Eating healthy on a budget
Right now I buy a combo of ramen noodles, pastas, fast food, etc
I'd like to change to a healthier diet but the thing is I'm poor as dirt right now.
Is there any books or approach you could recommend ?
Do you have any favourite cheap but healthy food that you like to eat?
Thanks.
Re: Eating healthy on a budget
Rice and Chicken,
buy a bag 10 kg bag of rice and chicken breast. my friend is doing it, really cheap and healthy, go with brown rice, if you get sick of it change rice, use some curry or something less indian as more taste
Re: Eating healthy on a budget
Eating well is for the middle class and above. What, is he too good for microwave pizza and macaroni?
Re: Eating healthy on a budget
Go to a local farmers market rather than a chain supermarket. On the weekends here produce is often marked way down in prep for Monday. Budget brother, budget! This time of year you'll find massively reduced prices on chicken, turkey and hams that stores stocked up on for Holidays. If you have a freezer, enough zip locks and a sharpie..you're golden. If you have the patience and a little bit of free Earth..plant some seeds and do some gardening.
Re: Eating healthy on a budget
Buy a rice cooker, eat rice.
Learn to cook potatoes.
Do not eat processed food or anything with flour.
Re: Eating healthy on a budget
Another thing i find really good and cheap is Fish, I just found it teh other week, it a fish called basa, and i pay circa 7 dollar a kilo, and to desert i have a large ben n jerry ice cream.
If you can force down food your throat you should make jelly.
Re: Eating healthy on a budget
Jelly only if you're hardcore,
Aeroplane Jelly - Jelly Lite
AVE. QTY. PER SERVE* % DAILY INTAKE PER SERVING AVE. QTY. PER 100G*
Energy 28kJ (7 Cal) 23kJ (5 Cal)
Protein 1.5g 1.2g
Re: Eating healthy on a budget
Sardines in tomato sauce, 1 dollar.
You can eat what you like while you are shopping.
Re: Eating healthy on a budget
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Andre
Sardines in tomato sauce, 1 dollar.
You can eat what you like while you are shopping.
I prefer IKEA hot dogs + ice cream + soda ULTIMATE UNDISPUTED PACK for 1.0 - 2.0 $ / EU, depending on the country.
Re: Eating healthy on a budget
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Andre
Sardines in tomato sauce, 1 dollar.
You can eat what you like while you are shopping.
Reminds me of the bad ol days walking into Sams or The Price club near starving and walking out fat and full on samples and tasting displays ;D
Re: Eating healthy on a budget
I am pro frozen vegetables... I am usually in a state of poorness for many various reasons :S so I am also on a budget, I think bags of frozen veg is a bit cheaper than fresh stuff and you can store it for longer, I do believe I read an article on frozen vegetables being fairly good for you,obviously fresh off the branch or out of the ground is the way to go but there's no guarantee that the stuff on the shelves is really that fresh so I guess frozen can sometimes be better(I think you would have to investigate which brands are best for preserving the nutrients).. and like the other fellow said chicken and rice are pretty good and cost effective and you can jazz up the rice pretty simply, with a tin of baked beans/mushroom soup or my favourite, scooby doo pasta shapes :S...i think that might be pretty hard on the salt intake though but I really do sweat a lot !
Porridge/oatmeal is good and filling too, but it is easy to go crazy with adding salt and sugar to that
Re: Eating healthy on a budget
Frozen mixed berries in the porridge then cook it is so nice,dob of mixed berry yogurt on top.
Re: Eating healthy on a budget
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Andre
Frozen mixed berries in the porridge then cook it is so nice,dob of mixed berry yogurt on top.
i agree that would be divine! I used to like to put peanutbutter into my porridge, with a drizzle of black strap molasses
Re: Eating healthy on a budget
Pasta, bread, potatoes and rice. Also maybe try to buy your fruit and veg in bulk online and eat lots of it. It is a fact that life is getting more expensive and I think it is a myth if one says otherwise.
