The USDA uses national food intake data and grocery price information to calculate different costs for a healthy diet at home. The latest numbers for a four-member family: a thrifty food plan, $146 a week; a low-cost food plan, $191 a week; a moderate-cost plan, $239; a liberal plan, $289 a week. Some food waste is built into these costs.
"We constantly hear the claim that you can't eat healthy on a budget, and to us that's a myth because a family can eat a healthy diet with fruits and vegetables that meets the Dietary Guidelines for Americans," says Robert Post, associate executive director of the USDA's Center for Nutrition Policy and Promotion.
Find out more over at this USA Today article by Nanci Hellmich: Link (Image: Supermodel Meal in a Box Gum)
$146 to $289 a week for a family of four. Does that sound right to you?
You would not be going out at all (except fast food restaurants), and the meals at home would be high in refined carbs and low in fresh fruits and vegetables, and quality protein sources (meat, chicken, and fish). So, the question is what do they mean by 'healthy diet range'?
Since we've gone mostly organic, we've all lost weight, have lost most of our sugar and snack cravings, and feel better.
2) What does healthy mean? If it's just based on RDAs, that doesn't mean organic food, or even low-chemical food, it just means getting the BARE MINIMUM of the basic vitamins, minerals, fat, protein, etc. that your body needs to just not fall apart. It doesn't mean getting the optimum amounts of anything, just the lowest needed, based on a average of mostly-young-male study groups. It doesn't take into account trying to avoid hormones, preservatives, and all those other nasty things they put in food that are decidedly not what most of us mean when we say "Healthy" food.
I spend about $20/week on groceries for 1 person plus dinner guest about twice a week. When the garden is in bloom in the second half of the year, it's about $15/week. My house came with a kitchen, so I don't have to go to restaurants.