How to eat right with little money

[prosperity]

For a person who doesnt have much money to spend on expenses, it can be tough to find enough healthy choices at the grocery store. It seems like the majority of foods that are of low cost are unhealthy choices, either with high sodium, fat, or sugar. For a physically active person, it can be even harder to buy enough of the right foods because these people require more calories. What is the best solution to managing your diet with little money?

Maybe this should go without saying, it might be a good idea to get a checkup from a doctor before making radical changes to your diet/lifestyle...depending on your current health, some suggestions might not be suitable yet (or ever).

I don't know where most people have gotten their nutritional information from, but I gravitated towards the original William Banting and Robert Atkins approach (which is sadly misunderstood by many folks who try to pick up the current low-carb books today).

To make sure I get most of my vital nutrients I have two scoops of "the ultimate meal" (http://www.amazon.com/Ultimate-Life-Meal-1200-powder/dp/B00013YYR6/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/002-8147292-0292840?ie=UTF8&s=hpc&qid=1185946875&sr=8-1)

I am not in any way vegan, but for the price per vitamin/nutrient, it's tough to beat. Plus I don't need to worry too much about buying expensive fresh vegetables or trying to come up with creative ways to serve the few canned version of veggies I like.

I think someone else mentioned Walmart/Sams Club for cheap, good food and I have to second that. Bulk bags of chicken, frozen hamburger patties...or if you are really tight on money, tuna fish

You can also buy dehydrated eggs from honeyville farms (or through amazon.com)...the price comes out to be roughly 1.25/dozen. Not bad and they keep for a long time just in case you can't or don't want to eat the 2-3 dozen bulk carton of eggs you get from Walmart/Sams Club.

I once lived almost exclusively on peanut butter for a month when I was younger...haha. Not sure that was the best thing to do but hey...if you are really broke you have fat, some carbs, and protein all in one spoonful

Hope that gives you some ideas anyway.

[JMeganSnow]

You can't beat tuna salad with celery for a cheap "fresh" meal. Open a can of tuna fish, drain it, throw in a dollop of mayo or (gag) miracle whip if such is your preference, eat using celery stalks as utensil.

If your budget will stretch, I recommend canned butter beans with some hot dogs, too, those are good. I'm trying to remember what else we ate when I was a kid and we were poor. Hmm. I think Jello was our primary means of dessert. We also ate a lot of macaroni and cheese, ramen, and white bread sandwiches, but those are a.) not good for you and b.) not as inexpensive as they appear.

One of the big, easy ways to save money is to do your own baking: corn muffins, biscuits, etc. My mother would also buy meat only when it was on sale, then wrap individual portions in tinfoil and freeze them all. (She also labeled them with when she bought them, and kept a list of all the meat next to the freezer so she could check them off as she used them, but you don't have to do that. My mom is nuts.) Also, you can grow your own herbs cheaply in pots, oregano, basil, chives, parsley, etc. They are better fresh anyway.

If rice, oats, and beans get you down, try lentils, split peas, barley, couscous, tabbouli, etc. Invest in a crock pot and make a huge pot of stew on the weekends, then eat it for lunch during the week with homemade biscuits or muffins. If you don't have any recipes, I have some good ones that I can post for stuff like split pea soup, lentil stew, etc.

Cut ground beef 1/2 with textured vegetable protein (unless you're having hamburgers, because then you can tell and it tastes nasty).

When I was poor I would make lunch out of a baked potato with salsa or canned chili on it. You can make a real meal out of ramen by adding some canned or frozen vegetables: I add tuna fish and peas to macaroni & cheese, too.

Cook with freeze-dried milk, and eat that stuff over cereal. It doesn't go bad and you can't tell the difference unless you're some sort of freak in which case you can't eat any of this stuff anyway.

Last tip: Storage. When you cook a big pot of something, always put the portion you're saving in tupperware and in the refridgerator immediately. I have to do this because I will eat 2-3 times as much as I was planning to when the food is available. Put it in individual portion containers if possible.

