Does Eating Healthy Cost More?

Several times in the last couple of weeks the topic of eating healthy and costing more has come up with patients.  I wanted to examine this with all of you so we have an understanding on a very important part of our overall health picture.

Lets break this discussion down to two types of cost:  Time and Money.

Time. This is the hardest for us to handle.  Eating a healthy diet requires more time than money.  We have to plan meals, grocery shop, prepare meals, clean-up, etc.  This is a lot of time.  Do we have this time?  Can we make this time?  The answer to both questions is yes.  We cannot put a price on how important our health is to us.  By trying to shave time off of this we are killing ourselves, then looking for the miracle drug to lower our cholesterol, blood sugar, increase our thyroid production, and on and on.

You have to determine where you want to spend your time.  Do you want to spend the extra 30 to 40 minutes a week making a menu and planning for meals or do you want to spend the tail end of your life at the doctor and in the hospital?

Money.  As I counsel patients on healthy eating I have determined that most patients are really unaware of what that means.  Theses are people that supposedly were told by their physicians what to eat.  One of the key components of this is portion size.  Do some foods cost more than others, absolutely.  But the key here is, are you eating the right amount?  Once you balance out what you are supposed to be eating and in the appropriate portions the cost works itself out.

Again we have to determine where we want to spend our money.  Do you want to spend the extra $30 eating healthier foods or do want to spend your retirement savings on multiple medications and hospital bills just to live the extra year.

Is this really what we want?  I would have to answer this emphatically, NO.  And, yet we seem to keep spiraling this way. The only way to make this change is to be conscious in what you are doing on a daily basis.

Dr. Charles Stafford

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Article by Dr. Charles Stafford, Type 2 Diabetes Professional, Dallas/Ft. Worth, TX