Introduction: Why discuss money and nutrition?
One obvious common denominator between managing money and managing nutrition is the ability to make sound, informed decisions in both disciplines. These decisions include acquiring trusted knowledge and skills, setting goals, making plans, re-evaluating values, attitudes, taking actions, and changing behaviors to reach a fulfilling life of financial well-being and health.
Money and nutrition are both subject to contradictory, controversial and confusing information. Both can be personal and emotional issues. Having access to money could help gain more access to nutrition, but it does not immediately translate into living a healthy lifestyle. In certain cases, having access to money could potentially lead to adopting an unhealthy lifestyle because it can be more affordable.
One of the many misconceptions surrounding nutrition is that most people cannot afford to eat healthy on a budget--especially due to the misconception that "junk" food is more filling and more affordable. The only way to debunk this myth is to compare the cost of having a nutritionally balanced diet, enriched with seasonal vegetables and fruits versus a diet of heavily processed items and "junk" food. In the long run, you may find out that by making more educated nutritional choices, your grocery costs may either remain constant or decrease over time. Just to give a brief example, compare the cost of two apples (which fulfills the requirement for daily intake of fruit) to a bag of potato chips. It is easy to see that choosing two apples is the healthy choice, and the cost is the same as or cheaper than processed snacks. This especially holds true for locally grown, in-season produce.
Elements in money management have been compared to elements in nutritional sciences. For example, the principles of saving and spending money in budgeting are identical to saving and spending calories in dieting, and the determination of keeping a sustainable budget requires similar efforts to sustaining a healthy weight. Nutrition and financial literacy can develop a symbiotic relationship where nutrition can teach us about money, and money management skills can be transferred to managing our health. For example, reading and understanding labels on food choices is a similar process to choosing financial products or tools. Cost and return on investment are at the heart of both processes. People often have similar challenges when dealing with money and nutrition: access, affordability, sustainable management, and short-and long-term planning. Neither financial security nor sound nutrition can be attained successfully without acquiring relevant and accurate knowledge and reaching out for a holistic approach to life of well-being.
For a successful understanding of the relationships between nutrition and money, you can follow the chapters below.
Chapter 1. Foundations of nutrition
Chapter 2. Major determinants of food choices
Chapter 3. What do budget and diet have in common?
Chapter 4. Ways to save money and shop for healthy foods
Chapter 5. What can nutrition teach you about money?
This was made possible in partnership with The Singleton Foundation for Financial Literacy and Entrepreneurship. This video and more videos like this can be found on Millionstories.com Links to an external site..