Info Post Time! Healthy Eating!
Last week's Info Post was sad. The comments were sad. And for the rest of the week all of the submitted posts were sad except one or two about trees and cats with bowties, and I was going to post something else sad and dismal but I thought we could all use a break so TODAY WE ARE GOING TO TALK ABOUT FOOD!
Info posts may contain triggering elements, so please be mindful of the topic and read at your own discretion. Specific triggers and warnings are listed below, but if any additional warnings are needed please don't be shy about making the suggestion. Thanks!
SPECIFIC TRIGGER WARNINGS: ED/weight, depression
*note: this post does NOT focus on weight loss or fad diets, but the TW are still there to be on the safe side
IMAGE WARNINGS: Food. Lots and lots of food.
These posts are a "safe space" to ask questions you might otherwise be too shy to. Please do not reply to people with "Plz Google" or "educate yourself". Everyone should enter them with a learn and teach mindset (in that order). WITH THAT SAID, HOWEVER, please remain mindful of your questions and phrasing, be open-minded, learn, and know when to be quiet. If you are flippant with your ignorance, I will not stop angered members from telling you about yourself.
A picture is worth a thousand words, and that’s why nutritionists use symbols and shapes to answer the question, “What should I eat?” For nearly two decades, the U.S. government distilled its nutrition advice into pyramids. These efforts didn't accurately show people what makes up a healthy diet. Why? Their recommendations were based on out-of-date science and influenced by people with business interests in the messages the icons sent. This year, the U.S. government scrapped its MyPyramid icon in favor of the fruit-and-vegetable rich MyPlateOpens in New Window-an improvement, yet one that still doesn't go far enough to show people how to make the healthiest choices.
There are better alternatives: the new Healthy Eating Plate and the Healthy Eating Pyramid, both built by faculty members in the Department of Nutrition at the Harvard School of Public Health, in conjunction with colleagues at Harvard Health Publications. The Healthy Eating Plate fixes the flaws in USDA's MyPlate, just as the Healthy Eating Pyramid rectifies the mistakes of the USDA's food pyramids. Both the Healthy Eating Plate and the Healthy Eating Pyramid are based on the latest science about how our food, drink, and activity choices affect our health-and are unaffected by businesses and organizations with a stake in their messages.
The Healthy Eating Pyramid is a simple, trustworthy guide to choosing a healthy diet. Its foundation is daily exercise and weight control, since these two related elements strongly influence your chances of staying healthy. The Healthy Eating Pyramid builds from there, showing that you should eat more foods from the bottom part of the pyramid (vegetables, whole grains) and less from the top (red meat, refined grains, potatoes, sugary drinks, and salt).
When it’s time for dinner, most of us eat off of a plate. So think of the new Healthy Eating Plate as blueprint for a typical meal: Fill half your plate with produce-colorful vegetables, the more varied the better, and fruits. (Remember, potatoes and French fries don't count as vegetables!) Save a quarter of your plate for whole grains. A healthy source of protein, such as fish, poultry, beans, or nuts, can make up the rest. The glass bottle is a reminder to use healthy oils, like olive and canola, in cooking, on salad, and at the table. Complete your meal with a cup of water, or if you like, tea or coffee with little or no sugar (not the milk or other dairy products that the USDA’s MyPlate recommends; limit milk/dairy products to one to two servings per day). And that figure scampering across the bottom of the placemat? It’s your reminder that staying active is half of the secret to weight control. The other half is eating a healthy diet with modest portions that meet your calorie needs-so be sure you choose a plate that is not too large.
Harvard's Healthy Eating Plate vs. the USDA's MyPlate
Source
Healthy eating is not about strict nutrition philosophies, staying unrealistically thin, or depriving yourself of the foods you love. Rather, it’s about feeling great, having more energy, and keeping yourself as healthy as possible- all of which can be achieved by learning some nutrition basics and using them in a way that works for you.
Healthy eating begins with learning how to “eat smart”-it’s not just what you eat, but how you eat. Your food choices can reduce your risk of illnesses such as heart disease, cancer, and diabetes, as well as defend against depression. Additionally, learning the habits of healthy eating can boost your energy, sharpen your memory and stabilize your mood. You can expand your range of healthy food choices and learn how to plan ahead to create and maintain a satisfying, healthy diet.
Healthy Eating Tip 1: Set yourself up for success
To set yourself up for success, think about planning a healthy diet as a number of small, manageable steps rather than one big drastic change. If you approach the changes gradually and with commitment, you will have a healthy diet sooner than you think.
- Simplify. Instead of being overly concerned with counting calories or measuring portion sizes, think of your diet in terms of color, variety and freshness-then it should be easier to make healthy choices. Focus on finding foods you love and easy recipes that incorporate a few fresh ingredients. Gradually, your diet will become healthier and more delicious.
- Start slow and make changes to your eating habits over time. Trying to make your diet healthy overnight isn’t realistic or smart. Changing everything at once usually leads to cheating or giving up on your new eating plan. Make small steps, like adding a salad (full of different color vegetables) to your diet once a day or switching from butter to olive oil when cooking. As your small changes become habit, you can continue to add more healthy choices to your diet.
- Every change you make to improve your diet matters. You don’t have to be perfect and you don’t have to completely eliminate foods you enjoy to have a healthy diet. The long term goal is to feel good, have more energy and reduce the risk of cancer and disease. Don’t let your missteps derail you-every healthy food choice you make counts.
Think of water and exercise as food groups in your diet.
Water. Water helps flush our systems of waste products and toxins. Yet many people go through life dehydrated-causing tiredness, low energy and headaches. It’s common to mistake thirst for hunger, so staying well hydrated will also help you make healthier food choices.
Exercise. Find something active that you like to do and add it to your day, just like you would add healthy greens, blueberries or salmon. The benefits of lifelong exercise are abundant and regular exercise may even motivate you to make healthy food choices a habit.
Healthy Eating Tip 2: Moderation is key
People often think of healthy eating as an all or nothing proposition, but a key foundation for any healthy diet is moderation. Despite what certain fad diets would have you believe, we all need a balance of carbohydrates, protein, fat, fiber, vitamins, and minerals to sustain a healthy body.
- Try not to think of certain foods as “off-limits.” When you ban certain foods or food groups, it is natural to want those foods more, and then feel like a failure if you give in to temptation. If you are drawn towards sweet, salty, or unhealthy foods, start by reducing portion sizes and not eating them as often. Later you may find yourself craving them less or thinking of them as only occasional indulgences.
- Think smaller portions. Serving sizes have ballooned recently, particularly in restaurants. When dining out, choose a starter instead of an entrée, split a dish with a friend, and don’t order supersized anything. At home, use smaller plates, think about serving sizes in realistic terms and start small. Visual cues can help with portion sizes-your serving of meat, fish or chicken should be the size of a deck of cards. A teaspoon of oil or salad dressing is about the size of a matchbook and your slice of bread should be the size of a CD case.
Healthy eating tip 3: It's not just what you eat, it's how you eat
Healthy eating is about more than the food on your plate-it is also about how you think about food. Healthy eating habits can be learned and it is important to slow down and think about food as nourishment rather than just something to gulp down in between meetings or on the way to pick up the kids.
- Eat with others whenever possible. Eating with other people has numerous social and emotional benefits-particularly for children-and allows you to model healthy eating habits. Eating in front of the TV or computer often leads to mindless overeating.
- Take time to chew your food and enjoy mealtimes. Chew your food slowly, savoring every bite. We tend to rush though our meals, forgetting to actually taste the flavors and feel the textures of what is in our mouths. Reconnect with the joy of eating.
- Listen to your body. Ask yourself if you are really hungry, or have a glass of water to see if you are thirsty instead of hungry. During a meal, stop eating before you feel full. It actually takes a few minutes for your brain to tell your body that it has had enough food, so eat slowly.
- Eat breakfast, and eat smaller meals throughout the day. A healthy breakfast can jumpstart your metabolism, and eating small, healthy meals throughout the day (rather than the standard three large meals) keeps your energy up and your metabolism going.
Healthy eating tip 4: Fill up on colorful fruits and vegetables
Fruits and vegetables are the foundation of a healthy diet. They are low in calories and nutrient dense, which means they are packed with vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, and fiber.
Try to eat a rainbow of fruits and vegetables every day and with every meal-the brighter the better. Colorful, deeply colored fruits and vegetables contain higher concentrations of vitamins, minerals and antioxidants-and different colors provide different benefits, so eat a variety. Aim for a minimum of five portions each day.
Some great choices include:
- Greens. Branch out beyond bright and dark green lettuce. Kale, mustard greens, broccoli, and Chinese cabbage are just a few of the options-all packed with calcium, magnesium, iron, potassium, zinc, and vitamins A, C, E and K.
- Sweet vegetables. Naturally sweet vegetables-such as corn, carrots, beets, sweet potatoes, yams, onions, and squash-add healthy sweetness to your meals and reduce your cravings for other sweets.
- Fruit. Fruit is a tasty, satisfying way to fill up on fiber, vitamins, and antioxidants. Berries are cancer-fighting, apples provide fiber, oranges and mangos offer vitamin C, and so on.
The importance of getting vitamins from food--not pills
The antioxidants and other nutrients in fruits and vegetables help protect against certain types of cancer and other diseases. And while advertisements abound for supplements promising to deliver the nutritional benefits of fruits and vegetables in pill or powder form, research suggests that it’s just not the same.
A daily regimen of nutritional supplements is not going to have the same impact of eating right. That’s because the benefits of fruits and vegetables don’t come from a single vitamin or an isolated antioxidant.
The health benefits of fruits and vegetables come from numerous vitamins, minerals, and phytochemicals working together synergistically. They can’t be broken down into the sum of their parts or replicated in pill form.
