The REAL Cost of Food

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“That candy bar is only a dollar! I can totally afford that! After all, I spend hundreds of dollars per month on groceries anyway, this will probably save me money!”

Such is the thought process behind many a person’s decisions when it comes to buying food. This small item is inexpensive, so it has to save me money when compared to buying tons and tons of groceries, right? Or maybe a food looks big and substantial for the price.

But what about the VALUE you are getting from that candy bar or bag of chips?

Of course I would argue that such processed foods provide negative value because of what they do to you health, however good they may taste. But to keep things objective, let’s look at one of the best ways to analyze food prices: cost per calorie.

If we assume that all calories are equal and that each person needs to eat a certain amount of them every day to live, then we can figure out what the lowest price foods are simply by finding out their costs per calorie. From there, we can build a diet that is as inexpensive as possible while meeting our health goals.

Calculating cost per calorie is relatively easy. You just divide the price of a certain quantity of food by the total number of calories contained in that food. For instance, an avocado costs me $0.90 at Costco. It contains approximately 275 calories, so the price per calorie is about $0.0032. To make all of these numbers a little bit easier to handle, I’m going to be multiplying them by 100, so the prices below are all per 100 calories. That means that 100 calories of avocado costs approximately 32 cents.

I’ve been doing lots of research into food, dieting, and food costs during my fitness experiment. My current slow carb/paleo diet isn’t exactly the least expensive way to eat, as it turns out. Many of my main staples are higher in cost per calorie than alternatives, such as wheat. But I still need to stick to certain groups of food. Depending on your goals, dietary needs, and food preferences, it is actually pretty easy to figure out the most affordable foods that you should be eating lots of.

Here are the main staples of my diet, along with how much they cost per 100 calories.

Of the main staples of my diet, there are some clear winners. I had a feeling dried beans and olive oil would come out on top. While olive oil is more expensive than other oils, it is calorie dense, and tastes incredible. Dried beans may take a lot of time to cook, but they are clearly one of the cheapest staples you can eat. And that isn’t limited to black beans and lentils like I listed above, there are many different varieties of dried beans that you can eat that have similarly low price points.

Almonds also are relatively cheap, and are one of my main snack foods. Other nuts have similar prices, but almonds follow along best with my diet. In the vegetable department, carrots are one of the best values. Green beans, I was surprised to find, are incredibly expensive. In fact, they were the most expensive of the foods on my list! Once I’m done eating my current stock, I sure won’t be buying any more of them. Salad vegetables like lettuce are very very low in the calorie department, and thereby are more expensive per calorie. An entire head of Romaine has barely 106 calories in it! Seeing as with the diet I’m on I don’t need to worry about how many total calories I eat, such leafy stuff isn’t finding its way onto my plate anytime soon.

Pork, with its high fat content, was unsurprisingly the winner of the meats. Chicken breast was the most expensive. However, I may try thighs, which have both a lower price and higher calorie count, which give them a price per 100 calories of only $0.14! I think I’m going to be buying more thighs from now on for sure. Eggs are also a relatively inexpensive source of animal protein/fat, as is milk.

Of course, once we venture outside the limitations of my current diet, we find that there are some other stand out foods that have exceptionally low costs per calorie. They may not necessarily be the best for you health wise, but they aren’t TOO bad either, and are definitely inexpensive.

While they may be simple carbs, which I’m not a big fan of, there is no denying that rice, potatoes, and wheat are incredibly affordable foods.

So looking at all of this, it is clear that what foods you eat will determine what you spend overall on groceries. If you want a diet that is as cheap as possible, lots of chicken thighs, nuts, beans, rice, potatoes, oil, and even wheat will be your main staples. If you are like me and have some dietary restrictions, whether by choice or not, calculate the cost per calorie of all your different options, which will help you figure out the best way to save money on food.