Healthy Eating Too Costly?

This article in the Wall Street Journal shares some disturbing trends - in tough economic times our healthy eating habits are often sacrificed. The increase in sales for chips is astounding!

I find this all very curious. I wonder if our unhealthy eating habits are directly related to our budget or if it just makes us feel better. Let's face it, when the going gets tough we go for the brownies. Comfort food comes in fatty, sweet and calorie heavy varieties.

I did a quick internet search of easy, cheap meals and there are many options. Yes, doing so requires some advance planning. An hour or so on a Sunday to plan your meals for the week and some time at the grocery store and you'll have a plethora of meals for the week. You'll save the time doing the "what is for dinner" dance each evening, you'll have leftovers to take to work for lunch and you'll be eating way fewer calories.

I did a little experiment last week. I ate all of my meals at home for five days in a row and I ate basically whatever I wanted (granted my version of whatever I want is pretty healthy anyway). I lost two pounds. Two pounds with no effort other than eating in versus eating out.

Perhaps we should have an "Eat In America" week for all of us and see how many collective pounds we could all use. This causes a great deal of angst for our restaurant establishments and their revenue - many are already struggling. Perhaps they could respond with smaller portions and more healthy choices across the board.

Are you beginning to notice how everything is connected?