Healthy eating tip 5: Eat more healthy carbs and whole grains
Choose healthy carbohydrates and fiber sources, especially whole grains, for long lasting energy. In addition to being delicious and satisfying, whole grains are rich in phytochemicals and antioxidants, which help to protect against coronary heart disease, certain cancers, and diabetes. Studies have shown people who eat more whole grains tend to have a healthier heart.
A quick definition of healthy carbs and unhealthy carbs
Healthy carbs (sometimes known as good carbs) include whole grains, beans, fruits, and vegetables. Healthy carbs are digested slowly, helping you feel full longer and keeping blood sugar and insulin levels stable.
Unhealthy carbs (or bad carbs) are foods such as white flour, refined sugar and white rice that have been stripped of all bran, fiber and nutrients. Unhealthy carbs digest quickly and cause spikes in blood sugar levels and energy.
Tips for eating more healthy carbs
- Include a variety of whole grains in your healthy diet, including whole wheat, brown rice, millet, quinoa, and barley. Experiment with different grains to find your favorites.
- Make sure you're really getting whole grains. Be aware that the words stone-ground, multi-grain, 100% wheat, or bran, can be deceptive. Look for the words “whole grain” or “100% whole wheat” at the beginning of the ingredient list. In the US, check for the Whole Grain Stamps that distinguish between partial whole grain and 100% whole grain.
- Try mixing grains as a first step to switching to whole grains. If whole grains, like brown rice and whole wheat pasta, don’t sound good at first, start by mixing what you normally use with the whole grains. You can gradually increase the whole grain to 100%.
Avoid: Refined foods such as breads, pastas, and breakfast cereals that are not whole grain.
Healthy eating tip 6: Enjoy healthy fats & avoid unhealthy fats
Good sources of healthy fat are needed to nourish your brain, heart and cells, as well as your hair, skin, and nails. Foods rich in certain omega-3 fats called EPA and DHA are particularly important and can reduce cardiovascular disease, improve your mood and help prevent dementia.
Add to your healthy diet:
- Monounsaturated fats, from plant oils like canola oil, peanut oil, and olive oil, as well as avocados, nuts (like almonds, hazelnuts, and pecans), and seeds (such as pumpkin, sesame).
- Polyunsaturated fats, including Omega-3 and Omega-6 fatty acids, found in fatty fish such as salmon, herring, mackerel, anchovies, sardines, and some cold water fish oil supplements. Other sources of polyunsaturated fats are unheated sunflower, corn, soybean, and flaxseed oils, and walnuts.
Reduce or eliminate from your diet:
- Saturated fats, found primarily in animal sources including red meat and whole milk dairy products.
- Trans fats, found in vegetable shortenings, some margarines, crackers, candies, cookies, snack foods, fried foods, baked goods, and other processed foods made with partially hydrogenated vegetable oils.
Healthy Eating Tip 7: Put protein in perspective
Protein gives us the energy to get up and go-and keep going. Protein in food is broken down into the 20 amino acids that are the body’s basic building blocks for growth and energy, and essential for maintaining cells, tissues, and organs. A lack of protein in our diet can slow growth, reduce muscle mass, lower immunity, and weaken the heart and respiratory system. Protein is particularly important for children, whose bodies are growing and changing daily.
Here are some guidelines for including protein in your healthy diet:
Try different types of protein. Whether or not you are a vegetarian, trying different protein sources-such as beans, nuts, seeds, peas, tofu and soy products-will open up new options for healthy mealtimes.
- Beans: Black beans, navy beans, garbanzos, and lentils are good options.
- Nuts: Almonds, walnuts, pistachios, and pecans are great choices.
- Soy products: Try tofu, soy milk, tempeh, and veggie burgers for a change.
- Avoid salted or sugary nuts and refried beans.
Downsize your portions of protein. Most people in the U.S. eat too much protein. Try to move away from protein being the center of your meal. Focus on equal servings of protein, whole grains, and vegetables.
Focus on quality sources of protein, like fresh fish, chicken or turkey, tofu, eggs, beans or nuts. When you are having meat, chicken, or turkey, buy meat that is free of hormones and antibiotics.
Healthy eating tip 8: Add calcium for strong bones
Calcium is one of the key nutrients that your body needs in order to stay strong and healthy. It is an essential building block for lifelong bone health in both men and women, among many other important functions.
You and your bones will benefit from eating plenty of calcium-rich foods, limiting foods that deplete your body’s calcium stores, and getting your daily dose of magnesium and vitamins D and K-nutrients that help calcium do its job.
Recommended calcium levels are 1000 mg per day, 1200 mg if you are over 50 years old. Take a vitamin D and calcium supplement if you don’t get enough of these nutrients from your diet.
Good sources of calcium include:
- Dairy: Dairy products are rich in calcium in a form that is easily digested and absorbed by the body. Sources include milk, yogurt, and cheese.
- Vegetables and greens: Many vegetables, especially leafy green ones, are rich sources of calcium. Try turnip greens, mustard greens, collard greens, kale, romaine lettuce, celery, broccoli, fennel, cabbage, summer squash, green beans, Brussels sprouts, asparagus, and crimini mushrooms.
- Beans: For another rich source of calcium, try black beans, pinto beans, kidney beans, white beans, black-eyed peas, or baked beans.
Healthy eating tip 9: Limit sugar and salt
If you succeed in planning your diet around fiber-rich fruits, vegetables, whole grains, lean protein, and good fats, you may find yourself naturally cutting back on foods that can get in the way of your healthy diet-sugar and salt.
Sugar
Sugar causes energy ups and downs and can add to health and weight problems. Unfortunately, reducing the amount of candy, cakes, and desserts we eat is only part of the solution. Often you may not even be aware of the amount of sugar you’re consuming each day. Large amounts of added sugar can be hidden in foods such as bread, canned soups and vegetables, pasta sauce, margarine, instant mashed potatoes, frozen dinners, fast food, soy sauce, and ketchup. Here are some tips:
- Avoid sugary drinks. One 12-oz soda has about 10 teaspoons of sugar in it, more than the daily recommended limit! Try sparkling water with lemon or a splash of fruit juice.
- Eat naturally sweet food such as fruit, peppers, or natural peanut butter to satisfy your sweet tooth.
How sugar is hidden on food labels
Check food labels carefully. Sugar is often disguised using terms such as:
cane sugar or maple syrup
corn sweetener or corn syrup
honey or molasses
brown rice syrup
crystallized or evaporated cane juice
fruit juice concentrates, such as apple or pear
maltodextrin (or dextrin)
Dextrose, Fructose, Glucose, Maltose, or Sucrose
Ever notice how sugar looks suspiciously like crack and heroin????
Salt
Most of us consume too much salt in our diets. Eating too much salt can cause high blood pressure and lead to other health problems. Try to limit sodium intake to 1,500 to 2,300 mg per day, the equivalent of one teaspoon of salt.
- Avoid processed or pre-packaged foods. Processed foods like canned soups or frozen dinners contain hidden sodium that quickly surpasses the recommended limit.
- Be careful when eating out. Most restaurant and fast food meals are loaded with sodium.
- Opt for fresh or frozen vegetables instead of canned vegetables.
- Cut back on salty snacks such as potato chips, nuts, and pretzels.
- Choose low-salt or reduced-sodium products.
- Try slowly reducing the salt in your diet to give your taste buds time to adjust.
Healthy eating tip 10: Plan quick and easy meals ahead
Healthy eating starts with great planning. You will have won half the healthy diet battle if you have a well-stocked kitchen, a stash of quick and easy recipes, and plenty of healthy snacks.
Plan your meals by the week or even the month
One of the best ways to have a healthy diet is to prepare your own food and eat in regularly. Pick a few healthy recipes that you and your family like and build a meal schedule around them. If you have three or four meals planned per week and eat leftovers on the other nights, you will be much farther ahead than if you are eating out or having frozen dinners most nights.
Shop the perimeter of the grocery store
In general, healthy eating ingredients are found around the outer edges of most grocery stores-fresh fruits and vegetables, fish and poultry, whole grain breads and dairy products. The centers of many grocery stores are filled with overpriced, processed foods that aren’t good for you.
Shop the perimeter of the store for most of your groceries (fresh items), add a few things from the freezer section (frozen fruits and vegetables), and the aisles with spices, oils, and whole grains (like rolled oats, brown rice, whole wheat pasta).
Cook when you can
Try to cook one or both weekend days or on a weekday evening and make extra to freeze or set aside for another night. Cooking ahead saves time and money, and it is gratifying to know that you have a home cooked meal waiting to be eaten.
Challenge yourself to come up with two or three dinners that can be put together without going to the store-utilizing things in your pantry, freezer, and spice rack. A delicious dinner of whole grain pasta with a quick tomato sauce or a quick and easy black bean quesadilla on a whole wheat flour tortilla (among endless other recipes) could act as your go-to meal when you are just too busy to shop or cook.
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Choosing Healthy Fats
Making Better Choices at Fast Food Restaurants
Nutrition for Women
Senior Nutrition
OP Note: It is really really difficult to find healthy eating tips that don't reduce your diet down to lentils and fantasies or makes outrageously unrealistic suggestions. Also, every help site assumes that there's a farmer's market close enough to visit regularly. I've done the best I can, but if you guys can find a website that doesn't talk about creating a garden or something please post them in official threads.
Habit #1: Bean Boots (OP Note: I did not create that title)
Beans are dirt cheap and there is not a single more healthful food for you. Loaded with protein, potassium, folacin, magnesium and soluble fiber, beans are great for lowering both your cholesterol and blood pressure. Not to mention, beans also keep your blood sugar steady thanks to their low glycemic index.
- Enjoy 3-bean chili (you can skip the meat entirely or just use half the amount you normally would).
- Add beans to your salad for a protein boost instead of pricey cheese, ham or tuna.
