own. Read the details given on the studies being referrenced in that paragraph. They generally indicate that people who are healtheir tend to be vegetarian, highly educated with higher incomes and tend to spend more on fresh produce which is higher cost.

The link elsewhere indicates that it's been found that those with higher incomes and better health tend to spend more because they purchase the higher cost items of higher quality meats and more fresh produce.

Neither of which are necessary to eat healthier than the current SAD, which is what is being discussed generally in this thread and in Cash's "myth" comment.

No one is saying that it isn't costly to eat the absolute best possible diet available... best cuts and grades of meat, the freshest of fresh produce, organics, etc. What's being said is that it doesn't cost more or even cost nearly as much to eat healthier than what people currently do. Two different things.

If aiming to eat a healthier diet within a set budget, you can buy several days worth of healtheir food for the same cost as a single meal's worth of the pre-packaged, pre-processed and junk foods making up the average American's diet. One example is that you can buy several days worth of brown rice for the price of one meal's worth of Rice-A-Roni.

You don't have to purchase high-cost fresh produce as your veggie staples to add more vegetables to your plate. You can cut back on the too-heavy meat intake and invest that large amount of money in vegetables that will last you longer. Route money from soda and beer into fruits and beans. Et cetera.

If you at LEAST monitor you caloric intake and exercise accordingly, you will be somewhat healthier. You can still pretty much eat anything you want in Moderation, get exercise, and you will remain for the most part healthy.

A month or so ago, I cooked a steak dinner for myself and two of my friends. Peas, organic carrots and sirloins, it cost me about $12 total. I thought there was a fourth part of the meal, but I can't think of it. I found stuff on sale, but if that wasn't on sale, I would have found another decent meal for cheap.

I like to buy a chicken breast, cut it in half, cut one half in to small chunks and marinate it in italian dressing, season the other half. Normally, my wife and I will only need half or less with a meal. Either one is great with rice, salad, in a tortilla wrap with lettuce and dressing, or anything that chicken is good with. I normally like to eat it with lettuce or rice, since I'll eat a lot more rice or lettuce than chicken. I normally cook the chicken in my iron skillet, but I think it's healthier and almost just as good baked.