
Marketing of packaged products – it’s everywhere. On TV, radio, buses, bus shelters, at the shops, every single packet is actually marketing. And it’s all designed to do 1 thing – get you to buy it.
The explosion of packaged products on our shelves since the 70’s (from 3,000-4,000 products to 80,000) has happened at the same time as many households have ended up with both parents working and when the cost of having a home (rental or owned) consumes more of our take home pay than ever before. It’s been the perfect time for marketers of manufactured products to tell us just how much we need their products – how time poor we are, and how convenient their products are.
But do you know we are getting conned by this marketing.
Packaged Food IS NOT really convenient. Yes it comes in packets and in some cases requires little effort from yourself to prepare, but is it really convenient to your household budget? You may think it is, but on closer examination, it probably is not. I’m going to share a few examples with you that show Packaged Food IS NOT really convenient to your household budget. Why I am pointing this out to you is because many people are spending a lot more on these so called convenient packages than they realise, and they could really be using their money to make better health choices for their family.
Please remember, wherever you are at is totally perfect. This is not about you but rather about how clever marketing has fooled us into believing these products really are convenient and we need them.
Cheese
I see cheese stringers (or other versions of this) in many school lunchboxes, but look how we are getting fooled by this convenience.
A packet of Stringers maybe around $6 but this actually equates to whopping $34.38 a kilo. That’s absolutely insane when you can buy a 1 kilo blog of cheese for just $9.99 (or less in Aldi). With this 1 kilo block, you can cut fingers (like the shape of stringers), thin square slices for rice crackers, cubes to go on skewers to make cheese and tomato swords, you can grate it and more. All this from one investment of around $10. And what’s more, that $10 will probably last you for next weeks meals too, where as with your $6 packet of stringers, you’ll probably need to buy again next week.
Make the most of your block of cheese by cutting it in half and sealing it tightly. Then use the other half of cheese now. On the weekend, cut it into fingers, square slices, and cubes are store in an air tight tub in the fridge – ready to go for next weeks lunches.
Fruit Roll-ups
This is another common lunchbox package. Today I was shocked when a teacher of a kindergarten class I was teaching told me that a parent of one of her students (who had rotten front teeth) actually thought a fruit roll up was real fruit. No judgement, but it just goes to show you how good marketing is. A piece of fruit has nutrients and fibre – the fibre helps slow down the natural sugars giving a longer lasting energy than any form of processed sugar.
Make the most of buying fresh apples. Pack them as whole fruits, slice them thinly and pop in a container, cut them in small bite sized chunks then pop them in zip lock bag with some cinnamon and give them a shake for a yummy cinnamon apple treat, or make them into apple crisps.
Chocolate Milk
Another popular lunchbox package. Chocolate milk. Don’t even get me started on the marketing of this as school smart and 4 stars on the health star rating system. It has a whopping 23.5g of sugar in it – that’s almost 6 tspns of sugar (The World Health Organisation recommends adults have a maximum of 6 tspns of sugar a day). How can this possibly be school smart – what do you think happens to a child’s energy levels about 40 minutes after having this? I can tell you, they feel tired and their concentration wanes – not really conducive to learning.
Make the most of buying a few pantry staples and your child can have this milk without all the additives and preservatives and the refined sugar.
It happens with real food too
I could go on with more and more, but I won’t because I am sure you get the point. But I should point out this also convenience price also happens with fresh real food too. I didn’t get to take a photo of this today, but do you know loose baby spinach leaves at the Supermarket are $16.98 kilo but a $4 bag of washed baby spinach leaves equates to $26.67 kilo – $10 more for the convenience of a plastic bag.
The cost to the environment
And of course, it would be totally remiss of me not to mention the environmental cost of having all this packaged food. All those packets end up in the school playground and someone has to get rid of them – this comes at a cost to the school. Imagine if that money could be redirected into education or equipment. All those packets end up in landfill – how much more can our planet take on?
Whilst I have focussed on how Packaged Food IS NOT convenient to your household budget, you can also save time from not buying packets either. Spend a few hours on the weekend and you can make a few things, freeze them and not have to spend so much time as well as money at the shops. BAM! Winning! If you want more help with this, you may be interested in The 5 Minute Healthy Lunchbox System eCourse which helps you prepare for the week ahead.
Note, all these prices were sourced from the Woolworths Online Store and were accurate at the time of researching.