The dollar couple, Kerri Leonard and Christopher Greenslate. What would you eat if you had just $1 a day for food?
This fall a couple in Encinitas, Calif., conducted their own experiment to find out what it was like to live for a month on just a dollar a day for food. Christopher Greenslate, 28, and Kerri Leonard, 29, both high school social studies teachers, quickly discovered what cash-strapped consumers have known all along. In the United States, the cheapest foods tend to be so-called junk foods — candies, chips and other processed fare that is packed with calories but devoid of nutrients. Meanwhile, fresh fruits and vegetables are priced out of reach. And living on a tight food budget adds lots of extra time and effort to meal preparation.
“We’re used to eating some type of vegetable with every meal and fruit every day,” Ms. Leonard said. “Finding out there was very little way to fit that into our budget, that was a huge struggle.”
The couple blogged about the diet project and also raised about $1,500 for a local community center. While the dollar-a-day diet was just a monthlong experiment for the couple, health researchers say their experiences reflect many of the real world conditions people on limited incomes face every day. To read more about the high price of healthful food, read this week’s Well column, “Money Is Tight, and Junk Food Beckons,” and then please join the discussion below.
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This couple somehow managed to avoid any sort of junk food in their experiment, and food preparation was not difficult enough to deter them. This proves that poor people are poor because they are less intelligent; they don’t know how to manage their diet in the best possible way, and they probably wouldn’t need to survive on a dollar a day if they were smart enough to get better-paying jobs. This is true in America, at least. It would be in everyone’s best interest if natural selection took its course; let the obese people be weeded out, let them die. Let the smarter people live. Use money that is right now is used to save obese people on something more worthwhile, like prevention education or cancer research.
— JakeThe results to their experiment are not at all surprising. Good quality groceries are far more expensive than junk food. The price of orange juice in Chicago is 4.50. Soda is far cheaper. On the other hand, i wonder if the couple explored farmers markets and ethnic food stores. Quite often, Chinese or Mexican groceries stock some cheap items. I was able to by a pound of fresh farmers market spinach for a dollar this past summer. I usually bought a half pound for 50 cents that would last two people three meals. While the conventional markets are expensive, there are alternatives. I bet they could have found more fruits and vegetables if they did a bit more searching around.
— Lisa WangIts completely outrageous that processed foods are cheaper than fresh foods and that “junk food” are cheaper than nutritious food. Something should be done to increase the price of foods that are bad for you and reduce the price of foods that are good for you.
— TimNo surprises here.
Hope the growing recession won’t make nutrition problems even worse than they are now, but it seems inevitable.
On the eve of the election, I wonder if Joe, the Plumber and Whosey the Whatsit, ad infinitum, would rather see their neighbors eating cheap junk food than “spreading the wealth,” by helping people through the hard times. Call me a “bleeding heart Liberal,” because I don’t believe the richest country in the world should let people go hungry or undernourished. Anyone, who works in a community or church food pantry in this country, knows that regular folks are having trouble feeding their kids decent food these days.
And then, there’s the issue of nutrition among people with enough money to eat well. Many of them don’t do much better. The difference is that instead of being underfed, they’re overfed, yet undernourished.
— WesleyYou bet it’s hard! I have been struggling to feed my husband and son for over 10 years now. But I do not agree to the “fast food solution.” Yeah, you just have to learn to budget, cook and eat the best you can. Read it and weep.
You also “learn” to eat a lot of food you’d never thought you’d ever eat - but you have to in order to survive!
It’s several years since we’ve even been able to go to a Subway (MUCH less, cheaper and healthier than McDonald’s!). My sister treated me to a Subway visit this past summer, and I literally stood there in line SHAKING! It was so surreal!!
As a former cashier, I can add that Food stamps (Link card) are another joke, at least in Illinois. I see people with huge brand-new SUVs and totally brand-new expensive shoes/clothes, buying $400 worth of food, and then more groceries at $300-400 a pop at the same time for their friends standing in line behind them, with their “Link” card. I have personally heard a number of them who don’t even have kids, yet they get such huge amounts a month that they can happily pay for someone else’s groceries! WHY?!
They are a heck of a lot younger than we are, too! Yet we were only able to “qualify” for $28/mo, even when my husband was downsized (he’s an engineer) out of a job and couldn’t find one anywhere. Guess what?! He’s been working at Walmart full-time for almost 5 years now, and he just made it to $9.45/hr after several raises. Yep, that’s a real “living wage” (saracasm intended). We’re driving an 18 yr old car. We lost our home in 2000 (sold it at a 25% loss because he had been unemployed too long and we just couldn’t make our mortgage pymts). So we rent at $655/mo, plus utilities.
I have 2 pairs of shoes (tennis); 1 pair from 2000 and one from 2005 - and they both cost me only $12.95. Same for my son and husband (although my husband does have a pair of dress shoes he’s had since the early 1980s).
