“I can’t afford to eat healthy.” You can’t afford not to, IMHO.(from this very interesting article). Yes, On the surface, fresh food costs a little more than processed,and takes a bit more time to prepare, but the costs associated with not eating quality real food are much greater. A 2012 Population Health Management study reported that eating an unhealthy diet puts you at a 66% increased risk of productivity loss. Not to mention the hospital and medication costs of diabetes, obesity, cancer and heart disease, the risks of which can be reduced by eating a healthful diet.
Also, in terms of time, a sedentary lifestyle is linked to greater overall illness. Processed food is faster to prepare than fresh, resulting in a superficial savings of time. BUT, according to the article, US adults spend over 2 hrs a day watching TV, hence being sedentary, not cooking, interacting, or being creative. If you gave yourself back 1 of those hours, what might you accomplish? What healthy delicious wonders could you create for yourself in the kitchen? Anecdote from my own life: I recently went for an eye check up. The ophthamologist said: “There is nothing we can do to improve your amazing 20:15 vision” The result of which was a LASIK surgery I underwent in 2001. I credit my continuing eye health, as well as the rest of me to my constant movement. I plan to never stop moving. As a friend in his 50′s said to me recently (while catching up to me on a bicycle) : “I’m at the stage of life where if I stop doing something, I will stop doing it forever, so the best bet is to NOT STOP.”
Amen to that, dude.