I came across this page on the Food Commission site. They claim to be 'Britain's leading, independent watchdog on food issues'. They have a chart similar to my own, except that they miss out the most important foods, the starchy staples. This gives a completely misleading impression, making it seem that it is the unhealthy foods that are the cheapest.
They have fallen into the trap of the false dichotomy, talking as if the only two alternatives are fatty sugary foods on the one hand and cabbages and carrots on the other. As they say on this page:-
How I worked out the cost of 100 calories
Long-grain rice: 40p per kilo: 3,510 kcals per kilo: 40/35.1=1.139
Spaghetti: 46p per kilo: 3,500 kcals per kilo: 46/35=1.314
Vegetable oil: £1.09 per litre: 8,280 kcals per litre: 109/82.8=1.316
Digestive biscuits (Tower Gate): 31p per 400g pack: 4,990 kcals per kilo: 77.5/49.9=1.553
Custard cream biscuits: 35p per 400g pack: 4,950 kcals per kilo: 87.5/49.5=1.767
Sugar: 79p per kilo: 4,000 kcals per kilo: 79/40=1.975
Porridge: 39p per 500g: 3,750 kcals per kilo: 78/37.5=2.08
Extra virgin olive oil (Primadonna): £1.99 per 750ml: 8,210 kcals per litre: 199/61.575=3.23
Couscous: £1.35 per kilo: 3,750 kcals per kilo: 135/37.5=3.6
The next one in the original Food Commission table is Frozen sausages which costs 4.3p per 100 calories. I haven't bothered with all of the other ones lower down in the table because it would take too long to collect the data and do the calculations. The point is that there are plenty of healthy calories available at a cheap price. Rice and spaghetti are cheaper than biscuits and even sugar, with porridge and couscous not far behind.
Other candidates for cheap calories are yellow split peas, polenta and chapatti flour. Lidl don't sell these and most people don't know what to do with them or they take some time to prepare. Chapatti flour at £4 for 10 kilos (or sometimes less) is as cheap as the rice, which is the cheapest in the table. Yellow split peas are probably the cheapest source of protein, cheaper than any meat or cheese, and also do well as a source of cheap calories.
I might add that a 1kg bag of frozen mixed vegetables cost 75p, which doesn't come out well in the pennies per 100 calories stakes but you don't buy vegetables for the calories and they are still affordable. Salad and fruit don't give many calories, they add micronutrients (vitamins, minerals, lutein etc) and flavour, and bulk out food.
Having said that, vegetables such as potatoes, frozen peas and frozen sweetcorn can compare favourably to many common processed foods even in terms of calories per penny or price per 100 calories. Only the sweetcorn is outside the target 14.5p per 100 calories and only just.
Potatoes: £4.29 per 7.5 kilo: 820 kcals per kilo: 57.2/8.2=7
Frozen Garden Peas or Petit Pois: 99p per kilo: 750 kcals per kilo: 99/7.5=13.2
Frozen Supersweet Corn: £1.40 per kilo: 910 kcals per kilo: 140/9.1=15.4
Tesco potatoes, peas and sweetcorn are considerably cheaper than Lidl. I couldn't find any frozen sausages in Lidl but I found some in Tesco. Tesco Everyday Value 20 frozen pork sausages work out at 6.8p per 100 calories. Tesco Everyday Value White Potatoes 2.5Kg work out at 5.6p per 100 calories. So it's cheaper to get calories from potatoes (healthy) than sausages (unhealthy). Tesco Everyday Value Garden Peas work out at 12.4p per 100 calories. Tesco Everyday Value Sweetcorn 907G works out at 9.5p per 100 calories.
When it comes to protein, the sausages give 0.63g of protein per penny. Tesco Everyday Value Chicken Breast Fillets are even worse value for money providing 0.48g of protein per penny. Tesco Yellow Split Peas however provide 2.2g of protein per penny. Even allowing for the fact that plant protein is not as good quality as animal protein, it's clear that no matter how cheap and rubbishy you buy your meat it is never going to be cheap protein. Pulses are cheap protein. Tesco frozen peas provide 0.6g of protein per penny, almost as much as the sausages.
It doesn't matter how rich you are, if you were stupid enough to try and get all your daily calories from cabbages and carrots then you would always go hungry. You should be getting most of your calories (whether you're rich or poor) from low GI starches such as rice and pasta. And they're the cheapest. But the Food Commission aren't going to tell you that. They should be doing that instead of misleading poor people about what they can afford to eat and their health.
Below is a table showing most of the foods I have mentioned above. It shows that rice and pasta are the cheapest, and also that some vegetables do well as reasonably cheap sources of calories. Only the Lidl sweetcorn and the Tesco chicken are outside the range of what is deemed affordable. The false dichotomy in use by the Food Commission and others is wrong, not only because they leave out starchy staples such as rice and pasta, but also because not all vegetables are low in calories.
