I used to think it was.

there may be some locations where it is difficult but
most people live near food stores that carry produce.

a box of bananas (conventional) would be $14. that's 40 pounds of bananas.
enough to last a week or two.

add in some greens and some other fruits.

voila.

not expensive at all.

-I agree. Switching to a lifetime of cleansing, fresh, raw plant food does not HAVE to be expensive. And a lifestyle that supports it benefits everyone - especially animals! LOL.

-David Z. Mason

WWW.RawFoodFarm.com

Surely the raw diet is a lot chipper then doctors attention,medicaments and

pain...

even without all the money budgeted towards health practices. which I don't think simply *eating* 'raw' will avoid...

SWD eaters probably spend as much on average on overt toxic non-foods then raw fooders spend on produce. cigs, booze, soft drinks, and tons of bottled water. can easily drop $100+ on that stuff alone per week.

rice isn't all that fun, you need booze and cigarettes to make it as entertaining as oranges.

the rub is the more money you make in SWD world you just up your class of toxins to coke and lobster and 'better' doctors...good luck!!. in raw world you can dump it on e3 live dipped maca and reiki blessed water but you still arn't on top of oranges.

if you are in the middle, eat simple, can afford some organic stuff etc...you are golden

I read this quote from somewhere but can't remember now. I may have read it from the garden diet.Their is alot of truth to it.


"If you can't afford prevention, how can you afford disease?"

Karen

In our experience raw has been considerably more expensive. We were not SAD but were fairly healthy vegetarian eaters. We didn't buy much soda or booze or smoke. We rarely ever saw a doctor and have insurance which we still continue to have and pay for so that is a wash. I don't think as a family of five we would succeed on this diet if all we ate were bananas and greens. That may change someday but right now we crave variety, specially the kids. They want lots of apples, pineapples, watermellon, strawberries, grapes, dates, nuts, ect. These foods are expensive and when you add in for organic they are really expensive. My husband Averaged out out food bill for the last 6 months and it came to $1000.00 and before it had averaged around $600.00. It is sad that is so much cheaper to eat unhealthily than it is to eat healthy.

A lot of the "cheap" foods are cheap because they are subsidized by the government. Subsidies exists for wheat and corn as well as beef and dairy. Dr Graham had a good post on how fruit could be cheaper in a thread called "over 20 million on $3 a day for food".

The best way to offset the costs of fruits is to grow your own. If you plant an orchard, at some point it will require very little care but return a lot of food.

This recent article in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition did indeed find healthier diets to cost more: [www.ajcn.org]

-Erin
Raw Done Light
dogma-free RAW
Gazpacho For The Soul

ok... for most people who do the raw thing it is a LOT more expensive.. especially if you do something like shop at whole foods, or whole extortion as I like to call it ... but hey their business model is effective.

Things that I found to really cheapen costs are CSA's buying by the case and doing it all simply. Also, you can always eat what's in season. And I think the less complicated your recipes are... the less they cost because you don't need to procure as many ingredients. Plus the longer you are on the raw diet the less people tend to eat, but at first rawbies eat a lot... and it all costs money coming from the grocery store.

Bryan that's a really swell idea, and one I agree with, but planting an orchard is jot feasible for say EVERYONE who lives in multifamily housing and such...

It's basically all about lifestyle and choice.

pakd4fun Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I don't
> think as a family of five we would succeed on this
> diet if all we ate were bananas and greens.

i didn't say that a person should eat just bananas and greens.
i meant it from a standpoint of eating a good raw diet.
not buying the most expensive berries at whole foods market.

as a baseline, bananas and greens are extremely inexpensive.
i then said that one could add in some other fruits for variety.

bananas and greens are about $2 a day per person.
adding in other fruits, melons or whatever you like that is reasonably priced at around a $1 a pound would increase weekly cost, but it's still very inexpensive, unless one is buying expensive fruits. most fruits in season can be had for $1 a pound.

> may change someday but right now we crave variety,
> specially the kids. They want lots of apples,
> pineapples, watermellon, strawberries, grapes,
> dates, nuts, ect

these can all be bought for under $2 a pound. sunflower seeds are extremely inexpensive. i'm not talking about buying whatever one's heart desires. i'm talking about a good healthy variety of reasonable food.

>. These foods are expensive and
> when you add in for organic they are really
> expensive.

i've backed off on buying so much organic because the price is absurd.
i used to pay 3-4 dollars a pound for greens, but found a market that sells large nonorganic heads for 1 dollar. huge difference.
pineapples at health food store, even conventional are $4.
$1.49 at this market i found. same pineapple.

