Fast food vs real food, which is cheaper?

We've been told a lot of lies by the food industry. One of my biggest pet peeve is the claim that fast food is cheaper than real food. It's probably one of the biggest food myths out there, but somehow people keep believing it wholeheartedly. And I don't think it's to fraud themselves, it's just that the food industry's propaganda machine is really working. 

First of all, let's define fast food. I'm not necessarily talking about the literal meaning - grabbing an apple from your counter could be faster than driving to your nearby McDonald's restaurant. I think we all know what's meant by fast food. But just for clarifications sake, when I (or most people) think fast food, we think of not so nutrient dense meals, coming from factories or fast food style restaurant, highly processed at least. And usually not very expensive, which is why people get attracted to those foods. 

Secondly; it might be interesting to look at some reasons why people buy fast food. Some may like the taste, but for the majority, it probably has to do with a lack of time or not a very big budget. 

What I find quite interesting is that looking at the poor people from the past (and no, i'm not necessarily talking about centuries ago), they all cooked from scratch. Eating out was considered a rich person's hobby, and absolutely unaffordable for poor people. And not just the past- it's still like this in most parts of the world; where we live, eating out or having a takeaway isn't the norm, even for people that are financially well off. And not only that; people were very resourceful and great at not throwing away anything, stretching whatever they had to feed as much people as possible. It sure might have been nice for that exhausted homemaker living in poverty to have had the ability to have a takeaway, but when everybody's living like that, it's just your normal. So, despite limited resources, people still put a lot of love and effort in making simple yet wonderful meals- and above all, used their creativity! It's amazing how much that has changed over just a few decades. 

When it comes to time, I get that people that are working multiple jobs and come home exhausted late at night don't have energy to cook. Still, there's solutions to (almost) every problem, including this one. Why not do one from scratch cooking marathon on a day you're not working and freeze all those meals? Or just buy canned vegetables or frozen vegetables, which are usually just as nutritious, but it's still saving you some time. Eggs are also fast to prepare, as is boiling some rice or pasta. A sandwich can be whipped up in a few minutes and can be made as healthy as you like. And these days, with all our technology, we can use crock pots (some people put them on right before they go to work), or they do some meal prep in advance and they throw those ingredients in a pressure cooker once they've arrived home. Others might throw some "homemade fast food" together of items that are considered convenience foods, but still are healthier than what most fast foods restaurants would sell (for example: some tinned vegetables, instant mashed potatoes and something quick as a protein on the side). 

There's so many options!

But now, when it comes to money- which are actually cheaper? Is fast food really that cheap? It probably depends on where you buy your food and to which restaurants you go to. Some restaurants may have an "happy hour" with reduced prices, or some small convenience stores in food deserts will have higher prices. I'm not really up to date with most prices in the US (I'm talking about the US specifically since that's where the fast foods are so prevalent and more of an issue than in other countries), but I'm sure that cooking healthy, homemade foods from cheap ingredients still is much cheaper than fast foods or even convenience foods such as frozen dinners. It's just that it takes a bit more effort and adjustment, but once you're used to cooking from scratch, you'll probably don't want to go back and you're not really into that greasy, MSG-ish fast food taste anymore. 

Remember that you don't have to buy meat or fish products all the time, as those are quite expensive. Or even the more expensive vegetables... For example, now that it's winter, we have plenty of cheap vegetables in season, such as different kinds of cabbage, turnips, chard, carrots, pumpkins... Those are all so cheap and very versatile. In fact, I'd find it hard to mention a dish in which one of those vegetables don't fit. When it comes to starches- just find the ones that are most affordable for you. For us, it's bread, pasta and couscous. Potatoes, barley, and rice are more expensive but can still be made into a healthy frugal meal, especially when you keep it vegetarian. I like to have lunch with leftover pasta or some fried potatoes, an egg and some vegetables on the side- nothing special but still a nice and filling meal. On the days when we don't have meat (those days outnumber the days that we do have meat), we either have legumes such as lentils, chickpeas or white beans, or I make an egg based meal. Yup, no eggs for breakfast here 🙂 Same goes for breakfast foods. Just keep it simple, don't set very high goals- that way you'll burn out and are tempted to get a takeaway.

Not that there's anything wrong with a takeaway every so often; we just shouldn't make it a frequent habit. I could go on but I think you're getting the idea of trying to make meals stretch as much as possible, prepping ahead and thinking of cheaper ingredients. While fast food may seem cheap, when keeping our health in mind it's not quite that cheap at all.