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Are Australians Eating Their Way into Debt? - March 2018
Can the amount of daily food intake in the area of snacking be equated with debt?
Everywhere I go, I see Australians eating. They eat in their cars. They eat as they walk around the zoo. They eat in museums. They eat at the library. They eat as they walk through the shopping centre - then they head to the food court for more food and drink. They eat in church and let their toddlers take snack bags to the church creche (even when snacks are prohibited in the nursery).
It's almost as if Australians think they can't go even an hour without eating something! And it literally "shows".
I constantly hear children claiming to be hungry, and their parents or carers handing over food. Unfortunately, the food they hand over is nearly always junk food such as crackers, biscuits, lollies, muesli bars, fruit fingers, chips etc.
I must be a mean mother, because if my children said they were hungry, I handed them an apple, or an orange, or made them a sandwich. They didn't get snack foods that are really junk foods. If they didn't want what was offered to them, I suggested an activity to keep them amused. Often they were bored, not hungry.
We are being told almost constantly the Australia is becoming an obese nation; that our children are getting fat and lazy. That we spend millions of dollars on junk food, and not enough on fresh meat, fruit and vegetables.
I have nothing against eating between meals. I've been known to indulge occasionally with the odd bikky and a cuppa. I gave our children cupcakes and milk for afternoon tea.
But we seem to be constantly eating and teaching our children that eating all the time is acceptable and normal.
Thankfully, I realized the continual snacking was a very bad habit in the making: Australia is one of the most obese countries in the world, if not the top one, and continual snacking just adds to the problem.
In fact, continual snacking - giving the kids tiny crackers, fruit chews, snack chip bags, those plastic "juice"-filled bottles, and general junk food - is not only costly in terms of the money spent on such items, but also in terms of health.
The more junk food one eats, the more weight one gains. The more obese a person is, the more they will eventually spend on health care. And with the rising cost of health care (health insurance is set to rise yet again next month), you could actually equate today's snacking habit with future debt!
Is there a solution to the snacking problem?
Of course there is, and it's fairly obvious: just stop snacking continually! Go cold turkey!
Quit buying snack foods (biscuits, snack cakes, chips, crackers, muesli bars, fruit chews, those pre-packaged "lunch" and "snack" packages, etc.). Watch the immediate improvement in your grocery budget.
If you don't have it around, it is easier to forget about. Don't take food with you when you go somewhere - get rid of that stash in the nappy bag (of Tiny Teddies or crackers, or whatever), and that stash of pre-packaged cookies in the glovebox.
Don't go through the closest drive-through for a jumbo Coke. Take a bottle of water with you (re-use a plastic bottle over and over with your own tap water).
If you do feel the need to snack, stock your kitchen with fruits and veggies: buy carrots and celery and slice them into sticks immediately - put them in a plastic container and they're easy to get to and there's no-fuss to prepare them when you feel the need to feed. And drink plenty of water - it's not only good for you, but it will fill you up and it's much cheaper than soft drinks or cordials (and that's one whole aisle you can skip on shopping day)!
In the long run, you'll be healthier without all the junk-food snacks; you won't gain unnecessary weight from the continual snacking and you'll save a lot of money in in terms of that spent on unnecessary junk-food and future health care!
According to the Australian Health Survey, Australians spend half (around 58%) of their grocery budget on junk food and soft drink! And that a healthy diet of fresh fruits, vegetables, meats, poultry and dairy actually costs 15% LESS than the salt, sugar, fat and preservative laden junk food diet many exist on.
On the average weekly grocery spend of $200.91, eating healthfully will give you an extra $30 a week, or $1,560 a year to pay down debt, pay off the mortgage or splurge on a treat, plus however much you're not spending at the doctor and chemist.
In a sense, less snacking can even make you money: When I sold my double stroller, which was used on nearly a daily basis for at least 3 years, I got more than 1/2 its original cost because it was so clean it looked nearly new. My friend's strollers and car seats always needed scrubbing and were washed until they were threadbare ... and still they looked, well, gross.
