RE: bulgur flour, was Re: Yorkshire Pudding an d NT-izing recipes

[Guest guest]

> People keep talking about " how expensive " it is to eat NT. Do most people

> find that to be true?

That depends on where you're coming from. If you buy lots of processed

convenience foods and/or eat out a lot, switching to NT should be cheaper.

If you're cooking the SAD from scratch or eating a minimally processed

vegetarian diet, switching to NT is very expensive by comparison.

It's also a lot more expensive if you're trying to shop in the convenience

of your local co-ops, health food stores, and natural foods aisles instead

of finding direct supplier sources.

Other factors: regional variations in price, how doggedly do you insist on

everything being organic/biodynamic, and efficiencies of scale (family of

six vs family of one)

One other thing, many of the people on this list not only do NT but also do

a " reduced carb " style of diet which isn't necessarily NT (it can be but

doesn't have to be). Grain, beans, and potatoes are A LOT cheaper than

meat, milk, eggs, butter, and coconut oil.

[Guest guest]

At 03:49 PM 4/8/2002 -0500, you wrote:

> > People keep talking about " how expensive " it is to eat NT. Do most people

> > find that to be true?

>

>That depends on where you're coming from. If you buy lots of processed

>convenience foods and/or eat out a lot, switching to NT should be cheaper.

>If you're cooking the SAD from scratch or eating a minimally processed

>vegetarian diet, switching to NT is very expensive by comparison.

>

>It's also a lot more expensive if you're trying to shop in the convenience

>of your local co-ops, health food stores, and natural foods aisles instead

>of finding direct supplier sources.

>

>Other factors: regional variations in price, how doggedly do you insist on

>everything being organic/biodynamic, and efficiencies of scale (family of

>six vs family of one)

>

>One other thing, many of the people on this list not only do NT but also do

>a " reduced carb " style of diet which isn't necessarily NT (it can be but

>doesn't have to be). Grain, beans, and potatoes are A LOT cheaper than

>meat, milk, eggs, butter, and coconut oil.

Thanks for the replies: they echo a lot of my thoughts. I've been inclined

to write a cookbook " Eating Cheap " -- I've noticed that a lot of people who

keep complaining about the cost of groceries are also the same people who

live on potato chips and TV dinners. When I was REALLY poor I bought in

bulk and kept to a few ingredients and rarely if ever bought potato chips

(not enough nutrition per dollar, in my mind then). You can live a long

time on 100# of pinto beans and 100# of rice and a chicken a week! (I'm not

claiming optimal nutrition here, but it was probably better than my

roomate's diet).

Actually I think if you keep a garden, egg chickens, a milk goat and raise

one beef or two a year for eating, you can do most of the NT stuff for next

to nothing (which was the case in the 1800's for most families, though not

so feasible now: our old neighbor claims they grew most of their own food

while their kids were growing up). Milk, eggs, and butter are considered

expensive now, but they are basically free foods when you own the animals.

I don't eat pork myself, but you can raise a hog mostly on leftovers.

What floors me here in the country is the number of families with land that

subsist solely on food stamps and the food bank and have forgotten how to

keep a couple of chickens. If you are unemployed and have land, growing

food would seem to be a good way to spend your time, and one you can do

while watching a child. Maybe teaching people to " grow your own " would be a

good way to help the hunger problem. And I'm also stunned by people like my

sister, who claims she has NO time to cook and eats out every meal (and

says her food bill is just too expensive and has all kinds of health problems).

Heidi Schuppenhauer

Trillium Custom Software Inc.

heidis@...