> My husband Averaged out out food bill
> for the last 6 months and it came to $1000.00 and
> before it had averaged around $600.00. It is sad
> that is so much cheaper to eat unhealthily than it
> is to eat healthy.

i found when i spent more time shopping around for the best price, i cut my bill in half.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/06/2007 12:43PM by fresh.

pakd4fun, I hear you

with a large family..the price doesn't go down proportionally like with many cooked foods (pastas, grains, even some meats I suppose)

still...any time i'm ever in a market now..in different places in the country..not affulent places by far..and memories as a kid bagging groceries. people drop $100s a week on like soda and assorted pies


$1000 per 6 months for 5 people?

I probably spend like 1000 per 2 months myself, I work a dumpy job and I consider that somewhat frugal

if I had a family of 5 that all ate like me..I would die of exhaustion carrying home the melon...would be one less to feed..haha

if I was suburban..I would deffinetly be ordering by the box..especially with a family..this would cut down big time.

anaken where are you if I may?

I am sorry for the confusion. We average $1000 a MONTH for the last 6 months. And it is a lot of fruit. The kids eat continuously. They wake up eating and aren't done when we tell them to go to bed. We bought huge industrial shelves and tore out our kitchen cabinets so we would have room for all the fruit.

cool. commitment

yeah I figured that was what you must have meant

still for 5 folks..must be below national average. Can you grow stuff? simple stuff like tomatoes and peppers...cucumbers etc...grow quite well and tend to be pretty expensive organic in stores.

sometimes you can really cut corners on price when markets price large fruit by piece, not lb. I just got 2 huge honeydews for dinner..probably worked out to 40 cent per lb.



morrisson, i'm in NYC

the most mellon i've had on my person on a bicycle is 40 lbs

I have been commenting for years how a healthy lifstyle is more expensive. I live in western PA where we get 3 months of lower cost fruits and veg, then everything gets shipped in and with the price of fuel the costs are even higher(carbon wise also). My hand cart of good stuff is the same price as the push cart in front of me at the checkout filled with processed breakfast,lunch and dinner. But the real kicker for me is that I pay $300/month for my health insurance and never use it cause I eat right and exercise, yet my premiums are paying into a system where so many people take no responsibilty for themselves and thier health. I should get a discount for trying to live healthfully. I would drop the insurance but that would be when I get into an accident or get a major disease. Also, why is the more unprocessed a food, the more money it is? For example oat groats sell for $5 bucks a pound, rolled oats at $3/lb and the most processed quick cook oats are $1/lb. Sorry for getting on the soap box but this has always killed me.

For my family of two [me and hunny] we try to stay around $80/wk but often go over .. esp when it is time to purchase oils. The kicker is superfoods if you eat them [I know not everyone does that] b/c you have to order them, around here anyway in Central NY state. The really nice thing is that here we have bunches of organic farms and farmers markets and CSAs and Asian markets {even sell durian there!}, also there a few places to get bulk foods that aren't WHOLE FOODs chains, so we can stay local and frugal. Eating lots of bananas & avocados & greens & cacao. Sprouting is very economical as well.
I think that I am eating more nutrient dense food, so even if it costs more, it is better value. Ever since I got out of college (like 2 years) I have lived on a low budget (near fed. poverty line standard) with no health insurance yet have made organic foods and eating well one of my top priorities - I figure that if it is always in my budget that way, then I won't comprimise my standards or health. You can't put a price on good health - without it, none of that other stuff matters!
I live in a city with a high% of low-income minorities and it kills me to see how people spend their money on food and how food-stamps encourage certain kinds of eating. to me it's part of a greater cycle of systematized oppression in our society -- if people can't eat well and don't feel well, it's easier to keep them subjegated and they are less of a threat .. meanwhile lets hit them with high healthcare costs and not provide them with preventative education ...
Yeah, I have a soapbox too.

I live very cheaply on raw, saying that its just me to buy for. But most people I know spend between £30-£40 a week for themselves and I usually spend £10 at the most £15 a week.

Buying local, little and often I find keeps the costs down big time. It can be soo cheap to buy fruit and veg, it just depends where you live- if you have access to farmers/local markets etc.

I dont think it has to be expensive as everyone says. Not having """superfoods"" or oils certainly cuts costs!!

Keep it simple, keep it cheap, keep it raw

Just a quick question...
which is cheaper, vegan or raw?
I would assume raw because it's pretty much vegan without all the fluff right?
(I'm trying to decide if I should go from vegetarian to vegan to raw, or just straight from vegetarian to raw).
I'm on a student budget here so the price is really going to effect my decision.
I live in south Florida and we have a couple of farmers markets here (oranges and tomatoes in abundance). Are farmers markets generally cheaper?
Thanks!

Vegan is a lot cheaper than raw because fruits are expensive.