- Include bean burritos as a high-protein staple (like they are in our house). Add chopped tomato and lettuce and you have a delicious, satisfying meal.
- Make a giant pot of bean soup, freeze and eat for days.
- Use your slow cooker to prepare delicious meals with dried beans for the price of pennies.
Even convenient canned beans are a great deal over the high price of meat. My favorite brand that fills my pantry is organic and no-salt added Eden Foods.
Your Bean Booty Payoff: Replacing meat with beans can save $1.00 per person for each meal. Doing this 4 times a week for a year, your family of four will save $832 while reducing everyone’s risk of heart disease by more than 20%!
Habit # 2: Chop Chop
For growing teenagers actively involved in competitive sports or adults training for triathlons and marathons, 2 pork chops or chicken breasts might be the right serving size. But for the rest of us, one 4-ounce chicken breast or pork chop is all we need. Yes, really. So … start chopping your meat budget by:
- Limiting your chop to just one instead of two pork chops.
- Sharing a steak and fill the rest of your plate with economical veggies and grains
- Downsizing your chicken breast to 4 ounces instead of 8 ounces.
- Stop “supersizing” your burgers, and keep it to a quarter pound instead of a third or half - and just have one!
Your Chop Chop Payoff: A family of four that “chops” their meat habit 3 times a week for a year will save $500 while each person drops 9 pounds!
Habit #3: Dog Gone Good Move
Hot dogs are often a low-cost family staple, but are typically loaded with fat and sodium. Buying the low-fat version is healthier, but also can be twice the cost. The adage that “you get what you pay for” is particularly true here. So to help keep hot dogs healthy while staying in your budget, extend the value of the low-fat hot dogs by serving just one (not two) with a healthy side of baked beans and a fist-full of fruits and veggies.
You might be okay with a caprese dog, however...
Your Dog Gone Payoff: Everyone will be slashing their intake of artery-clogging fat and sodium while not spending a dime more for it.
Habit #4: 12-Month Turkey Tradition
OP Note: If you have the spare time to execute this, this is a great idea but uh.... there's a reason why most people only cook turkey once per year.
Looking for a budget-friendly way to buy 97% fat-free lunch meat? You WON’T find the answer in the deli section! Roast a whole turkey once a month (without all the trimmings) then slice, bag and freeze the leftovers in individual lunch servings. This is tons cheaper than the deli meat and you’ll have LEAN, unprocessed meat (no sodium nitrate and much healthier) for sandwiches all month long! A perfect low-budget meat for casseroles as well!
Your Turkey Tradition Payoff: Saves dollars while eliminating loads of bad sodium nitrate for the entire family.
Habit # 5: Detour the Snack Aisles
One of the biggest challenges with eating healthy on a tight budget is buying all the produce your family truly needs. This is where “robbing Peter to pay Paul” definitely has positive results. Just detour the aisles with chips, candy and cookies. You know these snacks cost a bundle, so take every dollar you might spend in these aisles and apply it to fruits and vegetables. Fruit truly is nature’s dessert and fresh veggies are perfect for snacking. The produce aisle is where all the disease-fighting foods are hanging out, and regardless of budget, a fist-size serving should be present at every meal and snack. And because fruits and veggies are loaded with fiber, one apple or handful of carrot sticks will fill you up faster than a 99-cent bag of chips or stack of Oreo cookies.
Buy a few frozen and canned varieties for late in the week when your fresh supply runs low, and check your local farmer’s market for the best in-season buys. Making this a weekly habit can change your life, both physically and fiscally!
Your Detour Payoff: Same grocery bill, but you will need to buy a smaller belt! And since you will be healthy and active well into your 90’s, make sure your retirement plan is in great shape too.
Habit #6: Bag the Box
Tempted to buy that box of prepared scalloped potatoes for dinner? Not only is this a load of pennies for just one meal, it’s an overload of sodium to boot. Instead, buy a bag of potatoes that’ll serve 3 meals for the same price! You’ll be helping your blood pressure and weight while saving money. The same goes for the box of prepared rice dishes. Buy a whole bag of rice (brown of course!) and you’ll get 7 meals for the price of one! See my Unfried Rice recipe on page 107 of Lickety-Split Meals for economical “flavored rice” that’s sure to please your pallet and your pocketbook. Make sure to check out 34 more of my wholesome potato and rice recipes in your Lickety-Split Meals cookbook.
Your Bag the Box Payoff: In addition to getting 3-7 more meals for the price of one, you bump up the fiber and nutrients while avoiding the extra sodium. Bye-bye high blood pressure!
Habit #7: Whole-Grain Pasta Surprise Savings
You know you should buy whole-grain pasta, but it costs 25% more. What you don’t know is the surprise savings when serving whole-grain instead of white. The same amount of whole-grain pasta will actually serve three times as many people. Surprise! How can that be you ask? The extra fiber in whole-grain pasta (3 times more) helps people “fill up” on just one cup of pasta, while the “empty-calorie” white pasta takes cup after cup after cup!!! And of course, each added cup means added inches to your waistline. It’s hard for the mind to calculate, but even though the price on a 16-oz. box of whole-grain pasta is more, you will NOT be spending any more to feed your family because the same size box will yield more “practical” servings. Trust me on this!
Your Whole-Grain Pasta Payoff: In addition to getting more fiber and diabetes-fighting chromium and zinc, the calorie savings of a “moderate serving” of whole-grain pasta twice a week for a year means each person in your family will drop 5 pounds!
Habit #8: Sweet Surrender
Tightening your budget and your waistline doesn’t have to mean eliminating sweet treats altogether, especially if you shop smart and apply moderation. Even though the low-fat ice cream might cost 10% more than the high-fat containers, you can actually save half the cost and still enjoy sweets 3 nights a week! How? Just serve 1 scoop in a mug instead of 2 scoops in a bowl and you’ll never feel deprived! And even when you’re at the local ice cream shop, just ask for the “kiddie cone.” It costs half the price of a “single” and really is a perfect amount for everyone in the family! Remember, there’s freedom within boundaries and this is a perfect example.
Your Sweet Surrender Payoff: In a year’s time of enjoying a scoop of ice cream 3 nights a week, you’ll save money, lower your cholesterol, never feel deprived… and lose 14 pounds!
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20 Simple Ways to Eat Healthy On a Budget
To build muscle and lose fat, you need lots of healthy foods. Proteins to build & maintain muscle. Carbs for energy. Fruits & veggies for vitamins, minerals and fiber. Water for hydration & recovery. And healthy fats to help fat loss.
Unfortunately, the rising food prices make it hard to eat healthy. Your paycheck is most likely not rising as fast. Worst case you're student which makes it even harder. These 20 tips will help you eat healthy on a budget.
1. Buy Whole Foods. Unprocessed foods are cheaper and more nutritious than processed foods. They also give you total control over the ingredients. Avoid anything that comes from a box 90% of the time.
- Proteins. Ground beef, frozen chicken breast, tuna cans, calves' liver, cottage cheese, plain yogurt, eggs, milk, whey, ...
- Carbs. Pasta, rice, oats, potatoes, beans, apples, bananas, raisins, broccoli, spinach, cabbage, ...
- Fats. Olive oil, fish oil, flax seeds, real butter, mixed nuts, ...
2. Buy Cheap Proteins. You need 1g protein per pound of body-weight per day to build and maintain muscle. Eating whole protein with each meal also helps fat loss as protein has a higher thermic effect than other foods.
Keep the steaks & salmon for special occasions. Buy eggs, milk, whey, mackerel, tuna, calves liver, frozen chicken breast, cottage cheese, ... Read the post with the 10 cheapest sources of protein for more ideas.
3. Buy Frozen Fruits & Veggies. Unfreeze berries in microwave and eat warm with cottage cheese. Put frozen spinach in a colander the night before and try one of these recipes the next day. Try also frozen beans & broccoli. Benefits:
- Save Money. Often half the price of fresh. Almost infinite shelf life when kept in freezer. And you can buy in bulk to get more discount.
- Save Time. Frozen fruits & veggies are pre-washed and pre-cut, which saves preparation time. Time is money.
- Nutrient Dense. If frozen right when picked, frozen fruits & veggies can contain more nutrients than fresh ones.
4. Buy Generic Food. And store brands. Raw foods like rice, pasta, eggs, milk, cottage cheese, frozen fruits/veggies, ... taste like brand name foods once you get used to them. But they'll save you money on packaging & advertising.
5. Buy Supplements. They're cheap and make your life easier, however whole food is better. You can use supplements, but make sure the bulk of your diet consists of whole, unprocessed foods.
- Whey. Cheapest protein you'll find. 1 scoop ON whey is 24g protein/30g serving. At 2 scoops/day, a 10lbs bag will last 10 weeks for 84,99$.
- Fish Oil. Cheaper than fish. 1tsp Carlson Fish Oil is 1600mg omega-3. At 1tsp/day, 1 bottle will last 40 days for 23,04$.
- Multi-vitamins. Vitamin deficiency is common. 1 bottle AST Multi Pro 32x contains 100 servings and will last 6 weeks for 17.03$.
6. Buy in Bulk. Especially when you have promos running. Foods like pasta, rice and oats are easy to stockpile. If they're on sale, buy as much as you can afford & store to last you until the next sale. More ideas.
- Side of Beef. Not necessarily cheaper, but you have better quality meat. Buying a side of beef gets you 100lbs meat at 3,60$/lbs.
- Supplements. You often get free shipping and discounts when buying in bulk. Make a 4 month order for you, friends & family and split the costs.
- Frozen Fruits & Veggies. Check tip #1. Saves money, saves times and nutrient dense. Buy mixed berries, spinach, broccoli, beans, etc.
