So this is how the Japanese save so much money.
This comment wasn't meant to be derogatory. That is effectively their diet and they are some of the best savers in the world.
How To Live (Comfortably) on $36 A Month For Food
131–136 of 136 posts
Re: How To Live (Comfortably) on $36 A Month For Food
#132Earlier quoted context omitted.
Care to provide some more details for your statement? I've never seen the film in question, but I've seen (and eaten) McDonald's "food". Fast food has been implicated in weight gain and insulin resistance by numerous studies. Hopefully your argument isn't that you can just exercise more.
I know more than one person who have eaten virtually nothing but McDonald's for long periods of time, and who are not especially overweight. Mere anecdotes, of course. I'm not saying that eating lots of fast food isn't correlated with being fat. However, I would say that since it's quite possible to be skinny and eat enormous amounts of fast food, fast food cannot be making people fat. I would expect that the same ch…
It's pretty easy to eat healthy at McDonalds, get a grilled chicken sandwhich with no mayo, skip the fries and soda and get a bottle of water for dinner or lunch.
For breakfast get an egg mcmuffin, no hashbrown and grab a coffee or orange juice.
If you just stick to those two meals when you have to have fast food it does basically no harm.
Fast food gives you the rope to hang yourself with, you don't have to do use it.
Re: How To Live (Comfortably) on $36 A Month For Food
#133Earlier quoted context omitted.
No, you're just buying the wrong things. If I walk out of the store with $100 of groceries for my family of 3, it's an entire shopping cart full of food and lasts for weeks! 4-5 lbs of "on sale" meat, 10 lbs of bread flour, 5 lbs of sugar, 2 lbs of cheddar, a gallon of milk, cereal (from local mill, not the national brand stuff), vegetables, butter and lunch meat will cost around $60 here in the Upper Midwest. But if…
This is pretty much what I mean. You buy fairly average food, but I wouldn't touch most of what you mentioned with a barge pole. Meat? No. White Flour? No! Sugar? Hell no! Chedder? Maybe a little. Milk? Maybe, but expensive. Cereal? Probably not, unless it's real like granola or muesli, in which case it's expensive. Veggies? of course, but those also cost. Butter? Maybe a little. Lunch meat? No. Try doing without whi…
There's a huge amount of "food fear" going on in this country (USA).
What exactly is nutritionally wrong with white flour, sugar and meat (unless you're vegetarian)? In any case, I probably have 3-4 different kinds of flour in my pantry right now, plus wheat germ flakes. And the bread I'll be eating tomorrow will be home made sourdough. I'm neither fat nor malnourished.
What's a "real" cereal? This morning my 8 year-old son asked to make his own breakfast. He had Malt-O-Meal (a local Minnesota mill) raisin bran. Is that "real?" Generic corn flakes and oatmeal are probably the cheapest cereals on the market. Are they real? If you like granola so much, buy the oatmeal, honey & nuts and make it yourself. It's simple and infinitely cheaper!
To the earlier comment about organic vs. "pesticide ridden crap." Newsflash! Organic farming also uses pesticides, just different ones. That said, my veggies (pesticide free and fertilized with our chicken & horse manure compost) are no more nutritious than the (non-organic) ones in the grocery store. The difference is that the freshness makes them taste better and improves the texture.
Re: How To Live (Comfortably) on $36 A Month For Food
#134Earlier quoted context omitted.
I know more than one person who have eaten virtually nothing but McDonald's for long periods of time, and who are not especially overweight. Mere anecdotes, of course. I'm not saying that eating lots of fast food isn't correlated with being fat. However, I would say that since it's quite possible to be skinny and eat enormous amounts of fast food, fast food cannot be making people fat. I would expect that the same ch…
I would say that since it's quite possible to be skinny and eat enormous amounts of fast food, fast food cannot be making people fat. What? The fact that some people eat enormous amounts of fast food without getting fat hardly means that fast food cannot be making anyone fat. Additionally, you seem to be assuming that skinny = healthy, and fat = unhealthy. Finally, I'm fairly certain that studies have shown that as w…
He's saying that there's no material implication. Fast food doesn't make you fat, and it's no silver bullet to health. The typical fast food reliant diet (more calories than you need) makes you fat.
Ceteris paribus, skinny tends to be healthier than fat, with longer life and better quality of life. One study cited here even indicates skinny people don't even have to be that healthy otherwise to outlive fat people. It's a simple "assumption" that requires more debunking than you have given here.
Studies have also shown that obesity is well linked to disposable income. Is it any surprise that restaurants also expand as disposable income increases?
Re: How To Live (Comfortably) on $36 A Month For Food
#135Something that always amazes me is how people are willing to sacrifice quite a bit when it comes to monthly food costs, when in reality these costs are incredibly low compared to the benefits you get (nutrition and health). Why don't people reconsider getting trashed on Friday and Saturday nights, where bar bills can run up to $20/night or find less convenient housing and save themselves $50/month. Or how about getti…
For people who have little money, and are able to do so, going "freegan" may be an idea... http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/6933744.stm ...it is better than subsistence on what is often very low quality (i.e. nutritional value) food.
Here's an interesting book on US dumpster diving:
http://www.amazon.com/Science-Dumpster-Diving-John-Hoffman/d...
Re: How To Live (Comfortably) on $36 A Month For Food
#136Big mistake. A better title would be, "How to sacrifice you health for money." No thanks. I can be cheap with a lot of things, but not with the food I put into my body. The kind of diet OP proposes may work OK for a while. The younger you are, the more resilient you probably are, so that can be quite a while. But sooner or later, especially if you're a little bit older, you will be trading quality of life for a few b…
"especially if you're a little bit older, you will be trading quality of life for a few bucks"
Stuff and nonsense. The old-timers I grew up around - most lived into their 80s - spent their whole lives eating what I call 'close to the Earth', non-processed, non-sugared, non-transfatted foods supplemented with stuff from their home gardens. Yams, rutabagas, strawberries, potatoes, squash, herring, liverwurst, canned fruit, blueberries, etc.
Nutrition isn't about money, and I eat nicely on $25 week year spent at the store, year after year. When I needed to lose 45 pounds (from eating 'good' food) I did it in 6 months eating fruits, veggies, nuts.