Instead of talking about two types of food, as happens with this false dichotomy, we should be talking about five different types of food. We should compare their relative merits in terms of cost of calories and protein, and their healthiness. These are the five types of food we need to consider.
Bread should be a cheap healthy source of calories. Supermarket sliced white bread doesn't come out well when you calculate the cost of calories. Chapatti flour is possibly the cheapest food of all in terms of cost of calories. I have read that Indian people often prefer to grind their flour at home when they need it because it's fresher and tastes better. It should be healthier too, the oil in the germ is retained but doesn't become rancid, and the particle size is larger which means it has a lower GI. Most people don't know how to make chapattis and wouldn't want the bother, the same applies to loaves.
It looks as if there are eight cheap and healthy foods. Rice, pasta, porridge, polenta, olive oil, yellow split peas, couscous and potatoes. The only unhealthy foods that can match them in price are vegetable oil, biscuits and sugar. All the other foods in the Food Commission table, even cheap frozen pork sausages, can't match them. Even then the rice and pasta beat them.
They have fallen into the trap of the false dichotomy, talking as if the only two alternatives are fatty sugary foods on the one hand and cabbages and carrots on the other. As they say on this page:-
Keeping hunger pangs at bay without stretching your budget is simple if you like fatty, sugary food. By comparison, cabbages and carrots are a very poor bargain - you can spend a small fortune on salad and fruit and still feel hungry.This is what the table should look like, after the cheapest foods have been inserted and with the information updated from 2007 prices to 2014 prices, all from Lidl. They are using a different measure, the cost of 100 calories in pence, which is different from the measure I used of calories per penny. Anything cheaper than 14.5p per 100 calories (7 calories per penny) is deemed as affordable to low income families.
Foodstuffs
|
Cost of 100 calories in pence
|
Long-grain rice
|
1.2
|
Spaghetti
|
1.3
|
Vegetable oil
|
1.3
|
Digestive biscuits
|
1.6
|
Custard cream biscuits
|
1.8
|
Sugar
|
2.0
|
Porridge
|
2.1
|
Extra virgin olive oil
|
3.2
|
Couscous
|
3.6
|
How I worked out the cost of 100 calories
Long-grain rice: 40p per kilo: 3,510 kcals per kilo: 40/35.1=1.139
Spaghetti: 46p per kilo: 3,500 kcals per kilo: 46/35=1.314
Vegetable oil: £1.09 per litre: 8,280 kcals per litre: 109/82.8=1.316
Digestive biscuits (Tower Gate): 31p per 400g pack: 4,990 kcals per kilo: 77.5/49.9=1.553
Custard cream biscuits: 35p per 400g pack: 4,950 kcals per kilo: 87.5/49.5=1.767
Sugar: 79p per kilo: 4,000 kcals per kilo: 79/40=1.975
Porridge: 39p per 500g: 3,750 kcals per kilo: 78/37.5=2.08
Extra virgin olive oil (Primadonna): £1.99 per 750ml: 8,210 kcals per litre: 199/61.575=3.23
Couscous: £1.35 per kilo: 3,750 kcals per kilo: 135/37.5=3.6
The next one in the original Food Commission table is Frozen sausages which costs 4.3p per 100 calories. I haven't bothered with all of the other ones lower down in the table because it would take too long to collect the data and do the calculations. The point is that there are plenty of healthy calories available at a cheap price. Rice and spaghetti are cheaper than biscuits and even sugar, with porridge and couscous not far behind.
Other candidates for cheap calories are yellow split peas, polenta and chapatti flour. Lidl don't sell these and most people don't know what to do with them or they take some time to prepare. Chapatti flour at £4 for 10 kilos (or sometimes less) is as cheap as the rice, which is the cheapest in the table. Yellow split peas are probably the cheapest source of protein, cheaper than any meat or cheese, and also do well as a source of cheap calories.
I might add that a 1kg bag of frozen mixed vegetables cost 75p, which doesn't come out well in the pennies per 100 calories stakes but you don't buy vegetables for the calories and they are still affordable. Salad and fruit don't give many calories, they add micronutrients (vitamins, minerals, lutein etc) and flavour, and bulk out food.
Having said that, vegetables such as potatoes, frozen peas and frozen sweetcorn can compare favourably to many common processed foods even in terms of calories per penny or price per 100 calories. Only the sweetcorn is outside the target 14.5p per 100 calories and only just.
