Filed under: Food + Health | Tags: rising food costs; eating healthy for cheap
Food Diary for Saturday, March 2nd, 2008:
Breakfast: One Krispy Kreme glazed dougnut from work.
Lunch: One grilled cheese sandwich.
Dinner: One order of calamari.
That might sound like an unusual food day for most people, but for me it was pretty normal. I hate doughuts, but I was late to a work meeting and didn’t have time to eat before I left.
I didn’t have any groceries at home, so after digging through my pantry, all that I could come up with was cheese and bread. I didn’t even have anything to drink with it.
And later that evening, when I went out to happy hour at the Hereford House, all that I could afford was an appetizer of calamari.
As far as nutrition goes, this certaintly wasn’t my best day. A sugar encrusted pastry is never a good way to start the day, and I had even forgotten that I gave up sweets for Lent.
While grilled cheese might be good for a growing kid, white bread is never a healthy option. For some reason, I just can’t seem to make myself enjoy wheat.
And even though calamari might be healthy by itself, when it is coated in bread, that has to take away from the nutritional value.
What I learned about myself is this–I definitely put more emphasis on budget and time constraints than I do on nutritional quality. If I had woken up just ten minutes earlier, I probably could have made myself oatmeal or cereal instead of eating the doughnut. If I had more money, I could have bought wheat bread for my grilled cheese instead of white. Or I could have bought a salad on the regular menu, instead of an appetizer on the happy hour menu.
There are two questions I want to ask. First, when we don’t have a lot of time and money, how are we expected to eat healthy?
And second, after reading the ethanol article , how are average Americans going to be able to afford feeding their families when it is obvious that the cost of food is definitely going to rise?
Lindsay