[Heresiarch]

For the short answer on how to eat right: it's not going to be a little money. Quality food isn't grown in a vat, or produced by animals given the latest high-tech recombinant hormone. Stay away from processed foods (processed cheese, pasteurized milk, TV dinners, white flour), soy, and sugars (including fructose!). Eat nutrient-dense food, such as red meat, organ meat, dairy products, and cooked green vegetables. Learn the basics of endocrinology. Think in terms of micronutrients, not just macronutrients.

--

"Everyone knows" that public roads and public schools and taxation are good and right and just. "Everyone knows" that saturated fat is bad for you, that tofu is a great health food, statins are a wonder drug, and that all the vitamins needed for a lifetime of good health can be bought from Sam's Club.

I don't agree with Rand because I worship her authority; I rebuilt my philosophy from the ground up. Using observation and logic, I could follow the development of philosophy from metaphysical axioms to epistemology to ethics to politics.

I think the same process should be used in all areas of knowledge.

How do we know that cholesterol causes heart disease? Because doctors stay in school for a long time, and because it's impossible for anyone who stays in school that long to be wrong about it? Because, as people that value reason and science highly, anyone who calls themselves a scientist is free from bias and irrationality? Is it because the FDA says it's true, and as a government organization, they are smart and rational people and surely couldn't be wrong here? Obviously the answer is "no" to all of these questions.

So I don't want to just give you my answer; what makes me any better of an authority to follow than your doctor or the FDA or General Mills?

"How does Joe Random find out what good nutrition is?" This is a question I've faced often, as I've tried to proselytize both Objectivism and nutrition. I've studied biology and chemistry and microbiology; I wouldn't expect everyone else to.

I could tell you how *I* came to think cholesterol and saturated fat are good things -- that started with being bored and interested in UFOs. Not in the I-believe-in-aliens way, but in the sci-fi-crossed-with-skepticism-and-debate way. Some UFO skeptics and writers (James P Hogan in particular) also opened doors for me into other areas: does HIV really cause AIDS? Is Mad Cow Disease caused by bovine cannibalism, or a mix of organophosphate pesticides and heavy metals? Is ascorbic acid equivalent to Vitamin C, or is there a host of chemicals that contribute to the nutritional value found in whole foods? Is elevated serum cholesterol a causal agent in heart disease or merely a correlated phenomenon?

The thing about alternative-theory communities is they attract nutballs. If I told my coworkers, outright, that I think income taxes are wrong, they lump me into the same boat as the Libertarians that run around shouting "taxation is theft!" Well, sure, ok, but that doesn't endear you to anyone, especially the rational people that are on the fence and would (otherwise) be open to conversation. Most people aren't Objectivists; on both sides of all these alternate-theory debates are non-Objectivists. When the whole-fooder says "the studies that attempted to show the value in statins wind up demonstrating a higher mortality among those taking the drug," they follow with "so you should stay away from them, and eat the whole foods that God intended you to."

The situation is exacerbated by the common response to alternate theories. When Velikovsky's craziness garnered significant public interest, Sagan's response was "he's a nutjob." Which didn't do much to show people how Velikovsky was wrong. Many of you are probably familiar with the response to global warming critics; Gore calls them deniers, not just ending debate but shutting it down so hard that any question of the official line is considered insanity.

Finding answers requires a lot of philosophical detection. I have not found any major Objectivist coverage of the nutrition debate, so you'll have to read through it all yourself. (If you've read dozens of books in order to grasp philosophy, why not do the same for long-term health?)

I often see Objectivists say "the important thing to do is to not let silly notions go unchallenged; let the lay public know that there is reasoned opposition to the mainstream idea." I'm trying to do the same here.

If you want to learn more, I suggest starting with the Weston A Price Foundation, thincs.org, and the book Nutrient Timing (available from your local GNC for like $3!).

