Healthy Eating—Can You Afford Not To?

As mentioned yesterday, many people feel they can’t buy healthy foods because they think they can’t afford it. Eating healthy truly can be affordable, but even if it did cost a bit more, can we really afford not to eat healthy?

Let’s take a look at the number one cause of death in our country—heart disease. Here are a few facts you should know:

• Every 34 seconds a person in the United States dies from heart disease.
• More than 2,500 Americans die from heart disease each day.
• Every 20 seconds, a person in the United States has a heart attack.
• At least 250,000 people die of heart attacks each year before they reach a hospital.
• Studies show that under-educated people are more likely to suffer heart attacks.
• The countries with the highest death rates from heart disease are Russia, Romania, Poland, Bulgaria, Hungary, and Czechoslovakia. The countries with the lowest are Japan, France, Spain, Switzerland, and Canada.
• Almost 6 million hospitalizations each year (in the United States) are due to cardiovascular disease.
• Since 1900, cardiovascular disease has been the number 1 killer in the United States for every year but 1918.
(Stats taken from mamashealth.com)

Forget about the cost of healthcare for a moment. Forget that spending a little more time cooking and little more money on nutritious foods will drastically cut the potential disease-related costs. Forget those things, and only think—how much is it worth to have a long, healthy life? If you ask me, I’d say it’s priceless.