7. Buy In Season Fruits & Veggies. Food grown in season tastes better and is cheaper. Root vegetables in the Winter. Apples & squash in the Fall. Broccoli & berries in the Summer. Check this, this & this guides for more info.
8. Buy Calorie Dense Foods. Whole milk, potatoes, rice, pasta & oats are filling, healthy and easy to stockpile. They'll help you get your daily caloric needs fast & cheap, and make gaining weight for skinny guys easier.
9. Buy Discounted Meat. Grocery stores often discount meats by up to 70% as they approach expiration date. Buy several pounds and store in your freezer.
10. Buy From Local Farmers. Or farmer's markets. They aren't always cheaper, but you get tastier & better quality food and they often give you free stuff when you buy a lot. Find local farmers in your area here & here.
11. Buy Everything from 1 Place. Time is money and fuel is expensive. Stop shopping for sales going to 10 different places. Find 1 or 2 places that get you cheap prices for most foods you need and buy everything there.
12. Drink Tap Water. Get a brita pitcher and filter your tap water. It's cheaper than bottled water, soda or orange juice. One $8 filter cleans 40 gallons water and makes it taste a lot better.
13. Clip Coupons. Invest 2$ in your Sunday paper or print the coupons from the Grocery Coupon Guide. Read also how to get the most out of coupons.
14. Get The Customer Card. Many grocery stores hold sales for customer card holders only. Some cards save AND give you money, like gift certificates once you've spent a fixed amount. Signing up takes 5 mins and is free.
15. Check the Unit Price. But also how the big the servings are. Big packages are often, but not always cheaper than small ones. Sometimes 2 small boxes are cheaper than 1 big one although there's more packaging.
16. Eat Less Total Calories. Lose the fat if you’re over-weight: it will save you money and improve your health. If you want to bulk up, decide what’s more important to you: gaining weight or saving money. (OP: Yeah, I did that. Way to oversimplify the issue there, buddy.)
17. Avoid Impulse Buying. "Failing to plan is planning to fail". The best way to avoid impulse buying is to prepare yourself before you do the grocery.
- Makes a List and Stick to It. Plan your meals ahead, including portion size. List all foods you need for the next 7 to 14 days. Go the grocery store, get what's on your list and get out.
- Eat Before You Go Shopping. This prevents buying foods not on your list because you're hungry. Eat a solid meal before doing the grocery.
- Shop Alone. Prevents impulse buying from wife/husband and/or kids. Leave them home. Take them to more fun places when you get back.
18. Stop Buying Food Outside. Preparing your own food gives you total control over the ingredients and is cheaper than buying food at work/school.
- Take Food with You. Food containers for work/school, protein shake for the gym, bag of nuts when you go to the movies, ...
- Eat Before Leaving Home. Eat breakfast, eat before doing the grocery, eat before going out with friends/family, ...
19. Prepare Your Own Food. Cook all your meals for the day on waking up or before going to bed. It takes 30-40mins, saves you stress about what you'll be eating the rest of the day and you eat healthy while saving money.
- Stop Buying Processed Food. Buy oats instead of cereals, make home made protein bars, home made tomato sauce, home made pizza, ...
- Keep it Simple. Make double portions, take leftovers with you, use cans of tuna & mackerel, rice & pasta, frozen veggies, ...
- Learn to Cook from Scratch. Learn to work with spices & herbs. Try the recipes on this blog.
Invest in a cook book like Gourmet Nutrition.
OP Note: THIS IS ALL YOU NEED! GO AND FIND YOURSELF THE LATEST EDITION, STAT!
Amazon
20. Grow Your Own Food. Cheaper than frozen, tastes better and you control what you put on them to keep bugs off. Plant your own trees that grow berries, walnuts & apples. Buy chickens for free eggs & meat. More ideas:
Some dude proudly posin' GANGSTA in front of his Brooklyn backyard garden! Git it, sir!
- Square-Foot Gardening. Build a raised bed and divide it into sections of 1 square foot. Check Mel Bartholomew’s site & book for how to's.
- Container Gardening. Grow vegetables in containers on your balcony or doorstep. Check this & this guides.
- Rent Garden Plots. If you don't have a yard, some cities rent garden plots. Just google rent garden plots in your state.
More info on how to grow your own WINDOW FARM here!!
Bonus Tip. Healthy & budget don't mix well. If you really want to eat healthy you'll have to put money down. Get a job if you don't have one. Work on a salary increase or additional stream of income if you do.
OP Note: On that bonus tip....... yeah..... good luck.
Source
5 Best Coupon Clipping Websites
11 Tip For Eating Healthy on a Budget
30 Ways to Stretch Your Fruit & Veggie Budget
Healthy Budget-Friendly Recipes
Iowa State's Spend Smart Eat Smart - Planning a smart diet for your family's budgetary needs
Supplemental Nutrion Assistance Program - United States
Top 7 Tips for Eating Healthy On a Budget
Getting the Best Nutrition On a Vegetarian Diet
You may follow a vegetarian diet for cultural, religious or ethical reasons. Or you may eat a vegetarian diet to stay healthy and prevent health problems, such as cardiovascular disease. Whatever your reasons for choosing a vegetarian diet, this guide will help you make smart choices to ensure that you meet your daily nutritional needs.
Indeed, a well-planned vegetarian diet can meet the needs of people of all ages, including children, teenagers, and pregnant or breast-feeding women. The key is to be aware of your nutritional needs so that you plan a diet that meets them. If you aren't sure how to create a vegetarian diet that's right for you, talk with your doctor and a registered dietitian.
Types of Vegetarian Diets
When people think about a vegetarian diet, they typically think about a diet that doesn't include meat, poultry or fish. But vegetarian diets can be further categorized into three types:
- Vegan diets exclude meat, poultry, fish, eggs and dairy products - and foods that contain these products.
- Lacto-vegetarian diets exclude meat, fish, poultry and eggs, as well as foods that contain them. Dairy products, such as milk, cheese, yogurt and butter, are allowed in a lacto-vegetarian diet.
- Lacto-ovo vegetarian diets exclude meat, fish and poultry, but allow eggs and dairy products.
Some people follow a semivegetarian diet - also called a flexitarian diet - which is primarily a plant-based diet but includes meat, dairy, eggs, poultry and fish on occasion or in small quantities.
Vegetarian diet pyramid
A healthy diet takes planning, and a food pyramid can be a helpful tool. The vegetarian pyramid outlines food groups and food choices that, if eaten in the right quantities, form the foundation of a healthy vegetarian diet.
Source
How to Be a Healthy Vegetarian - for everyone, but geared towards women's health
WebMD Article on Vegetarian Diets - WARNING: Do not click outside of the article, WebMD is toxic.
A gluten-free diet is a diet that excludes the protein gluten. Gluten is found in grains such as wheat, barley and rye.
A gluten-free diet is used to treat celiac disease. Gluten causes inflammation in the small intestines of people with celiac disease. Eating a gluten-free diet helps people with celiac disease control their signs and symptoms and prevent complications.
Initially, following a gluten-free diet may be frustrating. But with time, patience and creativity, you'll find there are many foods that you can eat and enjoy while observing a gluten-free diet.
Purpose
The gluten-free diet is a treatment for celiac disease.
Diet details
Always avoid
In order to avoid eating gluten, avoid food and drinks containing:
Barley
Bulgur
Durham
Farina
Graham flour
Kamut
Matzo meal
Rye
Semolina
Spelt (a form of wheat)
Triticale
Wheat
Avoid unless labeled 'gluten free'
Avoid these foods unless they're labeled as gluten free or made with corn, rice, soy or other gluten-free grain. Also check the label to see that they're processed in a facility that is free of wheat or other contaminating products:
Beers
Breads
Candies
Cakes and pies
Cereals
Cookies
Crackers
Croutons
Gravies
Imitation meats or seafood
Oats
Pastas
Processed luncheon meats
Salad dressings
Sauces (including soy sauce)
Self-basting poultry
Soups
Certain grains, such as oats, can be contaminated with wheat during growing and processing stages of production. It's not clear whether oats are harmful for most people with celiac disease, but doctors generally recommend avoiding oats unless they are specifically labeled gluten free. The question of whether people eating a gluten-free diet can consume pure oat products remains a subject of scientific debate.
Many other products that you eat or that could come in contact with your mouth may contain gluten. These include:
Food additives, such as malt flavoring, modified food starch and others
Lipstick and lip balms
Medications and vitamins that use gluten as a binding agent
Play dough
Toothpaste
Cross-contamination also may occur anywhere ingredients come together, such as on a cutting board or a grill surface. You may be exposed to gluten by using the same utensils as others, such as a bread knife, or by sharing the same condiment containers - the condiment bottle may touch the bun, or a knife with bread crumbs may contaminate a margarine stick or mayonnaise jar.
Allowed foods
There are still many basic foods allowed in a gluten-free diet. With all foods, check to see that each is labeled gluten free or call the manufacturer to double-check.
Grains and starches allowed in a gluten-free diet include:
Amaranth
Arrowroot
Buckwheat
Corn
Cornmeal
Gluten-free flours (rice, soy, corn, potato, bean)
Hominy grits
Polenta
Pure corn tortillas
Quinoa
Rice
Tapioca
Check the label when buying amaranth, buckwheat and quinoa. These can be contaminated with gluten during processing.
Other gluten-free foods include:
Fresh meats, fish and poultry (not breaded, batter-coated or marinated)
Fruits
Most dairy products
Potatoes
Rice
Vegetables
Wine and distilled liquors, ciders and spirits
An increasing number of gluten-free products, such as bread and pasta, are becoming available. If you can't find them in your area, check with a celiac support group or on the Web. Gluten-free substitutes are available for many gluten-containing foods, from brownies to beer. Many specialty grocery stores sell gluten-free foods.
