Stolen from Reddit
https://www.reddit.com/r/dataisbeautiful/comments/1ftmkwt/oc_foods_cost_vs_caloric_density/
But I loved it. Also this has Shrimp removed, because it was on the OG chart due to an error and this is an updated version.
EDIT: Here is one for protein! https://www.reddit.com/r/budgetfood/comments/1fp2ytb/foods_cost_per_gram_of_protein_vs_protein_density/#lightbox
Really superb and informational graphic. I’d sure love to see one done by protein per gram/cost. Any chance someone could reach out to the Reddit OP to ask, cause my privileges have been revoked? Pretty please?
He already has!
Things are as you expect, Our beans are in the bottom right absolutely chilling as kings.
Well yay! Thank you for passing that along and kudos to OP.
I remember seeing a youtube vid from someone who had analyzed all products from one supermarket (after scraping their website), cheapest protein ended up being flour 😄
After all people can survive on bread, on average if I remember correctly we need just 11-13% of the calories to be protein according to WHO (or less if we are eating with a caloric surplus)… protein needs are vastly exaggerated thanks to health gurus and humans’ unhealthy love of meat.
Btw flour and bread are not all the same, especially refined has very little fiber and a little less protein (protein content is used also to determine quality of wheat)
Pistachios seem awfully cheap from what I know pistachios to cost even considering high caloric density.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07PBKZZ51?tag=sacapuntas9-20&linkCode=osi&th=1&psc=1
4160 calories for 14.23
Coming out to 292 calories per dollar, or around 30 cents for 100 calories. Looks to be about where it’s at! He might have found an even cheaper source. I think this chart does a great job of pointing out that just because things like almonds are more per pound than chicken, doesn’t mean they aren’t better deals if you are concerned with energy.
Wow, they are incredibly cheap in the US - in Australia they are nearly double the price per kg.
Yeah, the US is one of the big producers. Wikipedia says:
In 2022, world production of pistachios was one million tonnes, with the United States, Iran, and Turkey combined accounting for 88% of the total.
Oh yeah he mentions his source is Walmart in a specific state, but amazon is more consistent here.
Always interesting to hear how different stuff is in different countries!
I’m calling BS on tuna being more expensive than chix wings…depends on grade of tuna. Wings are expensive AF!
Well we can easily check! It says they used Walmart.
Here’s the cheapest per ounce I see for tuna:
It’s 3.22 for 400 calories, so one dollar gets you 124 calories of tuna.
Then cheapest wings I see at $3 a pound, and have 4,840 calories for 24 dollars, coming out to 200 calories per dollar:
So for me doing the math JUST off packaging (he appears to use a nutritional calculator) it’s coming up chicken wings is cheaper source of calories.
So it’s possible in this persons state their chicken was slightly cheaper, and they didn’t have the generic tuna. But even in my state where chicken costs a little bit more than what is listed, and my tuna costs a little less, chicken wings are still close to 50% cheaper for calories.
I wonder if it’s just a “Feeling” thing, because a little can of tuna is just a dollar! That must be cheap, right?.. but a can of tuna is 100 calories, which isn’t a great deal.
Idk what their source was but I think you should look for cheapest “possible” to do a fair comparison (cause obviously a certain shop can have super expensive wings). Near me lowest for wings will be 3-5€/kg, canned tuna starts from 8/kg when on discount, but also has like 30% of seed or olive oil in it (so actual tuna cost to the consumer is more like 12€/kg minimum) Chicken is definitely cheaper everywhere IME.
BTW I’m talking raw chicken wings…everything pre-cooked costs more
So where is “bag of sugar” on this chart?
Let’s find out!
Cheapest per ounce sugar on walmart.com
6,810 calories, or 2k calories per dollar. So it’d be hanging around brown rice as one of the cheapest options.
Diabetes it is!
Haha I mean brown rice is cheaper! And buying flour then making baked goods is cheaper! Do not embrace the dark side!
There’s a dock worker strike on the East Coast. That banana price is going to skyrocket for a little while.
Fingers crossed for them! I hope they get the wages they need to not need to live by this chart, and guarantees that even as the docks modernize the workers will have good paying jobs regardless.
Dairy would be helpful.
We need a graph of vending machine items cost-per-calorie. I know I could get an 800 calorie honeybun for $1. But that was 2000s numbers.
Some people requested it for comparison! But let’s see if I can do some quick back of the box math.
1200 calories for 2 dollars, so 600 calories per dollar or .15 for 100 calories, putting it around oat in price terms. Which is expected since it’s just bread and sugar, but still far more expensive than like pasta. Name brand is a lot more expensive.
Very good chart thanks for sharing
Where do they get cashews that cheap?
They said Walmart is the source… so off I go!
Based on the nutrition label the container has 4,320 calories at about 10 dollars.
So 1 dollar for 400 calories, or .25 for 100.
But given they reference walmart and USDA it’s very likely these are not accurate outside the US.
Locally at least Costco precooked chicken nuggets are 6.99 a kg which is the cheapest meat they have I think
Where do the rich rank on this?
Nutrition is nowhere to be seen.
