Rumour has it there is a wee bit of a financial crisis going down. If you ask me, the most effective way to ensure it gets worse, is to keep reading about how bad it is. Unless we were planning on cashing in on our retirement savings plan tomorrow, I think we all could use a little simmering.
So there is an imminent financial disaster, dropping real estate prices, crashing markets, ongoing discussions about the food crisis and food shortage, our planet is melting, estimates have one in three people developing type two diabetes and nearly 50% of women of my generation (late 20′s/early 30′s) will be diagnosed with breast cancer. So wouldn’t now be a good time to perhaps stop worrying about how many grams of fat are in an avocado or a handful of almonds and just do what it takes to be healthy? You would think.
I always hear people talking about how expensive it is to eat organic. Why spend $10.00 on a big basket of organic, locally grown honey crisp apples when apple Kool-Aid is just pennies a glass? The answer is simple. Cheap foods give us cheap calories; calories that are just sugar without the vitamins, minerals, enzymes, fibre, phytonutrients, essential fats, antioxidants etc. etc. They are void of nutrients and nutrients are what we need from our food. We buy cheap food and expensive supplements and we are getting sick.
If we want to get financial on this- we have a much higher return on our investment when we choose more expensive nutrient dense whole foods and bypass the lower cost, high calorie, nutrient deficient, processed options. We can buy less, eat less and get more of what we need. We are getting more of the good stuff for every dollar spent. And with more of the good stuff, we have more health.
It costs a lot more to be sick than it does to be healthy. A whole foods based diet, one that is rich in nutrient dense foods like whole grains, variety of fruits and veggies, lentils and legumes, nuts and seeds, and should you choose, the best quality meat, poultry, eggs and fish- is a crucial factor in good health.
With the state of our world right now, we simply can’t afford to be sick.
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I agree…wellness begins in the kitchen.
Meghan,
You could not be more correct about the small amount more we must pay for good food to avoid higher costs later, not just for personal health through nutrition but the myriad other high costs association with cheap food- environmental clean up, subsidized cheap labor, health of workers, vitality of rural communities etc. The concept of eating well on limited means is what I call living Mind to Mouth. I think you might appreciate some of my ideas as I very much appreciate yours. I also did a post about the need for us to not cut back on what we pay for food here
Thanks for the great blog and happy healthy (affordable) eating!
[...] use, on emotional and physical toxicity, on relationships, right down to clothing budgets. It is expensive to be sick- whether health care is public or private. In this economy we can’t afford it and the problem [...]
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I think this was one of the first posts of yours I read! At the time I was transitioning to eating a healthier, whole foods diet and keeping the junk foods at minimum. Now I’m IHN and trying to promote this concept to others as well!
Thanks for always inspiring
My absolute pleasure!
That’s so cool!
Oh it’s so true..the mindset is so twisted now adays. If I have to go pick something up at a big grocery store I like to look at what is in people’s carts. It amazes with so much talk about processed, box foods being bad for us that 90% of the items in people’s carts is boxed crap.