[ascagnel_]

The article is specifically talking about added sugars, and their net effect.

> Big Sugar has paid researchers to conduct misleading — if not false — studies about the health effects of added sweeteners.

The core issue is not the type of sugar, but the nature of it being basically everywhere in packaged foods.

The author also mentions that it's not worth trying to quantify the amount of sugar:

> Don’t agonize over the sugar content of every single thing you eat.

I find the best rule of thumb is to "eat around the outside" -- most American supermarkets push produce, meat, dairy, etc., to the outer walls of the market, and design stores to make you criss-cross the packaged goods aisles in the center. If you focus shopping on fresh foods, you generally will eat better (with a slightly more expensive grocery bill).

[godot]

When you say "slightly more expensive grocery bill", what are you comparing it to? I find that it's generally cheaper if you buy fresh meat and produce and make meals yourself, whether you compare it to eating at restaurants (a lot more expensive) or prepared/boxed meals in supermarkets (slightly more expensive than the same amount of food in fresh grocery).

I suppose if you compare it to junk food, like eating chips and cookies for subsistence, I can see how fresh meat and produce can be slightly more expensive. (Or you may be considering time it takes to prepare meals from fresh ingredients as an expense?)

In fact, one of my first realizations when I began to cook meals myself, after college, was that eating healthy was surprisingly cheap. You can consistently eat healthy and get all your nutritions for under $5 a meal.

[jogjayr]

> You can consistently eat healthy and get all your nutritions for under $5 a meal.

+1

Except I'd change that figure to around $2/meal.

This article written in 2012[0] has a $3/day target and I'm scaling that up a bit.

0. http://www.mrmoneymustache.com/2012/03/29/killing-your-1000-...

[godot]

The article mentions getting protein via the forms of bean and rice, eggs, whey protein powder. No wonder you/the author can stay under $2/meal :)

As for myself, I still like to enjoy meat like beef, chicken, pork. Meat is typically the most expensive part of grocery. Even enjoying good quality meat like the ones above, one can easily stay under $5/meal!

[jogjayr]

You don't have to stay under $2 for every meal as long they average out to that value. It's possible to eat high quality meat while hitting that number - you just can't eat it for every meal.

[beggi]

In general I agree - if you're happy eating just fresh food like meat and veggies I'm happy for you - but I cannot, for practicality reasons. I just tend to keep my processed food very low carb - for some examples: I eat a lot of Quest bars (usually 5g net carbs), Lily's has some great stevia sweetened chocolate (http://lilyssweets.com/), and Fat Snax cookies are amazing (https://fatsnax.com/products/cookies).

[lostcolony]

Or put another way, "Don't eat packaged/processed foods. Buy whole foods, and assemble it yourself".