Potatoes: £4.29 per 7.5 kilo: 820 kcals per kilo: 57.2/8.2=7
Frozen Garden Peas or Petit Pois: 99p per kilo: 750 kcals per kilo: 99/7.5=13.2
Frozen Supersweet Corn: £1.40 per kilo: 910 kcals per kilo: 140/9.1=15.4
Tesco potatoes, peas and sweetcorn are considerably cheaper than Lidl. I couldn't find any frozen sausages in Lidl but I found some in Tesco. Tesco Everyday Value 20 frozen pork sausages work out at 6.8p per 100 calories. Tesco Everyday Value White Potatoes 2.5Kg work out at 5.6p per 100 calories. So it's cheaper to get calories from potatoes (healthy) than sausages (unhealthy). Tesco Everyday Value Garden Peas work out at 12.4p per 100 calories. Tesco Everyday Value Sweetcorn 907G works out at 9.5p per 100 calories.
When it comes to protein, the sausages give 0.63g of protein per penny. Tesco Everyday Value Chicken Breast Fillets are even worse value for money providing 0.48g of protein per penny. Tesco Yellow Split Peas however provide 2.2g of protein per penny. Even allowing for the fact that plant protein is not as good quality as animal protein, it's clear that no matter how cheap and rubbishy you buy your meat it is never going to be cheap protein. Pulses are cheap protein. Tesco frozen peas provide 0.6g of protein per penny, almost as much as the sausages.
It doesn't matter how rich you are, if you were stupid enough to try and get all your daily calories from cabbages and carrots then you would always go hungry. You should be getting most of your calories (whether you're rich or poor) from low GI starches such as rice and pasta. And they're the cheapest. But the Food Commission aren't going to tell you that. They should be doing that instead of misleading poor people about what they can afford to eat and their health.
Below is a table showing most of the foods I have mentioned above. It shows that rice and pasta are the cheapest, and also that some vegetables do well as reasonably cheap sources of calories. Only the Lidl sweetcorn and the Tesco chicken are outside the range of what is deemed affordable. The false dichotomy in use by the Food Commission and others is wrong, not only because they leave out starchy staples such as rice and pasta, but also because not all vegetables are low in calories.
Supermarket
|
Foodstuffs
|
Cost of 100 calories in pence
|
Lidl
|
Long-grain rice
|
1.2
|
Lidl
|
Spaghetti
|
1.3
|
Lidl
|
Vegetable oil
|
1.3
|
Lidl
|
Digestive biscuits
|
1.6
|
Lidl
|
Custard cream biscuits
|
1.8
|
Lidl
|
Sugar
|
2.0
|
Lidl
|
Porridge
|
2.1
|
Tesco
|
Natco Fine corn meal (polenta)
|
3.2
|
Lidl
|
Extra virgin olive oil
|
3.2
|
Tesco
|
Yellow split peas
|
3.5
|
Lidl
|
Couscous
|
3.6
|
Tesco
|
Everyday Value White potatoes
|
5.7
|
Tesco
|
Everyday Value 20 Pork sausages (frozen)
|
6.8
|
Lidl
|
Potatoes
|
7.0
|
Tesco
|
Everyday Value Sweetcorn (frozen)
|
9.5
|
Tesco
|
Everyday Value Garden peas (frozen)
|
12.4
|
Lidl
|
Garden peas or petit pois (frozen)
|
13.2
|
Lidl
|
Supersweet corn (frozen)
|
15.4
|
Tesco
|
Everyday Value Chicken breast fillets (frozen)
|
39.9
|
Instead of talking about two types of food, as happens with this false dichotomy, we should be talking about five different types of food. We should compare their relative merits in terms of cost of calories and protein, and their healthiness. These are the five types of food we need to consider.
- fatty and/or sugary food, often high in salt too
- low starch vegetables such as cabbages and carrot, salad and fruit
- low-GI grains and grain products such as rice, pasta, porridge and polenta
- dried pulses such as yellow/green split peas, lentils and beans
- higher starch vegetables such as potatoes, frozen peas and frozen sweetcorn
- oil
Bread should be a cheap healthy source of calories. Supermarket sliced white bread doesn't come out well when you calculate the cost of calories. Chapatti flour is possibly the cheapest food of all in terms of cost of calories. I have read that Indian people often prefer to grind their flour at home when they need it because it's fresher and tastes better. It should be healthier too, the oil in the germ is retained but doesn't become rancid, and the particle size is larger which means it has a lower GI. Most people don't know how to make chapattis and wouldn't want the bother, the same applies to loaves.
It looks as if there are eight cheap and healthy foods. Rice, pasta, porridge, polenta, olive oil, yellow split peas, couscous and potatoes. The only unhealthy foods that can match them in price are vegetable oil, biscuits and sugar. All the other foods in the Food Commission table, even cheap frozen pork sausages, can't match them. Even then the rice and pasta beat them.
