I had a university student comment on my post yesterday. She asked about the cost of this diet, and whether there were any government programs that give money to parents to offset the costs. I thought it would be good to respond here, as cost is a factor with this diet.
First and foremost, I do not know of any government program that reimburses money for children who show benefits from this diet. Nor do I think the government will ever consider reimbursing costs. The mainstream medical people (read: CDC, FDA, NIH, etc.) are clearly not sold on the fact that the gfcf diet helps children on the autism spectrum (or those who have other medical issues necessitating the diet), despite parent reports to the contrary.
I also do not believe that this diet is costing us any more money than we would normally spend. In fact, I would venture to say that we are saving money by doing this diet.
How can this be, you ask, when we know that the substitute flours and dairy products are more expensive?
It's really simple. This diet has caused us to make smarter choices with regards to the foods we buy.
Yes, gf flour costs more than wheat flour, but now we also bypass the premade foods, like Oreos, Chips Ahoy, and other cookies and crackers that you would normally buy for snacks. So by baking more than we would if we were not gluten free, we are actually saving money because we are not buying a lot of preprocessed foods.
Yes, casein free milk costs more than a gallon of regular milk, but our children also don't drink glasses of milk every day, which they probably would if we were not casein free. We use the cf milk primarily for cooking, which means in reality we are buying less milk then we normally would.
And, with regards to premade gfcf foods, we usually buy them only when they are on sale, and then they are given not as routine snacks, but as treats, something not taken for granted by our children. Same thing with cereal - when EnviroKidz goes on sale, we will buy 50 - 60 boxes at a time, and the kids get cereal to eat. If it's not on sale, we don't buy it, and our kids just have something else.
We eat a lot of fruits, meats, and vegetables, which would (and should) be a staple of any diet, gfcf or not.
Our big splurges are gfcf cheese (Tofutti) and Earth Balance butter. We use a lot of both. But are the Tofutti slices really that much more expensive than regular cheese slices? I honestly don't know - we don't normally shop for regular cheese slices.
One other big thing to consider - with the gfcf diet, it is easy to avoid the temptation and convenience offered by fast food restaurants, which in and of itself adds up in terms of cost.
On average, I would say we spend between $100 and $150 a week for food, and that is for a family of six. That's at the most $25 per week per person, which I don't think is too bad. And mind you - food is expensive here in Montana compared to Georgia, where we previously lived.
As the kids get older and we get more time on our hands to do things like grow a vegetable garden, the costs will go down even more.
One other thing - there is a lot of personal satisfaction for me with this diet. I love to cook, and I love to create new things, or adapt existing recipes to work in the gfcf diet realm. And my children love to help, even if it's a simple task like cracking the eggs. I get a lot of quality time with my children because of this diet.
And you cannot put a price on that.
1 hour ago
2 Comments:
Never say never. In Canada the difference between the cost of gf food and regular food is tax deductable. If a regular loaf of bread costs $3 and a gf loaf costs $7 you can claim $4 on your income tax. Of course you have to save all your receipts. In the UK gf foods are free with a prescription. I think that with awareness increasing the government will start looking at incentives.
And I'm not sure about how much money processed foods cost in your local stores, but here they are far cheaper than fresh. My grocery bill has gone up dramatically and I only buy the basics. I've had to start eating less meat because I cannot afford to add it to my diet, tofu and beans are much cheaper. Pre-processed foods are far cheaper than fresh, unprocessed in Canada. For two people our grocery bill has gone from $125 a week to $200 because I no longer buy pre-packaged foods. The Canadian dollar has risen to be on-par with the US dollar, but the cost of our staples has not gone down.
Hi Thomas, just wanted to say I totally agree.
Katherine
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