Comments on: Is a healthy diet expensive?

By: Diet News Blog

Diet News Blog — Sun, 01 Jan 2006 16:43:35 +0000

Mediterranean Diet: French Researchers Endorse Mediterranean Diet After Careful Study

In the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, Dr. Denis Lairon of the Faculty of Medicine Timone in Marseille, France and colleagues have published a study that claims a Mediterranean-style diet can reduce the risk of heart disease by 15 percent. Orig…

By: Scott

Scott — Wed, 21 Dec 2005 15:48:38 +0000

Organic vegetables have less added and less taken away from them. The additions are things like pesticide residues, preservatives and even colour and flavour enhancers. The subtractions are a large chunk of vitamins and minerals usually found in those vegetables.

Several studies (I have details if you like) have shown that organic vegetables have up to 10 times the vitamin and mineral content of ‘normal’ vegetables. As this is a major reason for eating the vegetables in the first place, it’s a real reason to consider organics.

By: Blaine Moore

Blaine Moore — Wed, 21 Dec 2005 15:37:29 +0000

I still have trouble justifying the expense. I tend to buy my meat in bulk when it is on sale and vegetables as I need them.

By: Scott

Scott — Wed, 21 Dec 2005 14:20:30 +0000

The benefits of organic foods become a lot clearer once you start looking at organic meat and its byproducts. The way an animal lives, and is fed, directly affects the quality of the meat, milk or eggs; as well as the amount of fat. Organic salmon, for example is roughly twice the price of regular farmed salmon (at least in the UK) yet is more active and has a much more nutritious diet than its counterpart – meaning a lower level of bodyfat and better quality, more nutritious meat.

As for organic vegetables, the effect is cumulative. It’s pretty hard to see the benefits short term. I’m not sure, though, that the extra cost isn’t without good reason. Perhaps if everyone (who could afford it) replaced just one or two items in their shopping basket with organic versions, the prices would come down. That’s what seems to be gradually happening in the UK.

By: Blaine Moore

Blaine Moore — Wed, 21 Dec 2005 01:40:08 +0000

I do not really think that eating regular vegetables is all that much worse than eating organic. I think that organic is just an excuse to charge more for your produce than it costs extra to produce it that way.

The best of course is in the summer and fall when there’s a lot of farmer’s markets to be found around the area.

By: Scott

Scott — Tue, 20 Dec 2005 08:56:17 +0000

I am surprised that there is so much difference in price between organic and ‘regular’ vegetables. However, eating the cheaper veg (rather than the organic) is still much better than none at all.

One of the big cost savers seems to be buying foods in bulk. Also, as you rightly pointed out, the fewer hands a product has been through (in processing), the cheaper it is. Just making a couple of meals from scratch, rather than buying ready-made meals, saves a lot. Not to mention the health benefits.