Pop-Tarts Are Too Expensive!
This blog post is from the Nurse Kim archives of myth busting. I want to share some "alternative" or maybe just lesser known health and wellness viewpoints for you to chew on.
*These posts are not intended as official medical advice.
They ARE meant to be fun, informative, and thought provoking, hopefully sparking an interest for you to do your own research (you can start with the links I provide!) and discover the marvels of the human body, and how it can function at its optimal performance level if we understand how it works and interacts with our environment and our diet.
I have a passion for health and wellness through lifestyle and nutrition and have done thousands of hours of research in addition to being a registered nurse for 23 years. I have done A LOT of self-experimentation in and around diet, lifestyle, body care, and supplementation and have spent a lot of time looking into the science behind it all (or lack thereof!). Check back weekly for the latest post!
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Let’s get this post over with because this graphic is making
me hungry!
Cost
When we talk about eating a whole foods diet, i.e. a diet of
one ingredient foods (or close to one ingredient) like the ones above, a
lot of people think that this is a very expensive way to eat. I would like to
share a few tips that may help dispel that a bit and perhaps even change our
thinking about what we eat and how much it really “costs” us.
Cost is a funny thing. We pay for things in many different ways…
with money, with time, with relationships, with peace of mind, and sometimes,
with our health.
I would argue the cost of eating a standard American ultra-processed
diet is VERY HIGH, although not in the way you may think. Yes, you can get
loaves of bread, packets of ramen, boxes of cereal, chips, crackers, cookies,
and pop-tarts for SUPER CHEAP by grocery bill standards.
But how much does chronic illness cost?
The answer? A LOT.
And it’s not just money, although it certainly costs A
LOT of that. It also costs you your peace of mind, your health, your future,
and your longevity. Therefore, I would argue, THAT makes ultra-processed
food VERY EXPENSIVE.
Besides that, whole foods in fact can be purchased very
cheaply, the ones in the graphic above just pennies on the dollar in most
cases. The 99 Cent Store, Aldi’s, and Food 4 Less are just a few of my favorite
local places to get AMAZING discounts on quality whole foods.
Pop-tart palate
Another thing I should probably address is how INCREDIBLY
BORING the foods in the graphic above look if you are not used to this type of
diet. And you are right… these ancestral foods DO NOT have the factory engineered,
super palatable flavor combinations of processed foods.
That is because food scientists worked very hard to
make sure you “can’t eat just one” of ANY of their processed food
products. They are DESIGNED with unnatural flavor combinations that are
completely foreign and very addictive to a human being, hacking
the survival mechanisms in place that tell us when we should keep eating or when
we are full.
In fact, it has now been studied and documented that sugar
in highly processed foods is 8 times
more addictive than cocaine. And to enhance the visual here, we are feeding
it to children straight out of the bouncy seat and all through their childhood.
How did this happen?
Broccoli is sweet
Conspiracy theories aside, I encourage you to retrain your
palate and learn to enjoy (boring old) whole foods. Funny story. When we first
started eating this way, after a few months my husband looked up at me one
night at dinner and asked, “Did you put sugar on the broccoli?” Lol! Why yes,
loads of it. “Of course not!” I exclaimed. You see, in the absence of pop-tarts, his palate had been reset to detect and appreciate the subtle tastes and
flavors in natural food.
Donuts are otherworldly
In closing, I will try to entice you with one more discovery
on my own journey. Once or twice a year, my family picks up some donuts from our
favorite donut shop down the street for a special occasion. We all stand around
in wide eyed awe as we share the moment together nibbling on our treats in the
kitchen. It is SUCH A COOL experience to eat a donut when you only taste it once
or twice a year. I know this may sound SO UNBELIEVABLY SILLY to some of you,
but don’t knock it till you try it!
Take aways:
- The cost of things is not just about money.
- A whole foods diet can absolutely be done on a budget.
- Preventing chronic illness with nutrition is priceless.
- Sugar in processed food is more addictive than cocaine.
- Broccoli might be sweet.
- Donuts are otherworldly when you don’t eat them every day.
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