Results
People with celiac disease who eat a gluten-free diet experience fewer symptoms and complications of the disease. People with celiac disease must eat a strictly gluten-free diet and must remain on the diet for the remainder of their lives.
In some severe cases, a gluten-free diet alone can't stop signs and symptoms of celiac disease. In these cases, doctors might prescribe medications to suppress the immune system.
Risks
Not eating enough vitamins
People who follow a gluten-free diet may have low levels of certain vitamins and nutrients in their diets. Many grains are enriched with vitamins. Avoiding grains with a gluten-free diet may mean eating fewer of these enriched products. Ask your dietitian to review your diet to see that you're getting enough:
Iron
Calcium
Fiber
Thiamin
Riboflavin
Niacin
Folate
Not sticking to the gluten-free diet
If you accidentally eat a product that contains gluten, you may experience abdominal pain and diarrhea. Some people experience no signs or symptoms after eating gluten, but this doesn't mean it's not damaging their small intestines. Even trace amounts of gluten in your diet may be damaging, whether or not they cause signs or symptoms.
Source - includes additional links as well
Information on Celiac Disease
Teaching Yourself to Cook At Home: Ten Tips!
Regular readers of The Simple Dollar know I have a deep passion for preparing my own food. Not only is it less expensive than eating out, I have far more control over what goes in it and I am able to prepare the things I want, not just some choice from a menu.
The biggest challenge I have, and this challenge is shared with a lot of busy people out there, is time. It takes time to learn how to cook, and even when you do know how, it takes time to actually prepare the food as well. For many people, that’s a big threshold to cross, especially when it’s so easy to just pick up something on the way home.
I’m not ashamed to admit I was much the same way. For years, I lived mostly on takeout and fast food, and it wasn’t until I began to build an appreciation for culinary arts that I began to try making things myself. The first things I tried were abject failures, and it all seemed incredibly difficult, but after time that passed and now I’d rather make my own food from basic ingredients (even stuff like pasta) than eat out.
Here are ten big keys I discovered during this transition, and hopefully they will translate to your own kitchen as well.
Commit yourself to doing it regularly. This is the first big step. Make a commitment to prepare all of your dinners at home for one week, then see if you can actually do it. Simply getting yourself in the kitchen with a positive “I can do this” mindset is 80% of the work.
Minimize your tools. Most kitchens that I visit have tons and tons of cooking tools jammed in the drawers. You don’t need most of this stuff for day to day cooking. Get a big box and toss everything in your drawers into this box. Seriously. Then, when you actually use one of these tools, pull it out and use it, then put that tool in your drawer. You’ll find that in about a month, you’ll have about six to ten tools in your drawer and they’ll take care of 95% of the stuff that you do. Just stick with those in your drawer and only add to that number if you find yourself using something a lot; keep the rest in a box in the pantry or the closet.
Minimize your pots and pans. Many people go out and buy a ridiculously overblown set of pots and pans for their kitchen, then overload their cupboards with this stuff. The only problem is that if you buy a set of fourteen pans for $100, you’re not getting a deal - you’re getting a bunch of $7 pans that don’t heat evenly and often are covered with a no-stick substance that comes off after a few uses. Instead, take that cash and buy two or three top notch pans instead of an army of cheap ones - a sauce pan, a very large frying pan, and a pot big enough to cook soup or a roast in is great for most people. Spend that $100 on just the three pans and you’ll be way better off - plus you don’t have the obstacle of dealing with an army of pans in your cupboard.
Get out and measure all of your ingredients before you even start something. Seriously. You’ll find that when you’re in the midst of making something, the last thing you want to do is wash off your hands, get out an ingredient, measure it, then add it to the mix - you’re going to want to just keep going. So just measure out everything in advance. I usually put stuff in bowls and small cups on the table so I can glance and grab what I need at a given point.
Get a cook book that teaches technique. I almost exclusively point kitchen novices towards Mark Bittman’s How To Cook Everything This book is basically designed with the busy person learning to cook in mind; it’s loaded with details on preparation, explaining the finer points of almost every common culinary practice. The recipes focus on a merger of simplicity and flavor in an effort to show beginning cooks that it is indeed easy to create something delicious in the kitchen, but the book really shines when demonstrating technique. My genuine advice if you’re starting out in the kitchen is to get this book and use only this book for a while - take the rest of your cookbooks and put them away somewhere else for a bit. When you’re feeling confident about much of the stuff inside, move onto other cookbooks - you’ll suddenly find them easy where they may have been almost overwhelming in the past.
Amazon
Don’t tackle complicated stuff right off the bat. Start off by preparing simpler stuff. For example, if you’re making pasta, start off with a very basic sauce recipe and make sure you’ve got it cold, then move on from there. If you’re making bread, make a few loaves of basic white bread so you know what you’re doing, then try more complicated stuff like a rye-pumpernickel swirl. Trust me on this one - with the bread, I made five loaves of it before I got one that turned out like I wanted. I just kept trying and making adjustments and then finally… fantastic. After that, I knew how to make bread and made a few loaves of excellent white bread before moving on.
OP Note: Okay this picture is cracking me up. I mean she's like in an apron and holding a cake but she appears to be standing in a bathroom but there's a sewing machine in front of her too and WAT???
Try to learn something each time you make something. I even go so far as to try to take some notes each time I prepare a dish, but that’s not necessary. For example, the first time I made a loaf of bread, it turned out very dry and dense. The problem? I let it sit out for far too long and the yeast was basically completely finished before it ever went into the oven. Later on, I would see some loaves coming out very tall, light, and fluffy, while other loaves would be more dense and smaller. The difference? When I prepared the yeast by putting it in warm water, if I stirred that yeast and warm water more until all of the yeast particles were dissolved, the bread rose a lot more - in fact, you can almost see a direct connection between how dissolved the yeast is in warm water compared to how high the bread rises.
Make comfort foods at first, safe ones that make you happy and excite your taste buds. If you like Italian, focus on Italian dishes - make some homemade pasta, homemade pasta sauce, and homemade Italian bread. Like steak? Pick up some of your own and experiment with preparation and grilling techniques. Put aside the desire to eat healthy and focus on preparing food that you enjoy eating, so that when you start nailing it (and you will), you’ll know it with your taste buds. When you’ve built up some skill, then focus on options that match the level of healthiness you want.
Focus on fresh ingredients. If a recipe calls for a vegetable, don’t pop open a can. Get the fresh vegetable from your local grocer. The same goes for fruits and other items - the fresh forms of these items just pop with flavor in a certain way that frozen and canned versions do not. Plus, when you use fresh ones, you’re avoiding preservatives and potentially unhealthy packing materials, like the sickeningly sweet high fructose corn syrup that canned fruits come in.
Keep your kitchen clean. One big part of cooking is the cleanup, and I find it’s always better to just clean things up as soon as possible. If something goes in the oven, I make it a point to have everything cleaned up (or at least in the dishwasher) before it comes out of the oven. Doing this consistently ensures that the kitchen does not become a disaster area, which is often another difficulty that people have when first learning how to cook.
If you follow these ten tips, you’ll find that preparing your own food at home can be much, much easier than you ever thought it could be - and then you’ll discover how much healthier and tastier the food is and how much money it can save.
Source
Another article from wisebread.com
Cooking Blogs & Websites
101 Cookbooks
Ai Bento
allrecipes.com
AZ Cookbook
Brown Eyed Baker
Food52
For the Love of Cooking
The Fresh Loaf
Not Eating Out in New York
The Pioneer Woman
Simply Recipes
Smitten Kitchen
Steamy Kitchen
Vegetarian Recipes
Dont be afraid to fail!
Additional Links
12 Dangerous Ingredients in Food
Surprise Ingredients in Fast Food
*The above would have gotten their own segment had I not maxed out the text limit so here they are!
Trigger Warning Resources
Depression Resource Links - from WebMD
EatingDisorder.org
National Eating Disorders Association (NEDA)
Resources from NEDA
Maude's Sunday Notes:
- We've been kind of depressing around here lately, so uh yeah, we're talking about food in here dammit.
- Please post helpful international links in the official thread. No suggestion thread this week.
Coming Soon:
Women's Health: Birth Control
Mental Health: Series Opener!
Global Issues: Isreal/Palestine conflict, Modern Slavery, Things Happening in That Place Called "The Middle East" 99% Of Us Won't Admit We Are Clueless About
AND OF COURSE THIS POST WOULD NOT BE COMPLETE WITHOUT...
Info posts may contain triggering elements, so please be mindful of the topic and read at your own discretion. Specific triggers and warnings are listed below, but if any additional warnings are needed please don't be shy about making the suggestion. Thanks!
SPECIFIC TRIGGER WARNINGS: ED/weight, depression
*note: this post does NOT focus on weight loss or fad diets, but the TW are still there to be on the safe side
IMAGE WARNINGS: Food. Lots and lots of food.
These posts are a "safe space" to ask questions you might otherwise be too shy to. Please do not reply to people with "Plz Google" or "educate yourself". Everyone should enter them with a learn and teach mindset (in that order). WITH THAT SAID, HOWEVER, please remain mindful of your questions and phrasing, be open-minded, learn, and know when to be quiet. If you are flippant with your ignorance, I will not stop angered members from telling you about yourself.
A picture is worth a thousand words, and that’s why nutritionists use symbols and shapes to answer the question, “What should I eat?” For nearly two decades, the U.S. government distilled its nutrition advice into pyramids. These efforts didn't accurately show people what makes up a healthy diet. Why? Their recommendations were based on out-of-date science and influenced by people with business interests in the messages the icons sent. This year, the U.S. government scrapped its MyPyramid icon in favor of the fruit-and-vegetable rich MyPlateOpens in New Window-an improvement, yet one that still doesn't go far enough to show people how to make the healthiest choices.