Everywhere I go, I see Australians eating. They eat in their cars. They eat as they walk around the zoo. They eat in museums. They eat at the library. They eat as they walk through the shopping centre - then they head to the food court for more food and drink. They eat in church and let their toddlers take snack bags to the church creche (even when snacks are prohibited in the nursery).
It's almost as if Australians think they can't go even an hour without eating something! And it literally "shows".
I constantly hear children claiming to be hungry, and their parents or carers handing over food. Unfortunately, the food they hand over is nearly always junk food such as crackers, biscuits, lollies, muesli bars, fruit fingers, chips etc.
I must be a mean mother, because if my children said they were hungry, I handed them an apple, or an orange, or made them a sandwich. They didn't get snack foods that are really junk foods. If they didn't want what was offered to them, I suggested an activity to keep them amused. Often they were bored, not hungry.
We are being told almost constantly the Australia is becoming an obese nation; that our children are getting fat and lazy. That we spend millions of dollars on junk food, and not enough on fresh meat, fruit and vegetables.
I have nothing against eating between meals. I've been known to indulge occasionally with the odd bikky and a cuppa. I gave our children cupcakes and milk for afternoon tea.
But we seem to be constantly eating and teaching our children that eating all the time is acceptable and normal.
Thankfully, I realized the continual snacking was a very bad habit in the making: Australia is one of the most obese countries in the world, if not the top one, and continual snacking just adds to the problem.
In fact, continual snacking - giving the kids tiny crackers, fruit chews, snack chip bags, those plastic "juice"-filled bottles, and general junk food - is not only costly in terms of the money spent on such items, but also in terms of health.
The more junk food one eats, the more weight one gains. The more obese a person is, the more they will eventually spend on health care. And with the rising cost of health care (health insurance is set to rise yet again next month), you could actually equate today's snacking habit with future debt!
Is there a solution to the snacking problem?
Of course there is, and it's fairly obvious: just stop snacking continually! Go cold turkey!
Quit buying snack foods (biscuits, snack cakes, chips, crackers, muesli bars, fruit chews, those pre-packaged "lunch" and "snack" packages, etc.). Watch the immediate improvement in your grocery budget.
If you don't have it around, it is easier to forget about. Don't take food with you when you go somewhere - get rid of that stash in the nappy bag (of Tiny Teddies or crackers, or whatever), and that stash of pre-packaged cookies in the glovebox.
Don't go through the closest drive-through for a jumbo Coke. Take a bottle of water with you (re-use a plastic bottle over and over with your own tap water).
If you do feel the need to snack, stock your kitchen with fruits and veggies: buy carrots and celery and slice them into sticks immediately - put them in a plastic container and they're easy to get to and there's no-fuss to prepare them when you feel the need to feed. And drink plenty of water - it's not only good for you, but it will fill you up and it's much cheaper than soft drinks or cordials (and that's one whole aisle you can skip on shopping day)!
In the long run, you'll be healthier without all the junk-food snacks; you won't gain unnecessary weight from the continual snacking and you'll save a lot of money in in terms of that spent on unnecessary junk-food and future health care!
According to the Australian Health Survey, Australians spend half (around 58%) of their grocery budget on junk food and soft drink! And that a healthy diet of fresh fruits, vegetables, meats, poultry and dairy actually costs 15% LESS than the salt, sugar, fat and preservative laden junk food diet many exist on.
On the average weekly grocery spend of $200.91, eating healthfully will give you an extra $30 a week, or $1,560 a year to pay down debt, pay off the mortgage or splurge on a treat, plus however much you're not spending at the doctor and chemist.
In a sense, less snacking can even make you money: When I sold my double stroller, which was used on nearly a daily basis for at least 3 years, I got more than 1/2 its original cost because it was so clean it looked nearly new. My friend's strollers and car seats always needed scrubbing and were washed until they were threadbare ... and still they looked, well, gross.