Re: Eating healthy on a budget
Depends what you mean by poor and healthy. If you are really struggling your local market at the end of the day is good because they will often throw out quite edible vegetables and fruit that though bruised or damaged can be cut around and used. Ask and they may let you have it for free or a greatly reduced price. If you really want to eat healthy try and avoid too much pasta,potatoes and rice (unless it's brown rice) and keep your protein content up because it will not mess with your insulin levels like too many simple carbs will, and will actually leave you feeling full without ruining your waistline. Not just meat, beans, nuts and legumes. You can eat a lot of complex carbs in vegetable form, something like Green Beans :bounce: ;D
We have never had much money but always manage to eat well.
Re: Eating healthy on a budget
I think that's what they do with fruit I buy online. It's much cheaper than the markets, but an apple might have a bruise or what have you, but it's only superficial damage. It's cheap and at the end of the day, it will give your body the same goodness.
Greenbeanz, why are you against potatoes and rice? Aren't these just regular staples? I can understand potatoes being bad deep fried, but surely simple boiled potatoes are fine and won't do much harm. Also, rice? I can understand it doesn't have a whole lot of nutrition, but half the world eats it as their main staple. I find I need a bit of rice, bread, or potatoes in my diet otherwise I would feel permanently empty. I wouldn't know what I would do without them now I am eating less meat. Fruit and veggies give the body a lot nutritionally, but you can feel hungry. A lot of mass and chewing, but you would have to eat like a cow to get full!
Re: Eating healthy on a budget
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Gandalf
I think that's what they do with fruit I buy online. It's much cheaper than the markets, but an apple might have a bruise or what have you, but it's only superficial damage. It's cheap and at the end of the day, it will give your body the same goodness.
Greenbeanz, why are you against potatoes and rice? Aren't these just regular staples? I can understand potatoes being bad deep fried, but surely simple boiled potatoes are fine and won't do much harm. Also, rice? I can understand it doesn't have a whole lot of nutrition, but half the world eats it as their main staple. I find I need a bit of rice, bread, or potatoes in my diet otherwise I would feel permanently empty. I wouldn't know what I would do without them now I am eating less meat. Fruit and veggies give the body a lot nutritionally, but you can feel hungry. A lot of mass and chewing, but you would have to eat like a cow to get full!
I am not against Potaotoes and Rice, and of course if you are very poor and hungry there are worse things to eat. They can taste lovely and nearly everybody includes them as staple in their diet but the reality is that nutritionally they don't do a lot for you. They contain very little fibre and contain relatively short chains of sugar molecules so your body takes very little time to convert them and you end up with an insulin spike. Your blood sugar rises and you are not going to be as healthy as someone consuming more complex carbs and fibre where the sugars will be released at a more consistent level throughout the day rather than in massive peaks and troughs. Changing white for brown rice and using wholewheat pasta is a good start but reducing your simple carb portions and increasing you complex carbs is even better. So two and not five spuds and MORE GREENBEANZ ;D:bounce:
Re: Eating healthy on a budget
Yep, sounds good. A bit scientific for me, but sounds like common sense. Sugar is a right complex little bugger and is misunderstood by too many including me. Peaks and troughs are my common ground, but they have to be demolished! War on those sugar molecules!
Re: Eating healthy on a budget
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Gandalf
Yep, sounds good. A bit scientific for me, but sounds like common sense. Sugar is a right complex little bugger and is misunderstood by too many including me. Peaks and troughs are my common ground, but they have to be demolished! War on those sugar molecules!
When you have sugars even fruitose ones like in 90% of orange juice from on shelves (fridge ones with no added sugar or fresh squeezed are sort of ok).
Your body gets the glucose rush,insulin spike;your mind gets the correct enzymes happening and you feel full and very satisfied=addiction to sugars=diabetes running rife in society.
Because we are mammals and part of nature this triggers our system into believing it is summer. A long easy summer. You body starts to store the wrong fats thinking rightly so that winter is coming= fat cunts waddling around everywhere starving and eating themselves to death malnourished.
If you ate seasonal and local,biggest meal in the morning and eat when your hungry during the day light meal at night, you would kick ass.
Like boxing its balance.