[Maarten]

I'm trying to eat very well for as little money as humanly possible, now that I'm here all by myself So, I started cooking for myself and it's working out well for me, and it tastes way better than most of the fast-food crap you can get. So, in case anyone here is interested in a good, cheap recipe, here goes:

You'll need basic stuff like salt and some type of vegetable oil (I prefer olive oil myself, although it's more expensive) and garlic (you can use it for much longer so it's not really something you buy every time you make it.)

You'll need a cooking pan that has reasonably high sides, because it needs to hold quite a bit of food 4 inches of height should be fine, though.

Then I buy:

- one decently sized onion (usually get the yellow version because they're cheaper).

- some type of meat, I usually vary between chicken breasts and ground beef and ground pork so it's not exactly the same every week. I usually end up buying whatever is on sale I get about 1 lb most of the time.

- a can of diced tomatoes (about 16 oz.)

- three cans of beans (I usually get different types of beans for some variety), think they're about 16 oz. each.

- a can of corn kernels (the little round yellow thingies).

- one package of chili spices (I guess you can mix the spices yourself, but it's expensive to buy all of them and I don't know which combinations work best, so this is just easier)

- a bag of cheap white rice.

The beans, tomatoes and corn are like 80 cents each, so that's about $4 total. The spices are about $1, the meat is usually around $3, the onion is also like 70 cents depending on size, and for the additional ingredients you pay maybe $2 more each time you make the dish. So that comes down to about $11 worth of supplies, and it should be enough dinner for one person for at least 4 or 5 meals. And you can eat a lot of it!

Now for the actual recipe:

- I start by finely cutting the onion and garlic. Just cut off both ends of the onion, cut it in half and then slice it up, same really goes for the small pieces of garlic. This part tends to take the longest, but it shouldn't take you longer than about 10 minutes or so. Unless you're a really slow cutter of vegetables!

- Once you finish cutting the vegetables into fine pieces you can put the stove on high and heat up the pan. Once it's properly warmed up you should add either some type of vegetable oil or butter to keep the meat from burning, and once it's properly dispersed you can add the meat. Just bake that until it's brown and you don't see any pink colors anymore. Then I add the onions and garlic, and I now add rosemary as well. It's more expensive to buy the herb, but it's really, really good with the chili. Try it sometime!

- After that I turn the stove down to low/medium and open the cans one by one, first throwing the diced tomatoes into the pan, then adding all the beans and the spices, and you stir it well. Then you need to let it simmer for a long time. Preferably an hour or something like that, because everything will mix together and it'll make the taste that much better. In that stage, all you have to do is just walk back to the stove and stir it every 10 minutes so that nothing starts sticking to the bottom of the pan and starts burning

- About 15 minutes or so before the chili is done I add about half a pound of rice to a different cooking pan (one of the smaller types with higher sides), add about that much water, some salt and a bit of oil. Put the stove on high, cover it and wait until the water starts to boil. Then, you turn the heat to low and remove the cover and wait for all the water to get absorbed/evaporate.

You're ready to eat!

[K-Mac]

You're ready to eat!

Ah, a resourceful man that can cook! Will you marry me?

[softwareNerd]

Here's an interesting experiment, where a couple decided to limit their monthly food budget to be less than the amount one would get from the Food Stamps program.

[stellavision]

I have a pretty high food budget, but I'm more obsessed with food than most. Still, here are a couple of inexpensive recipes I enjoy very much:

Chunky Vegetarian Chili -- very tasty, low in fat, high in fiber, and mere pennies per serving since canned beans cost next to nothing.

Corn and two-bean burgers -- again, low in fat, very tasty, and they freeze well.

[Steve D'Ippolito]

I have a pretty high food budget, but I'm more obsessed with food than most. Still, here are a couple of inexpensive recipes I enjoy very much:

Chunky Vegetarian Chili -- very tasty, low in fat, high in fiber, and mere pennies per serving since canned beans cost next to nothing.

Corn and two-bean burgers -- again, low in fat, very tasty, and they freeze well.

If you are willing to buy dry beans and pressure cook them, you can drive the price even lower.