First, understand why some foods are more expensive than others.
Some foods are expensive primarily because of health benefits or claims associated with them.
For example – lowering cholesterol, managing diabetes, maintaining blood pressure, improving heart health, weight loss, and so on.
However, these benefits or claims do not occur in isolation. But exist primarily because of a good nutrient profile i.e. good amount of essential nutrients found in such foods.
Couple this with a superfood tag in front of their name, and the cost, sales, & margins all skyrocket. And sometimes, even this isn’t required, just a foreign tag is good enough to command higher prices.
But an important takeaway for you so far is that these foods are expensive largely because of the good nutrients found in them. And those nutrients can also be found is cheaper foods as well.
For example, fiber is a macronutrient that is proven to help with weight loss if consumed in certain quantities (1). So, any food with a good amount of fiber may promote itself as a weight loss food.
Using the above example, a ₹500 rupee food may carry the same amount of fiber as a ₹100 rupee food. So why buy ₹500 rupee food? Go for ₹100 rupee food.
On these lines, we found some cheaper alternatives for you. You can find the rest.
1. Kiwi
A kilo comes at around ₹380. Some benefits linked with kiwi are digestive health, immunity, & reducing high blood pressure.
First off, potassium has a role to plan in lowering blood pressure, however, kiwi is not a significant source of potassium (7% RDA for 100g).
Secondly, fiber & vitamin c are linked with immunity & digestive health, and every 100g Kiwi gives 3g and 93mg of both respectively.
Now, the amount of fiber & potassium you will get from Kiwi in ₹38, a banana will give almost the same amount at just ₹6.
And as for vitamin c, though 100g kiwi helps you meet your entire vitamin c requirement for the day, however, even there you don’t have to spend ₹38, Guava will offer twice the amount of vitamin c (228mg) found in kiwi at 1/4th the price (₹8 per 100g – Guava).
2. Avocado
The price is ₹1200/kg or ₹120/100g.
Benefits include lowering cholesterol, heart health, and improving digestion.
The reason for these benefits are good or healthy fats (mono & polyunsaturated fat) & dietary fiber.
A 100g serve or a single avocado gives about 10g mono, 2g polyunsaturated fat and 7g fiber.
In comparison, just 41g peanuts will give 10g mono, 6g poly fat, and 4g fiber. In addition, you get 10g protein absolutely free.
To put this in perspective, what avocado offers in ₹120, peanut will offer a similar nutrient profile in just ₹7. So in a nutshell, avocado is about 1614% more expensive than peanuts.
3. Quinoa
It comes at around ₹360/kg. Claimed benefits include lower cholesterol, managing blood pressure, blood sugar, reducing inflammation etc.
Protein, fiber & micronutrients collectively play a role.
Amaranth or Rajgira seeds offer a very similar nutrient profile as quinoa at just ₹120/kg.
Some nutritional comparisons for you.
Both are almost similar in their protein & fiber content – 14g & 7g respectively.
Quinoa is ahead of amaranth in vitamins – b1, b2, b9, and amaranth leads in b5 & b6.
In mineral content – Quinoa leads in copper but amaranth leads in calcium, magnesium, phosphorous, iron, manganese, selenium, and both have a similar zinc content.
So overall, both are equally good from a nutritional standpoint but quinoa exceeds by 200% in price.
4. Olive Oil
Now, olive oil comes in various varieties however, its best variety extra virgin & virgin starts with ₹800 price tag, and its benefits include heart health & reducing inflammation in body.
Heart health is primarily because of the of availability of unsaturated aka good fat in large amounts (84%) where the concentration of monounsaturated fat is 73% and polyunsaturated fat is 11%.
Anti-inflammatory properties in olive oil are because of the presence of Vitamin e. Further, a tablespoon (14g) of olive oil will complete 10% of your vitamin e & k requirements for the day.
But you can find similar qualities in Rs 350/liter peanut or groundnut oil which also has a fair concentration of good fats (78%) – monounsaturated fat (46%) & polyunsaturated fat (32%).
Vitamin E content is also similar to olive oil and in terms of price, olive is more than double the price of peanut oil.
Even mustard oil has 59% mono & 21% polyunsaturated fat concentration and its price is just ₹175/liter.
5. Pumpkin Seeds
Pumpkin seeds are nutrient dense with each 30g serve giving 9g protein, an excellent source of these 5 minerals (iron – 19%, magnesium – 47%, manganese – 65%, phosphorous – 51%, zinc – 24%) and a good source of vitamin b3 (10%).
However, flax seed is a good alternative which is an excellent source of dietary fiber (8g), these 3 nutrients (b1 – 43%, magnesium – 33%, phosphorous – 28%), and a good source of protein & these three nutrients (b6 – 11%, iron – 13%, zinc – 14%)
As you can see both are equally good in their nutrient composition however, pumpkin seeds (₹1000/kg) are 400% more expensive than flax seeds (₹200/kg).
Conclusion
- Expensive foods are not magical in itself. The benefits they offer are because of their nutrient composition.
- The reason they’re expensive is their nutrient density, marketing, or foreign tag.
- If you don’t follow the herd, nutrients found in them can also be found in much cheaper foods as demonstrated in the article.
- If you have the budget, definitely purchase & consume these expensive foods as well but don’t consider them as a magical doorway to health and bring down this notion that only by eating these foods can you stay healthy.
And finally, to conclude if you’re overall lifestyle is good, you can do without these foods as well but if your lifestyle isn’t right, then you know where you’re heading.
Research conducted by Chandni
References –
Slavin JL. Dietary fiber and body weight. Nutrition. 2005 Mar;21(3):411-8. doi: 10.1016/j.nut.2004.08.018. PMID: 15797686.
Daily Values of nutrients –
https://www.fda.gov/media/99059/
https://www.fda.gov/media/99069/
https://fdc.nal.usda.gov/
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