I’d like to see more “officials” try to survive on the “living wage” of $9.45/hr, for well over a month, without food stamps. It’s a rude awakening, and it’s a damn
— Kathy Schleichershame that we still have to pay taxes to support others who don’t really deserve the support a corrupted system is giving them!!
try our many pasta meals - kidney beans and ditalini (most expensive is the added olive oil and bay leaf - or chick peas, tomatoes and ditalini - or lentils and ditalini - any of these with a garden salad and some fruit for dessert certainly is a meal that is not only cheap but good for most of us - and leftovers can be enjoyed the next day. By far the cheapest foods are not fast foods but raw fruits and vegetables. Another great meal for me is my own salad of celery, tomatoes, red cabbage, and chick peas with olive oil of course.
— don myersIt is not only the cost of healthy foods as much as the education that pure, high fiber fruits, vegetables and whole grains (unprocessed foods) can truly cost less over time. They are more substantial, provide many more nutrients, defy the need for vitamin supplements,as well as fill you up more so that you will in turn eat less junk
— Barrie Rosencrans registered dietitianJake, you are such an obvious troll. Just ignore him, folks, he’s just trying to get a rise. No one could really be that stupid.
— C. ReavesAll of us want to feel like we are part of the larger culture, and this is probably especially true of those who are marginalised for various reasons. This may put more pressure on many to buy the marketed prepared products.
It is true this is a more expensive nutritional strategy. It is also true that this stuff tastes better. I can’t help thinking about the time and effort that goes into preparation when we don’t go for the marketed food, and the taste penalty we, arguably, incur.
Take time everyday to withdraw from commercial culture, find a way to use this time to experience working together with someone you are close enough to to eat with, and enjoy the emotional and spiritual reward of the shared effort and the shared enjoyment. The alterrnative is to spend more, get a bigger taste bang, and finish your meal wondering why you are unfulfilled.
— GeorgeAs a college summer intern, I remember surviving for under $40 per month on groceries. And it was a very healthy summer for me, between eating well and exercising. Here is what I ate a lot of:
Cereal, milk, grilled cheese sandwiches, PBJ sandwiches, onions, rice, canned beans, frozen corn & peas.
Maybe if people would just get beyond the idea that sandwiches are only for kids, and only for lunch, it would be easy to eat more cheaply and healthily.
— ShanaI had $10 a week for all of my groceries and entertainment when I was in grad school–albeit that was more than a decade ago. I bought what was fresh at the farmers market. I could never buy chips–that was $3 wasted on nothing. Real potatoes are a lot cheaper. I bought no juice; instead I bought fruit. When there was a bumper crop of acorn squash, I lived on it for months. (I could barely look at it for a while after I started getting a better paycheck!)
I agree that the minimum wage in this country is too low, but eating grains and beans, fresh veggies, in-season fruits one can do pretty darn well.
— KimLiving on a fixed income and being medically disabled and needing numerous life saving medications is a challenge.
We live on bruised fruit, fresh vegetables that are past their prime, pasta in numerous variations, homemade soups of incredible ingredients (rarely with any meat or poultry), and cereal with reconstituted milk. Some weeks after paying for medications we have become accustomed to eating one meal a day.
Are we thinner? Yep - Are we following doctor’s orders about eating healthy food no way!
We cannot afford “junk” food or even a burger at McDonald’s. Big treat is going to the local Dunkin Donuts for their 99 Cent deals (when available) of a fresh cup of coffee and we split a bagel. Luckily for us the manager of the local shop knows us and occasionally upgrades us to a medium coffee and adds a free donut. We have no assets, no savings and yet Food Stamp programs insist that our combined disability checks disqualify us for any assistance. We leave the food banks for families with children who need them - And even those services are scrambling to provide the communities since donations are way down.
No one in this Great United States should have to do without food or have to choose between buying groceries, medications, shelter and other basic necessities of life.
— M GerberI take exception to the statement that junk food is cheaper. My wife and I eat a very nutrious diet and it is much cheaper than eating junk food. For example we buy a 25 pound bag of steel cut oats for around $20. That bag last the two of us about six months worth of breakfast. We eat a lot of beans, rice and maccaroni and use meat sparingly. It is a healthy way to eat and has the added bonus of being cheap.
— Tony GPeople who have to deal with hunger do not get a lot of choices, they grow food, cook the bones and use every leftover. One meal, ‘Sunday Dinner’, is extended over a week in soups and stews. They grow gardens, can, freeze and buy the produce everyone throws out.
The problem with junk food is that it wastes food in a needy word. It grows an industry of social abuse by stealing food and turning it into self life. It needs to be most profitable to feed people and maybe that means making people sick by destroying food is wrong.
— swpIf eating a healthy diet - and living a healthy lifestyle - is “expensive”, I would just ask, “How much more expensive is leading a life of regular crisis care and medical intervention from leading an unhealth lifestyle and unhealth diet?”…….. BC/BS of Massachusets indicated that ~57% of all illness and injury is a direct result of lifestyle….!
— Dr David RobinsonI just went through every post on their blog, and it’s strange…I don’t see any junk food.
But, I have always heard how low income individuals have no choice but to eat at McDonalds 3x per day.
And take a look at their recipe page…
Chana masala, which includes:
Fresh vegetables
Lots of anti-inflammatory spices/herbs
lots of cholesterol busting soluble fiber and vegetarian protein
And it tastes good….
