Low-Carb Food Costs

I sometimes see people describing the low-carbohydrate, high-protein diet that we follow as unaccessible to the masses due to its expense. I don't believe that to be true and hope to document that in this page, over time, starting with breakfast.

As of this writing in mid-2019, Andrew is 14 years old and over 9 years past his T1D diagnosis. He is rapidly growing and eats a monstrous amount of food. To get a sense of how rapid his growth currently is, and how much protein and calories his body demands, these pictures were taken 364 days apart, November of 2018 and 2019, with 13 years old on the left and 14 on the right.

Breakfast

My wife gave me a recent Walmart receipt and on it were these two breakfast staples:

Box of 60 large eggs: $2.81
30ct patty sausage: $6.64

Andrew is rapidly growing and eats a monstrous amount of food. For breakfast, he typically eats 4 eggs and 3 sausages, and using the prices above, he can be fed that meal for $0.19 of eggs and $0.67 of sausage, totaling $0.86. We often make the 4 eggs into an omelet, so there will be some cheese, perhaps a little diced green pepper, etc. But generally speaking, we are feeding him breakfast for close to $1 per day and that breakfast has 4x72+3x210=918 calories, 4x6g+3x7g=45g of protein, and essentially zero carbohydrate.

From Walmart.com, I got these prices and data:

Box of Cheerios: $2.98 (9x 100 calorie servings, 1 cup)
1 gal fat free milk: $2.28 (16x 90 calorie servings, 1 cup)

It has been nearly 10 years since I have eaten a bowl of cereal, so just going with what is on the labels for serving size, but I suspect that my son would need several multiples of that... a serving of cereal with milk would be $2.98/9+$1.99/16=$0.33+$0.14=$0.47. However, that meal has only 80+90=170 calories, 3+8=11g of protein, and 20+13=33g of carbohydrate.

If you double the serving sizes of cereal and milk, you then get to 340 calories, 22g of protein, and 66g of carbohydrate and at essentially the same cost of the eggs and meat breakfast. But, the meat and eggs has almost triple the calories (340 vs 918), double the protein (22g vs 45g, plus a much broader amino acid profile), and essentially no carbohydrate versus 66g. On a nutrition-equivalent basis, the eggs and meat is a bargain versus the cereal and skim milk.

Summarized in Tables:

Breakfast Cost Calories Protein Carbs

4 eggs and 3 sausage About $1 918 45g almost zero

2 cups Cheerios and skim milk About $1 340 22g 66g

Breakfast Cost per 100 Calories Cost per 10 Grams of Protein

4 eggs and 3 sausage $0.11 $0.22

2 cups Cheerios and skim milk $0.29 $0.45

Breakfast	Cost	Calories	Protein	Carbs
4 eggs and 3 sausage	About $1	918	45g	almost zero
2 cups Cheerios and skim milk	About $1	340	22g	66g

Breakfast	Cost per 100 Calories	Cost per 10 Grams of Protein
4 eggs and 3 sausage	$0.11	$0.22
2 cups Cheerios and skim milk	$0.29	$0.45

References:

Related Materials

Low-carbohydrate, healthy-fat eating: A cost comparison with national dietary guidelines, New Zealand 2019
In this descriptive case study, one-day meal plans were designed for a hypothetical family of four representing the average New Zealand (NZ) male and female weight-stable adult and two adolescent children.