YES!!! i go to the store to buy lean cuisine or fruit and it costs a fortune. cottage cheese is the worst. i dont know why.....here in america everything healthy costs double.

i guess that is how they keep people in the whole trying to loose the weight. if i added up all the money that i have spent on "healthy food", i bet i could pay my house off!!

fattening food is so much cheaper. i have noticed this too. i think they want to keep us fat. if you think about it, mcdonalds keeps us comming back with their low prices, and before long we are craving a big mac.

Think of what a calamity it would be for the companies who supply all those magic diet things. if we ate healthy all the time they would loose bollions in revenue every year!And the drug companies would loose billions every year on obesity related problems that they wouldn't have to medicate.Do you suppose the owners of fast food chains have stock in the diet and pharmeceutical industries?---It wouldn't surprise me a bit!

Yeah, it sucks. But I think the availability and processing cost is taken into effect. Like oranges may be available at your store all year long, but how far do they have to travel? Or, white bread is "easier" to make than 100% whole wheat is...

I'm not sure if that's true, but that's what I have to assume. I certainly don't agree and hope that with the health push that's been happening all over - fatty foods may become more expensive.

You are very correct. I noticed this too. I spend alot more money on food now than I use to. But, I remind myself that I'm worth it. My health is my #1 priority.
Speaking of subway I was a bit frustrated to see that cookies are sold from cheapier than a box of raisins. :)

The governments of all western countries make a fortune from tax on junk foods - literally 100's of millions of dollars a year from companys like Coca cola and McDonalds. Unfortunately, veggies and health foods are not so popular and hence cannot sell foods as cheaply.
It is disgusting really.
Good veggies and fish are silly expensive in England.

Since I changed my way of eating in september I've really noticed an increast in my budget for buying food. Makes no sense to me.

With the packaged health/ diet food in the supermarket they charge more I guess because they know they can get away with it! If we are desperate to lose weight we are usually willing to pay through the nose to achieve it! With the fresh food though, there are a lot of people in the middle (between the growers and the consumers) that need to get paid, on top of that is the cost of transport especially if we want to be eating produce that is not in season in our part of the world.

My suggestion for getting around this is to shop straight from the fresh food markets, the ones where it is pretty much the grower (or the next guy down the chain) selling their produce. In Australia most big cities have at least a few of these. I know they can be far away and difficult to get to but if you can get to together with a few friends, you can take turns doing the travelling and buying. You can also buy in bulk (saving even more cash) and split the quantities. Same goes for buying fresh meat in bulk and freezing it. You can also buy a lot of produce when it is in season and freeze it (this takes a bit of research, have a search on the net to find out what is suitable to freeze) but is worth it in the long run and you can enjoy a lot of seasonal veges all year round.

If you have the time and have enough people interested, you could set up something similar to a small fresh produce co-operative at your work, in your neighborhood or with other families at your children's schools.

It might take a bit of effort but in the long run doing our shopping this way will be better for our health, better for our wallets and better for the environment.

Thanks everyone for all your comments. I just wanted to make sure that I was not crazy!!

It's all about the Benjamins. In 2004, Americans spent over 46 Billion (yes..BILLION) dollars on diet products and self-help books. Billion. The diet industry has us by the....... They know a majority of people are overweight would rather have a quick fix they can buy than do it the right way. Companies like WW jump in on it too. If a company knows they "got you"..they will take advantage.
Think about this one. why are baby Nike or Reebok tennis shoes as expensive (almost) as the adult sizes? Why are baby sized Polo, Nautical, etc shirts as expensive as adult sizes? Because...they got us. They know we will spend the money.

Honesty, I have been saying that for years...
My ex and I had very little money, so I would buy what we could afford, and it wasn't always healthy, because cheap, is not healthy. That is why I did Weight Watchers because you could essentially eat whatever you wanted. It was all about portion control...

Oh, yeah you are definitely onto something! It IS a conspiracy. fast food restaurants put additives in their food that's addicting so we'll keep coming back for more. Then, when we do and we get fat, the magazines and models and TV shows tell us that we are too fat. So, go on some fad diet and lose it, only to regain it all back when you start eating like a normal person, again. If we even know hwo to do that in the first place!!

They say eating organic and all-natural is best but it's MAD expensive. And girl's and women's magazines are very contradictory...in the same issue there will be ads for diet pills, articles on eating disorders, columns on how to be sexier for "him" and ads for Botox. What in the world?!?

It is so true! I think about it all the time. I think part of it is that they are taking advantage of our demand for healthy food, so therefore they charge us more. The other part I think is the quality. A McDonalds burger is mostly filler, fat and some beef. The ground beef I buy is 96% lean. It may be they try to "give" you the burger to sell you a $2 soda that cost them a few cents and make their money on that.

you are not crazy. the thing about prepackaged "healthy" food is that it is prepackaged and that is a lot of what we pay for. the key for me at least is to a) only shop the perimeter of the grocery as that is where all the fresh items are (fruits, veggies, meat, etc) and cook at home. i find it less expensive to stock my cupboard and cook and bring my lunches, than eat prepackaged food (even if it's sold as healthy) at twice the cost. In terms of tax, here in Canada there is no tax on fresh food, only packaged... interesting.