There are better alternatives: the new Healthy Eating Plate and the Healthy Eating Pyramid, both built by faculty members in the Department of Nutrition at the Harvard School of Public Health, in conjunction with colleagues at Harvard Health Publications. The Healthy Eating Plate fixes the flaws in USDA's MyPlate, just as the Healthy Eating Pyramid rectifies the mistakes of the USDA's food pyramids. Both the Healthy Eating Plate and the Healthy Eating Pyramid are based on the latest science about how our food, drink, and activity choices affect our health-and are unaffected by businesses and organizations with a stake in their messages.
The Healthy Eating Pyramid is a simple, trustworthy guide to choosing a healthy diet. Its foundation is daily exercise and weight control, since these two related elements strongly influence your chances of staying healthy. The Healthy Eating Pyramid builds from there, showing that you should eat more foods from the bottom part of the pyramid (vegetables, whole grains) and less from the top (red meat, refined grains, potatoes, sugary drinks, and salt).
When it’s time for dinner, most of us eat off of a plate. So think of the new Healthy Eating Plate as blueprint for a typical meal: Fill half your plate with produce-colorful vegetables, the more varied the better, and fruits. (Remember, potatoes and French fries don't count as vegetables!) Save a quarter of your plate for whole grains. A healthy source of protein, such as fish, poultry, beans, or nuts, can make up the rest. The glass bottle is a reminder to use healthy oils, like olive and canola, in cooking, on salad, and at the table. Complete your meal with a cup of water, or if you like, tea or coffee with little or no sugar (not the milk or other dairy products that the USDA’s MyPlate recommends; limit milk/dairy products to one to two servings per day). And that figure scampering across the bottom of the placemat? It’s your reminder that staying active is half of the secret to weight control. The other half is eating a healthy diet with modest portions that meet your calorie needs-so be sure you choose a plate that is not too large.
Harvard's Healthy Eating Plate vs. the USDA's MyPlate
Source
Healthy eating is not about strict nutrition philosophies, staying unrealistically thin, or depriving yourself of the foods you love. Rather, it’s about feeling great, having more energy, and keeping yourself as healthy as possible- all of which can be achieved by learning some nutrition basics and using them in a way that works for you.
Healthy eating begins with learning how to “eat smart”-it’s not just what you eat, but how you eat. Your food choices can reduce your risk of illnesses such as heart disease, cancer, and diabetes, as well as defend against depression. Additionally, learning the habits of healthy eating can boost your energy, sharpen your memory and stabilize your mood. You can expand your range of healthy food choices and learn how to plan ahead to create and maintain a satisfying, healthy diet.
Healthy Eating Tip 1: Set yourself up for success
To set yourself up for success, think about planning a healthy diet as a number of small, manageable steps rather than one big drastic change. If you approach the changes gradually and with commitment, you will have a healthy diet sooner than you think.
- Simplify. Instead of being overly concerned with counting calories or measuring portion sizes, think of your diet in terms of color, variety and freshness-then it should be easier to make healthy choices. Focus on finding foods you love and easy recipes that incorporate a few fresh ingredients. Gradually, your diet will become healthier and more delicious.
- Start slow and make changes to your eating habits over time. Trying to make your diet healthy overnight isn’t realistic or smart. Changing everything at once usually leads to cheating or giving up on your new eating plan. Make small steps, like adding a salad (full of different color vegetables) to your diet once a day or switching from butter to olive oil when cooking. As your small changes become habit, you can continue to add more healthy choices to your diet.
- Every change you make to improve your diet matters. You don’t have to be perfect and you don’t have to completely eliminate foods you enjoy to have a healthy diet. The long term goal is to feel good, have more energy and reduce the risk of cancer and disease. Don’t let your missteps derail you-every healthy food choice you make counts.
Think of water and exercise as food groups in your diet.
Water. Water helps flush our systems of waste products and toxins. Yet many people go through life dehydrated-causing tiredness, low energy and headaches. It’s common to mistake thirst for hunger, so staying well hydrated will also help you make healthier food choices.
Exercise. Find something active that you like to do and add it to your day, just like you would add healthy greens, blueberries or salmon. The benefits of lifelong exercise are abundant and regular exercise may even motivate you to make healthy food choices a habit.
Healthy Eating Tip 2: Moderation is key
People often think of healthy eating as an all or nothing proposition, but a key foundation for any healthy diet is moderation. Despite what certain fad diets would have you believe, we all need a balance of carbohydrates, protein, fat, fiber, vitamins, and minerals to sustain a healthy body.
- Try not to think of certain foods as “off-limits.” When you ban certain foods or food groups, it is natural to want those foods more, and then feel like a failure if you give in to temptation. If you are drawn towards sweet, salty, or unhealthy foods, start by reducing portion sizes and not eating them as often. Later you may find yourself craving them less or thinking of them as only occasional indulgences.
- Think smaller portions. Serving sizes have ballooned recently, particularly in restaurants. When dining out, choose a starter instead of an entrée, split a dish with a friend, and don’t order supersized anything. At home, use smaller plates, think about serving sizes in realistic terms and start small. Visual cues can help with portion sizes-your serving of meat, fish or chicken should be the size of a deck of cards. A teaspoon of oil or salad dressing is about the size of a matchbook and your slice of bread should be the size of a CD case.
Healthy eating tip 3: It's not just what you eat, it's how you eat
Healthy eating is about more than the food on your plate-it is also about how you think about food. Healthy eating habits can be learned and it is important to slow down and think about food as nourishment rather than just something to gulp down in between meetings or on the way to pick up the kids.
- Eat with others whenever possible. Eating with other people has numerous social and emotional benefits-particularly for children-and allows you to model healthy eating habits. Eating in front of the TV or computer often leads to mindless overeating.
- Take time to chew your food and enjoy mealtimes. Chew your food slowly, savoring every bite. We tend to rush though our meals, forgetting to actually taste the flavors and feel the textures of what is in our mouths. Reconnect with the joy of eating.
- Listen to your body. Ask yourself if you are really hungry, or have a glass of water to see if you are thirsty instead of hungry. During a meal, stop eating before you feel full. It actually takes a few minutes for your brain to tell your body that it has had enough food, so eat slowly.
- Eat breakfast, and eat smaller meals throughout the day. A healthy breakfast can jumpstart your metabolism, and eating small, healthy meals throughout the day (rather than the standard three large meals) keeps your energy up and your metabolism going.
Healthy eating tip 4: Fill up on colorful fruits and vegetables
Fruits and vegetables are the foundation of a healthy diet. They are low in calories and nutrient dense, which means they are packed with vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, and fiber.
Try to eat a rainbow of fruits and vegetables every day and with every meal-the brighter the better. Colorful, deeply colored fruits and vegetables contain higher concentrations of vitamins, minerals and antioxidants-and different colors provide different benefits, so eat a variety. Aim for a minimum of five portions each day.
Some great choices include:
- Greens. Branch out beyond bright and dark green lettuce. Kale, mustard greens, broccoli, and Chinese cabbage are just a few of the options-all packed with calcium, magnesium, iron, potassium, zinc, and vitamins A, C, E and K.
- Sweet vegetables. Naturally sweet vegetables-such as corn, carrots, beets, sweet potatoes, yams, onions, and squash-add healthy sweetness to your meals and reduce your cravings for other sweets.
- Fruit. Fruit is a tasty, satisfying way to fill up on fiber, vitamins, and antioxidants. Berries are cancer-fighting, apples provide fiber, oranges and mangos offer vitamin C, and so on.
The importance of getting vitamins from food--not pills
The antioxidants and other nutrients in fruits and vegetables help protect against certain types of cancer and other diseases. And while advertisements abound for supplements promising to deliver the nutritional benefits of fruits and vegetables in pill or powder form, research suggests that it’s just not the same.
A daily regimen of nutritional supplements is not going to have the same impact of eating right. That’s because the benefits of fruits and vegetables don’t come from a single vitamin or an isolated antioxidant.
The health benefits of fruits and vegetables come from numerous vitamins, minerals, and phytochemicals working together synergistically. They can’t be broken down into the sum of their parts or replicated in pill form.
Healthy eating tip 5: Eat more healthy carbs and whole grains
Choose healthy carbohydrates and fiber sources, especially whole grains, for long lasting energy. In addition to being delicious and satisfying, whole grains are rich in phytochemicals and antioxidants, which help to protect against coronary heart disease, certain cancers, and diabetes. Studies have shown people who eat more whole grains tend to have a healthier heart.
A quick definition of healthy carbs and unhealthy carbs
Healthy carbs (sometimes known as good carbs) include whole grains, beans, fruits, and vegetables. Healthy carbs are digested slowly, helping you feel full longer and keeping blood sugar and insulin levels stable.
Unhealthy carbs (or bad carbs) are foods such as white flour, refined sugar and white rice that have been stripped of all bran, fiber and nutrients. Unhealthy carbs digest quickly and cause spikes in blood sugar levels and energy.
Tips for eating more healthy carbs
- Include a variety of whole grains in your healthy diet, including whole wheat, brown rice, millet, quinoa, and barley. Experiment with different grains to find your favorites.
- Make sure you're really getting whole grains. Be aware that the words stone-ground, multi-grain, 100% wheat, or bran, can be deceptive. Look for the words “whole grain” or “100% whole wheat” at the beginning of the ingredient list. In the US, check for the Whole Grain Stamps that distinguish between partial whole grain and 100% whole grain.
- Try mixing grains as a first step to switching to whole grains. If whole grains, like brown rice and whole wheat pasta, don’t sound good at first, start by mixing what you normally use with the whole grains. You can gradually increase the whole grain to 100%.
Avoid: Refined foods such as breads, pastas, and breakfast cereals that are not whole grain.