— DR.
While I am sure that Chris and Kerri would prefer to spend more than $1 a day on food, they have shown that any of us can eat a healthy and nutritious diet on very little money.
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We just can’t do it on processed foods and fast food restaurants
I don’t think they really tried.
I’ve lived on a tight budget, did for many years while adding children to my family and jelly wasn’t our ‘fruit-for-the-day’. Canned and frozen fruit is cheap, nutritous and readily available. We don’t need to eat fresh only and while I saw that they realized frozen vegetables were cheap, they stuck with one - broccoli. Why not peas? Why not dried lentils or chickpeas?
A current commercial for a fried chicken chain shows the family attempting to buy the ingredients for a meal and keep it under the cost set by the restaurant. What they don’t point out is that even if their upfront coats are higher, for what they pay, they could make the meal many times thus lowering the cost per meal to far less than the restaurant’s price. It’s EASIER to stop for a burger/chicken meal than buy the ingredients for a week’s worth of low cost and filling meals, especially ones that don’t revolve around a can of pb and dried beans.
Also, making bread in a machine uses about the same amount of ingredients as by hand but the payoff is a smaller loaf vs larger or even 2 loaves.
I appreciate their effort, I just think they could have used some imagination and stepped out of their comfort zone.
— LauriGood food doesn’t have to be expensive. A dozen eggs can equal dinner for four. Rice and Beans make a satisfying and inexpensive lunch that can feed a crowd for pennies.
You might like to see this article by Chef Kurt Friese. http://www.grist.org/advice/chef/2008/10/30/. He recreates a KFC meal at home for less than it costs at the drive-thru.
— sherri vintonIt’s not fair to compare the cost of foods on a per calorie basis. Most people can thrive on 1800-2000 calories per day (assuming no heavy manual labor such, as ditch digging), but choose to eat far more. I would venture to say that most people who don’t eat fruits and veggies are the ones who go way over those calorie limits.
How many people in the US really have to get by on a dollar a day for food, if they forego booze, smokes, and lottery tickets?
I will concede that lack of knowledge, as well as cultural upbringing are probably important factors, but not lack of money.
— jackJake,
You didn’t really say what I thought you said? Did you??
Judgmental much?? Oversimplifying ?
I’m sure it’s nice to think that “poor people” are not as well off as you and I because they aren’t as “intelligent.”
This means that you can simply blame them for the huge inequities in our country and that you can feel that they are the “other.” This way you don’t have to feel like there is any problem. Doesn’t that strike you as a little too convenient??
Well, I have news for you, Jake. Life is not fair. Sometimes smart people cannot afford college. Sometimes medical bills bankrupt people. Some people work hard at several minimum wage jobs until a health crisis.
I could go on, but it would only make me angrier at your attitude.
(BTW, my family and I are doing fine. I was lucky enough to get a great education and become a physician.)
— rini10Good points, Shana and Kim. I’m not arguing that it’s not hard to feed a family, or that the minimum wage doesn’t need to be raised… but most grad students can tell you that it’s possible to eat very cheaply, when necessary. I once spent an entire semester on a diet of apples from the farmers’ market, peanut butter, and whole wheat bread. And once I learned how to cook beans, the sky was the limit.
Ok, so the apples probably pushed me above $1/day, but I never once felt deprived, and between that and the constant walking I was probably the healthiest I’ve ever been.
— JessIt seems to me that time is the big trade off, when I was struggling to get by I was underemployed so I only bought unprocessed foods and cooked from scratch and it was very inexpensive. It seems like this strategy would not be feasible for someone with children or multiple jobs, in which case the junk food thing would be more appealing, it would be wonderful if their were resources to help people with time management around food preparation so that cooking from scratch would not seem as daunting as it does to many Americans. (A few hours, some beans and seasonings and you can make chili for a week). It is also amazing how much you save not eating meat.
— L WestWe have more than enough food in this country. We need to change the subsidy structure and commodity programs to make sure that people get more nutrients, not only calories and fat, from food.
— wellroundedtype2When people can’t afford the food they need to prevent disease, whether it’s malnutrition or chronic diseases, the government needs to make sure they can get it. If we keep insisting that people need to eat more fruits and vegetables, we should be giving fresh fruits and vegetables away to people who can’t afford them — along with tips on how to prepare and serve them.
Food banks play an important role, and donating whole grain products, beans, canned fruits and vegetables, along with canned fish and peanut butter, can help people get what they need nutritionally.
It is possible to eat a healthful diet that isn’t very expensive, but it requires more than $1-2 per day, per person.
One more thing… if you can afford to, donate food to your local food bank that YOU eat (if you eat healthfully). Don’t buy only the cheapest stuff but what you yourself eat or would serve to your family.
— wellroundedtype2We are lucky in that we can go to Aldi, get lots of nutritous food at a low cost (like bran flakes cereal for $1.00), and still are able to supplement our diets with bananas and frozen veggies. At the same time, I’m not willing to spread the wealth to those in low income situations (we live not far from section 8) who choose to drive nicer cars than mine, and who choose to have nicer TVs than mine. Get it? Its a choice.
— canary