The real cost of cheap food

The old saying is true: you are what you eat. Especially when it comes to metabolic health.

But these days it’s easier than ever to make the wrong food choices. A combination of bad information and an endless supply of processed junk foods means that it requires deliberate effort to eat well.

And on top of that, there’s a pervasive idea that healthy food is too expensive – and by extension, low-income households can only afford to buy things like sugary cereals and ready made meals.

While it’s true that the sticker prices may seem compelling, I want to show you that it doesn’t have to be prohibitively expensive to eat in a heart healthy way. Plus, there’s a hidden cost to eating bad foods that will cost you in the long run.

The cost of cheap food

On the surface, cheap foods are, well, cheap. You can load up on chips and fries and white bread and nuggets for a low price. But there’s a catch: they’re so low in nutritional value that they’re not filling, so you have to eat more of them.?

When people start eating whole foods they often notice an unexpected result: they feel full a lot quicker than they’re used to. This is because of the nutrient density of the foods.

By contrast, junk food has minimal nutritional value. They’re often very low in protein and high in carbohydrates, which keeps you hungry and reaching for more snacks. You can test this for yourself: if you give yourself a large portion of a carbohydrate, like pasta or rice, or even cookies, the chances are you’ll be able to eat a lot of it and even feel hungry shortly after finishing. But if you ate a steak, it’s unlikely you’d want to have a second or third – you’d be too full. Apply this to your meal and snack choices and choose the protein-rich sources where possible.

It’s important to remember that the food industry is an industry like any other. The companies making your chips and cereals have shareholders and profit targets, and the only way they reach those targets is by selling more of their foods. The hungrier you are, the quicker you eat through a packet of their products, and the more you buy. It’s not in their interest to make food high in nutritional value that keeps you full so you buy less.

The hidden cost of cheap food

Just as food companies aren’t interested in saving you money, it’s also not their primary objective to keep you healthy. That’s not to say they’re deliberately harming you, but be mindful that their goal is to sell more of their products. The responsibility is very much on us as individuals to think about what we eat and make wise choices, because Doritos has no obligation in that regard.

A healthy diet is one of the most important steps to take for heart disease prevention and a poor diet is the most common factor I see among patients in my practice. This is the hidden cost of cheap, unhealthy foods – the toll it takes on your health. That cost can be hugely expensive: chronic disease, premature death, heart surgery, time off work, costly medical bills, and so on.

Unfortunately, there is a wealth of misinformation surrounding what makes a heart healthy diet. One of the biggest things to watch out for are products that contain vegetable (seed) oils, which are sadly often advertised as heart healthy. Make no mistake, they are not healthy.

Vegetable oils are heavily processed and contain large amounts of artificial trans fatty acids, which have been linked to an increased risk of:

• Heart disease
• Stroke
• Liver dysfunction
• Type 2 diabetes
• Alzheimer’s

This is the true cost of cheap, artificial foods. It can be tempting to only look at the total on a shopping receipt, but the truth is that a poor diet can have a disastrous impact on your health.

Healthy food on a budget

Eating a heart healthy diet doesn’t have to be expensive or difficult. In fact, it’s incredibly simple to eat in a manner that will improve heart health.

I have three simple rules:

• Avoid processed food
• Eat home cooking
• Eat what grows in the ground, or things that eat what grows in the ground

One thing that all these rules have in common is that they center around eating whole foods. The cornerstones of a heart healthy diet are?

• Whole cuts of meat and other animal products
• Vegetables
• Minimally processed carbohydrates such as potatoes

A whole foods diet is healthy and easy to stick to, and avoids the temptation to follow fad weight loss diets that cause people to lose weight and then gain it all back again.

There’s a popular idea that healthy foods are too expensive though. While it’s certainly true that you can spend a lot of money on your food, you don’t have to. For example, frozen vegetables are inexpensive, filling, can be used in a variety of ways, and can be used in multiple meals.

Other tips for keeping in a budget with healthy foods include:

• Plan your meals
• Cook large portions and save the leftovers?
• Buy generic brands
• Stock up on sales
• Buy directly from local farmers and ranchers
• Buy in bulk

You’ll notice that none of these tips require following one specific diet, like the Mediterranean diet or a vegan plan. That’s because eating metabolically healthy is very flexible, and doesn’t have to break the bank.

To discover the different food choices you can make while still eating in a heart healthy way, take a look at my book Stay Off My Operating Table?. It shows how to make healthy food choices on a range of diets, including gluten free, vegan, and even carnivore. You’ll also learn my seven principles for becoming and staying metabolically healthy, so you can live a long life free of chronic disease.

Join our Heart Health Hub community

If you’re currently climbing a ‘mountain’ in your health journey, or if you’re looking for a community to cheer you on, you’re welcome to explore my Heart Health Hub community, which is tailored to assist individuals at points in their metabolic health journey.