Healthy eating tip 6: Enjoy healthy fats & avoid unhealthy fats
Good sources of healthy fat are needed to nourish your brain, heart and cells, as well as your hair, skin, and nails. Foods rich in certain omega-3 fats called EPA and DHA are particularly important and can reduce cardiovascular disease, improve your mood and help prevent dementia.
Add to your healthy diet:
- Monounsaturated fats, from plant oils like canola oil, peanut oil, and olive oil, as well as avocados, nuts (like almonds, hazelnuts, and pecans), and seeds (such as pumpkin, sesame).
- Polyunsaturated fats, including Omega-3 and Omega-6 fatty acids, found in fatty fish such as salmon, herring, mackerel, anchovies, sardines, and some cold water fish oil supplements. Other sources of polyunsaturated fats are unheated sunflower, corn, soybean, and flaxseed oils, and walnuts.
Reduce or eliminate from your diet:
- Saturated fats, found primarily in animal sources including red meat and whole milk dairy products.
- Trans fats, found in vegetable shortenings, some margarines, crackers, candies, cookies, snack foods, fried foods, baked goods, and other processed foods made with partially hydrogenated vegetable oils.
Healthy Eating Tip 7: Put protein in perspective
Protein gives us the energy to get up and go-and keep going. Protein in food is broken down into the 20 amino acids that are the body’s basic building blocks for growth and energy, and essential for maintaining cells, tissues, and organs. A lack of protein in our diet can slow growth, reduce muscle mass, lower immunity, and weaken the heart and respiratory system. Protein is particularly important for children, whose bodies are growing and changing daily.
Here are some guidelines for including protein in your healthy diet:
Try different types of protein. Whether or not you are a vegetarian, trying different protein sources-such as beans, nuts, seeds, peas, tofu and soy products-will open up new options for healthy mealtimes.
- Beans: Black beans, navy beans, garbanzos, and lentils are good options.
- Nuts: Almonds, walnuts, pistachios, and pecans are great choices.
- Soy products: Try tofu, soy milk, tempeh, and veggie burgers for a change.
- Avoid salted or sugary nuts and refried beans.
Downsize your portions of protein. Most people in the U.S. eat too much protein. Try to move away from protein being the center of your meal. Focus on equal servings of protein, whole grains, and vegetables.
Focus on quality sources of protein, like fresh fish, chicken or turkey, tofu, eggs, beans or nuts. When you are having meat, chicken, or turkey, buy meat that is free of hormones and antibiotics.
Healthy eating tip 8: Add calcium for strong bones
Calcium is one of the key nutrients that your body needs in order to stay strong and healthy. It is an essential building block for lifelong bone health in both men and women, among many other important functions.
You and your bones will benefit from eating plenty of calcium-rich foods, limiting foods that deplete your body’s calcium stores, and getting your daily dose of magnesium and vitamins D and K-nutrients that help calcium do its job.
Recommended calcium levels are 1000 mg per day, 1200 mg if you are over 50 years old. Take a vitamin D and calcium supplement if you don’t get enough of these nutrients from your diet.
Good sources of calcium include:
- Dairy: Dairy products are rich in calcium in a form that is easily digested and absorbed by the body. Sources include milk, yogurt, and cheese.
- Vegetables and greens: Many vegetables, especially leafy green ones, are rich sources of calcium. Try turnip greens, mustard greens, collard greens, kale, romaine lettuce, celery, broccoli, fennel, cabbage, summer squash, green beans, Brussels sprouts, asparagus, and crimini mushrooms.
- Beans: For another rich source of calcium, try black beans, pinto beans, kidney beans, white beans, black-eyed peas, or baked beans.
Healthy eating tip 9: Limit sugar and salt
If you succeed in planning your diet around fiber-rich fruits, vegetables, whole grains, lean protein, and good fats, you may find yourself naturally cutting back on foods that can get in the way of your healthy diet-sugar and salt.
Sugar
Sugar causes energy ups and downs and can add to health and weight problems. Unfortunately, reducing the amount of candy, cakes, and desserts we eat is only part of the solution. Often you may not even be aware of the amount of sugar you’re consuming each day. Large amounts of added sugar can be hidden in foods such as bread, canned soups and vegetables, pasta sauce, margarine, instant mashed potatoes, frozen dinners, fast food, soy sauce, and ketchup. Here are some tips:
- Avoid sugary drinks. One 12-oz soda has about 10 teaspoons of sugar in it, more than the daily recommended limit! Try sparkling water with lemon or a splash of fruit juice.
- Eat naturally sweet food such as fruit, peppers, or natural peanut butter to satisfy your sweet tooth.
How sugar is hidden on food labels
Check food labels carefully. Sugar is often disguised using terms such as:
cane sugar or maple syrup
corn sweetener or corn syrup
honey or molasses
brown rice syrup
crystallized or evaporated cane juice
fruit juice concentrates, such as apple or pear
maltodextrin (or dextrin)
Dextrose, Fructose, Glucose, Maltose, or Sucrose
Ever notice how sugar looks suspiciously like crack and heroin????
Salt
Most of us consume too much salt in our diets. Eating too much salt can cause high blood pressure and lead to other health problems. Try to limit sodium intake to 1,500 to 2,300 mg per day, the equivalent of one teaspoon of salt.
- Avoid processed or pre-packaged foods. Processed foods like canned soups or frozen dinners contain hidden sodium that quickly surpasses the recommended limit.
- Be careful when eating out. Most restaurant and fast food meals are loaded with sodium.
- Opt for fresh or frozen vegetables instead of canned vegetables.
- Cut back on salty snacks such as potato chips, nuts, and pretzels.
- Choose low-salt or reduced-sodium products.
- Try slowly reducing the salt in your diet to give your taste buds time to adjust.
Healthy eating tip 10: Plan quick and easy meals ahead
Healthy eating starts with great planning. You will have won half the healthy diet battle if you have a well-stocked kitchen, a stash of quick and easy recipes, and plenty of healthy snacks.
Plan your meals by the week or even the month
One of the best ways to have a healthy diet is to prepare your own food and eat in regularly. Pick a few healthy recipes that you and your family like and build a meal schedule around them. If you have three or four meals planned per week and eat leftovers on the other nights, you will be much farther ahead than if you are eating out or having frozen dinners most nights.
Shop the perimeter of the grocery store
In general, healthy eating ingredients are found around the outer edges of most grocery stores-fresh fruits and vegetables, fish and poultry, whole grain breads and dairy products. The centers of many grocery stores are filled with overpriced, processed foods that aren’t good for you.
Shop the perimeter of the store for most of your groceries (fresh items), add a few things from the freezer section (frozen fruits and vegetables), and the aisles with spices, oils, and whole grains (like rolled oats, brown rice, whole wheat pasta).
Cook when you can
Try to cook one or both weekend days or on a weekday evening and make extra to freeze or set aside for another night. Cooking ahead saves time and money, and it is gratifying to know that you have a home cooked meal waiting to be eaten.
Challenge yourself to come up with two or three dinners that can be put together without going to the store-utilizing things in your pantry, freezer, and spice rack. A delicious dinner of whole grain pasta with a quick tomato sauce or a quick and easy black bean quesadilla on a whole wheat flour tortilla (among endless other recipes) could act as your go-to meal when you are just too busy to shop or cook.
Source
Choosing Healthy Fats
Making Better Choices at Fast Food Restaurants
Nutrition for Women
Senior Nutrition
OP Note: It is really really difficult to find healthy eating tips that don't reduce your diet down to lentils and fantasies or makes outrageously unrealistic suggestions. Also, every help site assumes that there's a farmer's market close enough to visit regularly. I've done the best I can, but if you guys can find a website that doesn't talk about creating a garden or something please post them in official threads.
Habit #1: Bean Boots (OP Note: I did not create that title)
Beans are dirt cheap and there is not a single more healthful food for you. Loaded with protein, potassium, folacin, magnesium and soluble fiber, beans are great for lowering both your cholesterol and blood pressure. Not to mention, beans also keep your blood sugar steady thanks to their low glycemic index.
- Enjoy 3-bean chili (you can skip the meat entirely or just use half the amount you normally would).
- Add beans to your salad for a protein boost instead of pricey cheese, ham or tuna.
- Include bean burritos as a high-protein staple (like they are in our house). Add chopped tomato and lettuce and you have a delicious, satisfying meal.
- Make a giant pot of bean soup, freeze and eat for days.
- Use your slow cooker to prepare delicious meals with dried beans for the price of pennies.
Even convenient canned beans are a great deal over the high price of meat. My favorite brand that fills my pantry is organic and no-salt added Eden Foods.
Your Bean Booty Payoff: Replacing meat with beans can save $1.00 per person for each meal. Doing this 4 times a week for a year, your family of four will save $832 while reducing everyone’s risk of heart disease by more than 20%!
Habit # 2: Chop Chop
For growing teenagers actively involved in competitive sports or adults training for triathlons and marathons, 2 pork chops or chicken breasts might be the right serving size. But for the rest of us, one 4-ounce chicken breast or pork chop is all we need. Yes, really. So … start chopping your meat budget by:
- Limiting your chop to just one instead of two pork chops.
- Sharing a steak and fill the rest of your plate with economical veggies and grains
- Downsizing your chicken breast to 4 ounces instead of 8 ounces.
- Stop “supersizing” your burgers, and keep it to a quarter pound instead of a third or half - and just have one!
Your Chop Chop Payoff: A family of four that “chops” their meat habit 3 times a week for a year will save $500 while each person drops 9 pounds!
Habit #3: Dog Gone Good Move
Hot dogs are often a low-cost family staple, but are typically loaded with fat and sodium. Buying the low-fat version is healthier, but also can be twice the cost. The adage that “you get what you pay for” is particularly true here. So to help keep hot dogs healthy while staying in your budget, extend the value of the low-fat hot dogs by serving just one (not two) with a healthy side of baked beans and a fist-full of fruits and veggies.
