Why Organic and naturally raised foods actually cost less, net....

Today's Post: Tuesday, 2-16-2010

Last Wednesday, 2-10-2010 I got this article from Total Health Breakthroughs:

http://www.totalhealthbreakthroughs.com/2010/02/groceries-are-cheap-disease-is-expensive .

(Other health articles are available at http://www.totalhealthbreakthroughs.com under both past dates and health topics.)

Jon Herring of THB does an absolutely brilliant job of highlighting many people he knows that are paying out thousands of dollars for doctor visits, treatments, and drugs that eating right for slightly more money earlier would have mostly prevented – & with HUGE savings overall!

After reading his article, you can really see by how dramatically much NOT paying slightly more for organic and naturally raised foods when you can and eating right is “Pennywise and pound foolish.”

He then points out that there are also ways to cut costs on health OK foods in such a way that you can come very close to eating organic and naturally raised foods for the same money or even less.

He then opened up the article to comments by his readers for their ways to do that. Those comments are available at the link above.

In a bit, I’ll list my own comment. But you can read the others for ideas. (Most of the comments are from people who really liked the article and specific ideas of how they used Jon’s strategies that were in the article.)

Before I list my own comments, I want to point out that even if you believe that grain fed beef is relatively free of antibiotic residue, hormones, and bioconcentrated herbicides and pesticides -- as I personally do not though I have not seen any specific studies saying so, it IS extremely clear that grain fed meat has more total fat, saturated fat, and omega 6 oils and far less omega 3 oils than beef from cattle fed only grass. And, I have read that GMO, genetically modified grains are used for the grain the cattle eat. Since GMO foods are NOT fully tested to be safe and the companies work to ensure they are not, the list of things that grain fed beef likely does have that are either outright harmful or much less health supporting is more than sufficient to persuade me to only eat grass fed beef.

Yes, grass fed beef does cost a good deal more. But, since eating less red meat HAS been shown to improve health and vice versa, that may be a good thing. As my comment below shows, your health may be far better off and your overall food budget far less if you eat other kinds of protein most of the time and eat beef enough less that eating beef from animals fed only grass, is still affordable. Even better, the health problems that result from eating too much grain fed meat are much less likely to happen to you. The best news though is that you do NOT have to give up meat or beef entirely to be healthy. Just buy better quality and eat a good bit less.

Here are my ideas on how to eat well and choose organic and naturally raised food when I can get it.

By using these and NOT buying the packaged snacks, desserts, and soft drinks many Americans buy and consume, my wife and I spend far less than most Americans do on food.

What we do is not perfect nor is it completely how we’d eat if we had a lot more money. And some parts of it might not work for you.

But many of you can use many of our techniques. And, virtually all of you can stop buying the packaged snacks, desserts, and soft drinks many Americans buy and consume. One woman, who did this for her whole family as she personally worked successfully to lose her excess fat, found in fact that she SAVED several hundred dollars a month!

That will buy some organic produce and grass fed meat and wild caught fish for sure!

Also, the single best place, other than buying online or at local farmer’s markets, to find organic produce, meat from naturally fed animals such as for beef, lamb, and buffalo, and for wild caught fish is Whole Foods Markets.

Even better, even major chains like Safeway and Walmart now carry more and more organic foods.


Here are my 3 tips for eating in a health supporting way for less money.

1. Beans and lentils are really and truly inexpensive.

They are lower in glycemic index than whole grains. They are high in protein and work well if eaten with health OK animal protein for providing high quality protein. (Lentils are a superfood with many nutrients and the lowest glycemic index in this group of foods.)

They are as high or higher in total fiber than whole grains and have enough soluble fiber to keep your LDL cholesterol from being too high.

For breakfast on my calorie reduced days, I now eat a third of a can of cooked lentils, cost 66 cents, and a boiled egg. The salt in the canned lentils is moderately low. I also drink some nonfat & 1% fat milk. I also have some kind of fruit.

Some evenings I have extra virgin olive oil and home cooked pinto beans and some Muir Glen Organic tomato or pasta sauce. The home cooked pinto beans have zero added salt & my wife cooks a batch on the week-end every other week. That part of my dinner is therefore really time efficient and super cheap. My serving of pinto beans is likely about 20 or 25 cents since we buy the beans in a ten pound bag every once in a while. Even better, pinto beans are surprisingly high in antioxidants.

Three evenings a week I add wild caught salmon to this.

Then each evening I have a glass of red wine and some 1% lowfat milk.

So, even when I just have the beans, I get complete protein at that meal.

This combination of foods helps me to keep my HDL high and my triglycerides low enough my overall heart disease risk is extremely low.

Eating grain fed meat every night would cost far more and produce far worse health results.

In addition I get every bit as much high quality protein and far more fiber than I would eating grain fed beef.

Even better, I don't get excess inflammation to cause heart disease from the excess omega 6 oils or get the bioconcentrated pesticides and herbicides or the low level of animal antibiotics in grain fed beef.

2. My wife can eat canned sardines but has yet to find a way to make them taste very good.

I cannot eat fish that is that old due to being allergic to the accumulated histamines found in fish that old.

But if you find a way to make them taste good or put up with the taste -- and can eat them without allergic reaction, canned sardines are a superfood, particularly where nutrition per dollar is concerned.

For as little as one dollar per can for water packed canned sardines, you get huge amounts of quality protein and omega 3 oils, particularly DHA. Even better, sardines are little fish, not at all high on the food chain, and all of them in the cans are wild caught so they are a virtually organic source of protein.

What my wife does do is to eat them in a salad so she has other tastes to soften the strong taste of the sardines.

For protein, these are two ways to eat health supporting foods for very little cost.

3. Soft drinks, both regular and diet -- and packaged desserts and snacks -- both of which are made mostly of refined grains and often have hydrogenated oils, high fructose corn syrup or excessive salt or other additives such as MSG -- are NOT free to buy.

They tend to make you fat and can cause type 2 diabetes and heart disease if you eat too much. But because they are carefully designed to taste good virtually everyone who eats them does eat too much.

They add calories without making you less hungry and then give you rebound hunger a short time after you eat them.

So, since there are health supporting foods that taste good you can eat instead such as dark chocolate, berries, and nuts, virtually every dollar you spend on soft drinks or these packaged foods does you more harm than good.

So, a tremendously valuable way to save money while still eating well is to give these foods a close to 100 % boycott.

Don't buy them or have them in your home. Refuse to send the companies that make and sell them any of your money for providing you with products that make you fat and sick.