When I was vegan i mostly eat cooked legumes, and some greens and grains and little fruit. very cheap.

farmers markets are generally cheaper but not always.

Raw food for me is super cheap, much cheaper than the vegan stuff I used to eat...because I ate fancy. Soy this and that, special vegan foods...overprocessed stuff too.

I love how it works for me right now...I have a lot of free time, so I cruise different markets and pick up only the 'reduced' produce...boxes of oranges and mangos that are a little bit soft, bananas that are already overipe by the average person's standards. I am feeding my body all beautiful, natural things from the earth! An apple with a bruise versus a prepackaged, chemical item that is still before its marked expiry wins for me!

I work at a health food store so I get a deal on nuts and spirulina and the expensive things that I buy.

Just today I got organic bananas at 25 cents/pound! They are either ready now or will be within a couple days...too fast for most people (so they were marked down) but not me! I bought 5 bunches!

If you eat only when truly hungry and not when your stomach rumbles...it's very, very cheap....

F1

Raw was expensive for me at first, but I was way overbuying - I had no idea how much food I really did eat in a week. I spent between 50-80 bucks per week on myself and had way too much food left at the end of the week.

Now Im getting better at it, less nuts and speciality items, buying just the basics I spend 30 - 50 bucks per week and I still have food left at the end of the week.

I fill one drawer in the fridge and a basket I leave at room temp, and thats still too much food for me in a week.

birdy Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Vegan is a lot cheaper than raw because fruits are
> expensive.
>
> When I was vegan i mostly eat cooked legumes, and
> some greens and grains and little fruit. very
> cheap.
>


Me too, and I guess it cost less than raw.

But I was never sicker than on cooked vegan - I would never consider eating that way again. There are probably several reasons for this that have to do with my body and its problems; maybe other ppl thrive on it.
I 'lost' time and money by being so ill for so long and am still trying to regain my health - that's my perspective on cost of raw diet.


There's also the cost of fuel to prepare cooked and the wash-up time and costs - scrubbing pans, using the exhaust fan to get rid of the heavy smells, etc.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/12/2007 01:47AM by aquadecoco.

raw seems cheaper to me .. the cheaper cuts of carcass were about 11.00$ something a pound here .. yikes

.49 per lb for some juicy watermelon is lots better

...Jodi, the banana eating buddhist

One of the reasons it may be cheaper to be raw is that I mostly eat my own food from the farmer's market. People at work go out to lunch all the time. I almost never do. That gets real expensive.
It's cheaper to be raw because I don't miss too much work from illness either. And when I was a vegetarian, I used to spend hundreds of dollars on vitamins and the like each month trying to cure myself.
Bryan had a good point about the gov subsidies for corn and wheat. Man, you don't wanna eat that stuff.

peace

"If you can't afford prevention, how can you afford disease?"

Karen that is excellent, I can't wait to tell my mother this one, when she is constantly reminding me how expensive it is to be raw!

Considering I've not yet converted to this diet and I make barely enough to eat cooked food, this is SO expensive. Switching at this point would seriously put me on the streets. I need foodstamps so bad T_T

tea_mochi, tell us the costs of what you buy and eat now.


You might find that it's not so expensive to eat raw.

For example, lots of ppl eat beans and rice cooked. But you can just sprout the beans, (forget the rice) and eat them raw - yum.

When you buy vegies, look primarily for ones that yield the most edible part per pound and of course cost per pound. Shop around. Expand your thinking from what you eat now.

Lots of ppl even in this forum have believed that many vegs aren't edible raw, like broccoli, yams, green beans and corn - but all these vegs are really tasty and digestible when eaten raw. (forget potatos)

You'll probably get to like all kinds of things you never thought of eating before. Also, there are sites and books on foraging. You can grow some stuff on a balcony and some backyard gardeners give stuff away free when they have a large harvest.

Cut down spending in other areas. Try Craigslist under free stuff. Make it happen.

Oh don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that its impossible, I spend maybe 20 a month on food unless my mom is feeling generous and takes me shopping, in which case I usually only spend 50 of her dollars which will take care of me for a while. But I also got a new job and my boyfriend is looking and once he gets a job we'll be able to try this diet out. I'm all for growing I'm just affraid I'll kill the plants lol, I have the greenest thumb in my family and yet I killed my aloe plant (cries).

I love raw corn, broccoli, potatoes (unless they're not good for you, but they taste mighty nice) and all that stuff I just don't buy it often cause its kinda cheaper to just get the top ramen and some eggs.

I feel like I'm being more of a burden here.

Hey tea.mochi - I killed my first aloe plant, but I think it was because I gave it too much water, I got a new one and it is doing a lot better, I only water it about once a week (or less).

Rob

--
Rob Hull - Funky Raw
My blog: [www.rawrob.com]