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[lillim]

An interesting followup to the 'can you eat healthily on the cheap' discussion that happened a week or so ago.

A few points I picked up from the article, for your ponderance whilst reading:

• the author admits to the massive amount of time and energy required to source and cook the meals she prepared, time and effort that would be unrealistic for a

Comments

[_ariadne_]

I think one point to keep in mind is that the cheaper cuts of meat aren't always the fattier ones - quite often they're just unfashionable.

Things like offal are the obvious ones - there's a lot of nutrition in liver and kidneys with low prices. But even things like skirt steak, which is frickin' tasty, has no obvious fat content and costs $6 a kilo, are good options, simply because people in Australia just don't buy them! Chicken thigh fillets aren't much less healthy than breasts, and they taste better and cost less. They're just not trendy.

I do find that vegetarianism goes a long way to cutting food expenses, though not being strict about it also helps - more a policy of 'mostly eating vegie'. Meat is a big expense.

Of course it's worth noting that the cheaper your budget for things like meat and eggs, the less ethical its production is going to be... which is potentially a whole other matter. Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall did an excellent series showing that you could buy organic free-range meat, break it down and use it to good value, and still make equivalents to pre-cooked supermarket meals without it costing any extra. So that makes it a question of labour vs. health, quality and ethical treatment. But it won't really cut your budget much.

I think that in the end, the quality of food you eat at home often comes down to a question of how much work you're willing and able to put into it, which is tough to answer with our current lifestyles. Clearly the solution is to move to a commune in the mountains and spend all day cooking our own home-grown food.