🌱 What’s the Real Cost of Food?
- Tara Scott
- Oct 8
- 3 min read
(And why “cheap at the till” is costing us dearly)
“Healthy food is too expensive.” We’ve all heard it. But what if the real issue isn’t that good food costs too much — it’s that we’ve forgotten what real food is worth?
1️⃣ The Real Cost of Food in the UK: From One-Third to One-Tenth
In the 1950s, when most households cooked from scratch, food accounted for around one-third of household spending in the UK. [ONS – Celebrating 60 Years of Family Spending]
Fast-forward to today, and that figure has dropped to roughly 11–12% of the average household budget. [DEFRA – Family Food, FYE 2023] That’s a dramatic change — not because food suddenly got worse, but because our priorities and supply chains changed.
Food became industrialised, globalised, and commodified. And we began to expect it to be cheap, convenient, and ready-made.
💬 “Real food hasn’t necessarily become expensive — we’ve just become used to spending less on it.”
2️⃣ The UK vs Europe: Do We Value Food Less?
Across Europe, households typically spend 14–15% of their budgets on food and non-alcoholic drinks. [Eurostat – Household Consumption Expenditure, 2021]. The UK sits below the EU average, at just 11–12%.
In countries like France, Spain, and Italy, food is still part of everyday culture. People buy from markets, cook with what’s fresh, and spend time around the table.
Here, we’ve leaned into convenience — and convenience has led us towards ultra-processed foods (UPFs) that promise “value” but come at another cost.
3️⃣ What We’re Buying Instead
The UK now ranks among Europe’s highest consumers of ultra-processed foods. For many people, over half of daily calories come from UPFs. [The Food Foundation – UPF Consumption in the UK]
These products are cheap, long-lasting, and engineered to keep us coming back — but they displace real nutrition.
And while our food bills have shrunk, our health costs have exploded.
📈 Obesity: roughly one in four adults in the UK is obese. [UK Parliament POSTnote: Obesity and the Food Environment (2022)]
💊 Chronic illness: higher rates of type 2 diabetes, heart disease, and inflammatory conditions are now linked to diet.
💷 NHS burden: diet-related illness costs the UK billions each year in treatment and lost productivity.
We’ve traded short-term savings for long-term costs — in both health and vitality.
4️⃣ Reframing “Expensive” vs “Valuable”
Let’s challenge what “expensive” really means.
🥗 If a food costs more but nourishes you deeply, that’s investment.
🧪 If processing strips nutrients away, that’s a hidden cost.
💚 If you pay less now but more later in health, that’s not value — that’s debt.
Real food isn’t elitist — it’s essential. The mindset shift is to spend consciously, not endlessly.
5️⃣ Empowered Choices (Even on a Tight Budget)
You don’t need perfection — you just need awareness. Here are small steps that make a real difference:
✅ Prioritise plants — seasonal veg, frozen greens, or nutrient-dense microgreens.
✅ Cook simple meals — reclaim the margin that processing companies add.
✅ Buy less, but better — reduce waste, focus on quality.
✅ Include fermented foods — they feed your microbiome and stretch your budget.
✅ Shop locally where you can — community markets keep money and nutrients closer to home.
🌿 “Every pound you spend is a vote for the food system you want to see.”
🧭 Final Thought: Raise the Bar for What “Affordable” Means
We’ve been taught that cheap equals good value. But cheap food isn’t cheap — it’s just subsidised by your future health.
Next time you shop, ask yourself:
“Will this nourish me today — and tomorrow?”
At Enriched Being, we’re working to make that choice easier. Our cold-pressed, wild-fermented Big Shot brings the benefits of living microgreens and natural fermentation into a simple daily ritual — real food, real function, zero preservatives.
Because quality food isn’t a luxury — it’s the foundation of health.
💚 Join the Movement
Let’s rethink what we call value. Let’s bring food back to what it’s meant to be — fresh, functional, and full of life.
📚 Sources
Office for National Statistics – Celebrating 60 Years of Family Spending (2018)
DEFRA – Family Food, Financial Year Ending 2023
Eurostat – Household Consumption Expenditure, 2021
The Food Foundation – UK Ultra-Processed Food Consumption Briefing (2023)
Monteiro et al., BMJ (2023) – “Ultra-processed food consumption and health outcomes: umbrella review”
UK Parliament POSTnote – Obesity and the Food Environment (2022)
The Independent – Survey of Family Spending Charts Half a Century of Consumer Culture (2012)
This article is for informational purposes only and is not intended as medical advice.
