Healthy Food on an Unhealthy Budget
Published on - June 1st, 2006 (Modified on - May 14th, 2009) (by J.D. Roth) An AskMetafilter user wonders:
What’s your favorite healthy food that can be bought on a college student budget? I’ve decided that I’m really going to crack down on my poor eating habits. As a college student, I’ve always bought the food that was the most affordable. Unfortunately, this is usually generic-brand pizza, toaster streudels, and whichever soda is on sale. In order to combat this, I’m looking for suggestions for healthy, easy-to-prepare foods that won’t break the bank.
There are some great answers here, such as:
- A cup of rice and a vegetarian stir-fry
- Replace soda with water
- Pasta primavera
- Fruitshakes/smoothies
- Cheese and crackers
- Nuts
- Beans (flavored with a little meat)
- Fruits and vegetables
Learning to eat (and prepare) more meals at home is an excellent way to reduce your food budget and eat healthfully. Find a source of recipes that you trust and learn to prepare them. (Here’s a good online recipe page that features many cheap and healthy meals.)
If you’re looking for healthy food on a small budget, then fruits and vegetables and other whole foods are the way to go. They’re the basic building blocks of a nutritious diet, and they’re much cheaper than processed foods.
Similar questions have been asked several times before at AskMetafilter:
- I want to eat more healthy foods. I have a very small food budget. Any ideas?
- What do you think is the cheapest, healthiest, tastiest, easiest meal to prepare?
- I need suggestions on high energy food that’s cheap, doesn’t need to be refrigerated, and tastes good (if such a thing exists).
- What’s the simplest, cheapest yet most complete diet available?
- I want to bring lunch to work because I am 1) trying to lose weight and 2) save money. Any ideas for what’s both healthy and easy?
- I am looking for unique ideas for making quick, easy, heathy, inexpensive dinners (in my case, for two) every night… or at least most nights. “Dinner Hacks” you might say.
This article is about Food, Frugality, The Best of Get Rich Slowly
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Before you people eat another $5 chicken, you have to see the movie “Food, Inc”. The mass produced meat from these chain stores is full of hormones and antibiotics. Farmers markets take food stamps in many places. Eat organic when you can…food is not the place to try to cut corners. You’ll pay for it with your health bill.
Google “food, Inc” and watch it.
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Buy dry beans and grains from a wholeseller or even from Whole Foods bulk aisle. I buy brown rice, black beans, chickpeas, quinoa, israeli cous cous, regular cous cous, arborio rice and wild rice (sometimes), dry pasta, navy beans,red beans, flour.
I also buy fresh vegetables – onions, pumpkin, tomatoes, herbs, frozen peas, zucchini, avocadoes (sometimes), greens like kale, spinach, arugula, and darker greens like mustard. I avoid lettuce as it is nutritionally less dense than other greens. Some apples, oranges, and one special treat thingie like maybe bing cherries or sourdough bread, or giadinera.
Eggs, milk, butter, and olive oil round out the grocery list.
Oh, and a tin of Irish steel cut oats. It is fantastic for breakfast and lasts a while.
You can make so many things from this basic list –
Cook up a whole pot of rice and beans separately once a week. Use in stir fry’s, soups, rice ‘n’ beans, omlettes, scrapple.
zucchini and potato pancakes with 1 egg and a bit of flour thrown in. Some things I make from scratch on a rotating basis:
rice salad with a bit of onion, tomato, olive oil, cheese, arugula, some nuts
fried rice with veggies
wholewheat pasta with chickpeas and tomatoes
israeli couscous with lemon, peas, tomatoes, and walnuts
regular cous cous with olive oil, cheese, fried onions, chopped herbs
brown rice and chickpea stir fry
roasted kale with pumkin seeds and cranberries
roasted pumkin pasta
roasted pumpkin soup
roasted eggplant with chickpeas in a lemon yoghurt dressing
navy bean soup with spinach
carrot and fennel soup
pasta with broccoli and walnuts
rice pudding made with arborio rice, milk, sugar,raisins and a bayleaf – same as making risotto but sweet and with milk instead of water
pasta soup with chickpeas, olive oil, lemon, capers
if you roast veggies once a week, and prepare things like a pot of brown rice, pot of beans and chickpeas, mushrooms and onions, then you can throw stuff together during the week and have a good hearty meal ready. it is so much cheaper and healthier than anything from a store. I think it is worth it to eat less and buy organic eggs, milk, yogurt and produce. Like another poster said, you pay for it with your doctor’s bills instead. I truly think if you prepare meals and remove all junk and processed food from your home, even though you will initially spend more on buying all the basics up front, you will end up eating much much better and healthier.
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I only have a 100$ a month food budget for me and my husband and I am a nursing mother so its hard to cook an involved meal and we have a super tiny freezer.
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We are living in America,most if not all families in poverty receive food stamps,so to say a person could not use the food stamps and by healthy food is rediculous.People make a choice not to eat healthier.For those out there who wants cheaper heathier food- alternatives and chooses to eat healthy I have ideas
1 make homemade veggie black bean burgers(cheap to make)
2 drink raw vegetable/fruit smoothies(because the vegetables/fruit are raw, it will fill you quicker,you will eat less, and you will receive all of the vitamins and minerals from raw.
3 make your own granola bars(cheap)
4 learn more recipes
5 stock up on natural peanut butter and jelly
6 make homemade turkey burgers(cheap)
These are some of the ways I use to eat healthier on a budget.I does not matter if you are rich or poor because if you do not have money chances are you can get food stamps.Once you get the stamps it will be your choice to buy healthy or junk food.Take this info from personal experience, I know friends who receive stamps and eat just as healthy like someone rich.
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There are bulk-food websites that cater to individuals as well as businesses. I can purchase bulk canned sardines, tuna, frozen vegetables, beans, brown rice, oatmeal, soup, bread and many other items for below wholesale prices. Farmers markets are great places to find raw fruits and vegetables for extremely low prices. I bought two, full grocery bags of fruits and vegetables for under 15 dollars.
Mind you, I am a single male and don’t like spending much time creating meals. However, that doesn’t mean I don’t thoroughly enjoy my food. My breakfast is usually fresh fruit and oatmeal. Lunch is usually canned sardines with rice and a couple slices of high-fiber wheat bread. Dinner is generally beans, rice and frozen vegetables.
The aforementioned are extremely easy to make, are inexpensive and they are also very healthy.
I also used to believe that those with small incomes could not afford to eat healthy. Not anymore though. I am willing to wager that I spend less than other single men on a budget who stick to processed foods.
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Since college students do not have much room or much fridge space, I suggest the following:
Eggs – they are cheap and you can make sandwiches, boiled, fried, or scrambled
Real Peanut Butter – You can identify real peanut butter because it will be oily on top. Great source of protein without the sugar.
Potatoes – cheap and full of most of the vitamins and minerals your body needs including calcium and protein.
Bananas – generally one of the cheaper fruits
Avocados – if you an afford them, they are an all around super fruit.
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