How does the cost of food, budget, or circumstances, affect your eating habits/personal diet?

[Prof_Don]

This is a good ? that, after being on this site for almost 1.5years, never seen asked on this site.

Now...we all know that there is everyone has an "ideal" way to eat, whether for personal preferences for taste or for health.

I also know that this idea of an "ideal way to eat" varies from person to person.

However, reality is, most people don't eat ONE HUNDRED PERCENT the way they WANT to eat due to food costs, personal budget, availability, medical conditions, cultural/religious influences, etc.

So I'm asking all of my fellow users...

1)What foods do you WANT to eat/drink more or less often, but cannot for some reason?

2) In regards to #1, what is the circumstance(s) preventing you from eating that food, or eating that way?

Interesting ?, right? :) I expect some long answers on this one lol.

Have fun. No flaming, please. :)

[Darkfairie17]

I would love to drink pop on a regular basis and eat more junk. Let's face it, some junk food does taste great! But I have a thyroid issue and its way to easy for me to gain weight. So I can't eat it as much as I would like.

Most of the time I eat fairly well, lots of raw fruits and veggies, whole grain rice, spices instead of butter and salt for flavouring. I find that good foods actually cost a lot less than buying a lot of the processed stuff. For instance those 'tv' microwave dinners. Like Lean Cuisine, they are like 2 bucks per thing, and I can make that for a lot less. So I do that instead. It takes more time, but its money saved in the end, plus it's better because its not processed.

As for some other things, yes some days I would love to have a good steak. But steak is expensive. I usually keep from buying meat until it is on sale, and then I stalk up. I am pretty good with my budgeting when it comes to groceries. I find meats to be the biggest part of the budget, so I try to be careful with what I buy. Also, ingredients to bake are incredibly expensive. That is one place where it is probably cheaper to go out and just buy a cheap cake, muffin tray, etc... than it is to buy the ingredients. I probably spent a good 50 bucks last year just to make gingerbread! I couldn't believe it! Baking essentials are expensive and I rarely am able to bake.

Another thing are organics. I would love to buy organics but they too are expensive. It sucks, I would love to have stuff that is better for me but its just out of reach as a college student.

Whole grain pasta, that is another thing. I eat white pasta atm. But I would prefer whole grain. It's better for you and tastes better in my opinion. But whole grain is almost twice the price of the white pasta! Right now a 900g bag of white pasta is 88 cents! Whereas a box of whole wheat is 1.50! Yes that seems pretty cheap, but that is just for certain kinds, they can go up to like 3-5 bucks for a box! It sucks!

[Catie101]

1) if I could I would have some things like cookies/brownies.

if I could I would go out to eat at restaurants.

2)for health reasons I can not have these things, not even one cookie or brownie because I get headaches and they could also push me over the edge and my hypoglycemia will be diabetes.

as for eating out I do not have the money for it at all.

[JoTree]

Because I eat healthy organic foods, my food budget CAN be higher than most, but it is NOT. The solution I found was to just eat a little less, buy in bulk, and prepare most of my own foods to get the cost down close to what it would be if I ate processed, genetically modified foods.

My eating habits can best be described as a modified hunter gatherer diet since I do allow for seeds and legumes such as Quinoa, Amaranth, Rice, and Beans. I don't suggest everyone eat the way I do. It depends on your body type and your genetic ancestry. The simplest thing I can suggest is to eat like your ancient ancestors did.

I don't eat grains because humans only started farming as a means of emergency survival, not as a constant way to sustain themselves. Since it was done for so long, it became engrained in our cultural habits. As far as dairy products are concerned, you don't see a herd of cows holding down a lactating woman and sucking the milk out of her breasts. Human milk is for humans, cows milk is for cows.

I have no food allergies, but I choose to eat this way because it makes me feel healthy and alive. I have no desire for junk food, and they actually make me feel tired and ill after I eat them. The only food I can think of that I used to eat years ago and liked, but do not eat any more, is cheese.

There is a solution I found, but it's not for everyone. It may sound odd, strange, and disgusting, but if a brave group of lactating women would get together and form a human dairy association to make dairy products, I would buy cheese made from breast milk. Believe me, I was a little squeamish too, but my friend's wife started doing this after her 2 year old was weaned. She gave a me a few samples, and I must say, the cheese and yogurts she makes are actually quite delicious.

And no, I am not a dirty, new-age hippy. More like a modern tribal man who goes on Facebook, and likes watching MMA.

[Prof_Don]

The last paragraph is funny; I don't think you're a dirty hippy lol.

[WoIIie]

My food budget allows me to eat at the cost of about 4-5$ per day.

That's barely a meal at Burger King, but if you buy in bulk and cut out service costs as much as possible, getting in adequate nutrition is quite feasible. All it takes is a few substitutions. For example, rather than buy two half-gallons of juice for 4$, I'll buy one pack of Crystal Light which has about 3 times the servings for 3$.

As far as me wanting to build on muscle, I've found that to be quite difficult on a strict diet. I've lost a lot of weight and noticed that I get pushed around a lot easier on the basketball court. I'm getting lean definition, but nothing imposing or bulky. I don't eat enough food or protein in general (maybe about 50g per day).

[sketchy]

Calamari and decent pizza are probably the main foods I really like but can't get where I live.

Also, I'm really skinny (6'1" & 160lbs) and the only way I seem to put on any (muscle) weight is if I'm eating steak etc on a daily basis, which is actually quite expensive (too expensive).

[Anonymous]

In terms of actual food, no. In terms of venue, sure. I'd go to fancier restaurants and/or cooler places. But that doesn't mean I'm starving as is or that I'd be eating healthier or any better. I'd just be consuming something else.