Most people believe that eating healthy means higher grocery bills. But it is the opposite. Here’s why.

Removing unhealthy foods is more beneficial than adding healthy foods

Eating healthy is more about removing the bad things than adding the good stuff. For example, removing highly processed junk foods is 100x more beneficial than adding organic foods or supplements. There are two reasons for this.

The first one is your body doesn’t work like basic arithmetic 1+1. Having a Big Mac and then going on a diet isn’t the same as having a chicken breast and broccoli. Taking multivitamins after pizza isn’t the same as having salmon and greens without any multivitamins. Going to the gym to have an extra cheesecake isn’t the same as having less cheesecake without exercise. Even if you look, feel, and weigh the same, before and after these scenarios.

You can’t reverse most of the bad effects once it’s in your body.* So the first rule of being and staying healthy is to do no harm. Which is why there is more value in removing harm than adding benefit.

The second reason is removing things reduces complexity while adding things increases it for complex systems like your body, traffic flow, the economy, or the climate.

When complexity increases, the outcome becomes unpredictable because of a complex feedback loop. What is goodcan turn out to have no benefit or even harmful. And the worst thing is you have no idea.** For example, people who took ashwagandha to lower their stress end up with more stress because of stomach issues and skin rash.

So removing bad things like junk foods and alcohol improves your health dramatically while lowering your grocery bill. But this leads to another problem.

Whole foods are 100x cheaper on per nutrient basis

It costs more on a per-calorie basis to replace unhealthy foods with whole foods, even if they’re not organic. For example, you’d need to spend 2–5 times more on whole foods to get the same amount of calories as a $2 McDonald’s burger.

But why do we measure the value of food on calories?

If you’re stuck on a deserted island and only get to pick one food, a burger is better than broccoli. A burger packs more calories, giving you the instant energy you need to escape and stay alive until someone finds you.

But if your goal is to thrive instead of survive, you should pick what you eat based on micronutrients over calories. Micronutrients in whole foods maintain good energy and support your physical and mental health over time. And by that measure, whole foods are 100-200x cheaper on a per-nutrient basis over junk foods.

Whole foods keep you satiated for longer.

Another reason why whole foods cost less in the long run is that they keep you fuller for longer.

Most whole foods are typically high in fiber and other essential nutrients. They slow down eating because you have to chew before swallowing. That gives enough time (about 20 minutes) for the brain to tell your stomach that you’re full. Chewing also triggers the release of hormones like leptin (the satiate hormone) and reduces ghrelin (the hunger hormone).

So even though each whole food might cost more than unhealthy food, collectively, you will spend less because you have fewer cravings and impulse eating. Not to mention the cost of food delivery.

Mental accounting - groceries bill bucket

Perhaps the most significant benefits are ones that are not in the bill. There are two things to this.

The first one is mental accounting. We have many mental buckets like groceries, rent, entertainment, etc to simplify our monthly spending budget. So we often focused on controlling each bucket without looking at the big picture. A 20% increase in grocery bills because you’re eating healthy might not be ideal. But if that prevents a 10x increase on the healthcare bucket (medication, life insurance premium, etc), that’s a worthwhile investment.

The second one is you don’t notice the cost of what you prevent. We measure what’s measurable like expenses but ignore ones that never happened or are uncountable: loss of quality time, stress, diagnosis, medication, doctor’s appointment, dialysis, and chemotherapy.

In conclusion

Switching to a healthy diet is unlikely to significantly raise your grocery bill—and may even lower it. But the real value goes beyond the numbers. The spillover effects—better sleep, improved mood, and more energy for exercise—make it clear that the benefits extend far beyond what you spend on food.

*For example, anti-inflammatory foods only slow down inflammation caused by a bad diet but don’t stop it.

** The benefits of most supplements cannot be easily captured in standard tests like blood tests. So you don’t know if 1) it works 2) it doesn’t work or 3) it works but the benefit is insignificant like 1% or 4) it works but the side effects make it a net negative or 5) it works but it’s a waste because you are getting enough from diet. All the while fighting the exaggerated marketing on their health claims and paying $50-100 each month.