You might be okay with a caprese dog, however...
Your Dog Gone Payoff: Everyone will be slashing their intake of artery-clogging fat and sodium while not spending a dime more for it.
Habit #4: 12-Month Turkey Tradition
OP Note: If you have the spare time to execute this, this is a great idea but uh.... there's a reason why most people only cook turkey once per year.
Looking for a budget-friendly way to buy 97% fat-free lunch meat? You WON’T find the answer in the deli section! Roast a whole turkey once a month (without all the trimmings) then slice, bag and freeze the leftovers in individual lunch servings. This is tons cheaper than the deli meat and you’ll have LEAN, unprocessed meat (no sodium nitrate and much healthier) for sandwiches all month long! A perfect low-budget meat for casseroles as well!
Your Turkey Tradition Payoff: Saves dollars while eliminating loads of bad sodium nitrate for the entire family.
Habit # 5: Detour the Snack Aisles
One of the biggest challenges with eating healthy on a tight budget is buying all the produce your family truly needs. This is where “robbing Peter to pay Paul” definitely has positive results. Just detour the aisles with chips, candy and cookies. You know these snacks cost a bundle, so take every dollar you might spend in these aisles and apply it to fruits and vegetables. Fruit truly is nature’s dessert and fresh veggies are perfect for snacking. The produce aisle is where all the disease-fighting foods are hanging out, and regardless of budget, a fist-size serving should be present at every meal and snack. And because fruits and veggies are loaded with fiber, one apple or handful of carrot sticks will fill you up faster than a 99-cent bag of chips or stack of Oreo cookies.
Buy a few frozen and canned varieties for late in the week when your fresh supply runs low, and check your local farmer’s market for the best in-season buys. Making this a weekly habit can change your life, both physically and fiscally!
Your Detour Payoff: Same grocery bill, but you will need to buy a smaller belt! And since you will be healthy and active well into your 90’s, make sure your retirement plan is in great shape too.
Habit #6: Bag the Box
Tempted to buy that box of prepared scalloped potatoes for dinner? Not only is this a load of pennies for just one meal, it’s an overload of sodium to boot. Instead, buy a bag of potatoes that’ll serve 3 meals for the same price! You’ll be helping your blood pressure and weight while saving money. The same goes for the box of prepared rice dishes. Buy a whole bag of rice (brown of course!) and you’ll get 7 meals for the price of one! See my Unfried Rice recipe on page 107 of Lickety-Split Meals for economical “flavored rice” that’s sure to please your pallet and your pocketbook. Make sure to check out 34 more of my wholesome potato and rice recipes in your Lickety-Split Meals cookbook.
Your Bag the Box Payoff: In addition to getting 3-7 more meals for the price of one, you bump up the fiber and nutrients while avoiding the extra sodium. Bye-bye high blood pressure!
Habit #7: Whole-Grain Pasta Surprise Savings
You know you should buy whole-grain pasta, but it costs 25% more. What you don’t know is the surprise savings when serving whole-grain instead of white. The same amount of whole-grain pasta will actually serve three times as many people. Surprise! How can that be you ask? The extra fiber in whole-grain pasta (3 times more) helps people “fill up” on just one cup of pasta, while the “empty-calorie” white pasta takes cup after cup after cup!!! And of course, each added cup means added inches to your waistline. It’s hard for the mind to calculate, but even though the price on a 16-oz. box of whole-grain pasta is more, you will NOT be spending any more to feed your family because the same size box will yield more “practical” servings. Trust me on this!
Your Whole-Grain Pasta Payoff: In addition to getting more fiber and diabetes-fighting chromium and zinc, the calorie savings of a “moderate serving” of whole-grain pasta twice a week for a year means each person in your family will drop 5 pounds!
Habit #8: Sweet Surrender
Tightening your budget and your waistline doesn’t have to mean eliminating sweet treats altogether, especially if you shop smart and apply moderation. Even though the low-fat ice cream might cost 10% more than the high-fat containers, you can actually save half the cost and still enjoy sweets 3 nights a week! How? Just serve 1 scoop in a mug instead of 2 scoops in a bowl and you’ll never feel deprived! And even when you’re at the local ice cream shop, just ask for the “kiddie cone.” It costs half the price of a “single” and really is a perfect amount for everyone in the family! Remember, there’s freedom within boundaries and this is a perfect example.
Your Sweet Surrender Payoff: In a year’s time of enjoying a scoop of ice cream 3 nights a week, you’ll save money, lower your cholesterol, never feel deprived… and lose 14 pounds!
Source
20 Simple Ways to Eat Healthy On a Budget
To build muscle and lose fat, you need lots of healthy foods. Proteins to build & maintain muscle. Carbs for energy. Fruits & veggies for vitamins, minerals and fiber. Water for hydration & recovery. And healthy fats to help fat loss.
Unfortunately, the rising food prices make it hard to eat healthy. Your paycheck is most likely not rising as fast. Worst case you're student which makes it even harder. These 20 tips will help you eat healthy on a budget.
1. Buy Whole Foods. Unprocessed foods are cheaper and more nutritious than processed foods. They also give you total control over the ingredients. Avoid anything that comes from a box 90% of the time.
- Proteins. Ground beef, frozen chicken breast, tuna cans, calves' liver, cottage cheese, plain yogurt, eggs, milk, whey, ...
- Carbs. Pasta, rice, oats, potatoes, beans, apples, bananas, raisins, broccoli, spinach, cabbage, ...
- Fats. Olive oil, fish oil, flax seeds, real butter, mixed nuts, ...
2. Buy Cheap Proteins. You need 1g protein per pound of body-weight per day to build and maintain muscle. Eating whole protein with each meal also helps fat loss as protein has a higher thermic effect than other foods.
Keep the steaks & salmon for special occasions. Buy eggs, milk, whey, mackerel, tuna, calves liver, frozen chicken breast, cottage cheese, ... Read the post with the 10 cheapest sources of protein for more ideas.
3. Buy Frozen Fruits & Veggies. Unfreeze berries in microwave and eat warm with cottage cheese. Put frozen spinach in a colander the night before and try one of these recipes the next day. Try also frozen beans & broccoli. Benefits:
- Save Money. Often half the price of fresh. Almost infinite shelf life when kept in freezer. And you can buy in bulk to get more discount.
- Save Time. Frozen fruits & veggies are pre-washed and pre-cut, which saves preparation time. Time is money.
- Nutrient Dense. If frozen right when picked, frozen fruits & veggies can contain more nutrients than fresh ones.
4. Buy Generic Food. And store brands. Raw foods like rice, pasta, eggs, milk, cottage cheese, frozen fruits/veggies, ... taste like brand name foods once you get used to them. But they'll save you money on packaging & advertising.
5. Buy Supplements. They're cheap and make your life easier, however whole food is better. You can use supplements, but make sure the bulk of your diet consists of whole, unprocessed foods.
- Whey. Cheapest protein you'll find. 1 scoop ON whey is 24g protein/30g serving. At 2 scoops/day, a 10lbs bag will last 10 weeks for 84,99$.
- Fish Oil. Cheaper than fish. 1tsp Carlson Fish Oil is 1600mg omega-3. At 1tsp/day, 1 bottle will last 40 days for 23,04$.
- Multi-vitamins. Vitamin deficiency is common. 1 bottle AST Multi Pro 32x contains 100 servings and will last 6 weeks for 17.03$.
6. Buy in Bulk. Especially when you have promos running. Foods like pasta, rice and oats are easy to stockpile. If they're on sale, buy as much as you can afford & store to last you until the next sale. More ideas.
- Side of Beef. Not necessarily cheaper, but you have better quality meat. Buying a side of beef gets you 100lbs meat at 3,60$/lbs.
- Supplements. You often get free shipping and discounts when buying in bulk. Make a 4 month order for you, friends & family and split the costs.
- Frozen Fruits & Veggies. Check tip #1. Saves money, saves times and nutrient dense. Buy mixed berries, spinach, broccoli, beans, etc.
7. Buy In Season Fruits & Veggies. Food grown in season tastes better and is cheaper. Root vegetables in the Winter. Apples & squash in the Fall. Broccoli & berries in the Summer. Check this, this & this guides for more info.
8. Buy Calorie Dense Foods. Whole milk, potatoes, rice, pasta & oats are filling, healthy and easy to stockpile. They'll help you get your daily caloric needs fast & cheap, and make gaining weight for skinny guys easier.
9. Buy Discounted Meat. Grocery stores often discount meats by up to 70% as they approach expiration date. Buy several pounds and store in your freezer.
10. Buy From Local Farmers. Or farmer's markets. They aren't always cheaper, but you get tastier & better quality food and they often give you free stuff when you buy a lot. Find local farmers in your area here & here.
11. Buy Everything from 1 Place. Time is money and fuel is expensive. Stop shopping for sales going to 10 different places. Find 1 or 2 places that get you cheap prices for most foods you need and buy everything there.
12. Drink Tap Water. Get a brita pitcher and filter your tap water. It's cheaper than bottled water, soda or orange juice. One $8 filter cleans 40 gallons water and makes it taste a lot better.
13. Clip Coupons. Invest 2$ in your Sunday paper or print the coupons from the Grocery Coupon Guide. Read also how to get the most out of coupons.
14. Get The Customer Card. Many grocery stores hold sales for customer card holders only. Some cards save AND give you money, like gift certificates once you've spent a fixed amount. Signing up takes 5 mins and is free.
15. Check the Unit Price. But also how the big the servings are. Big packages are often, but not always cheaper than small ones. Sometimes 2 small boxes are cheaper than 1 big one although there's more packaging.
16. Eat Less Total Calories. Lose the fat if you’re over-weight: it will save you money and improve your health. If you want to bulk up, decide what’s more important to you: gaining weight or saving money. (OP: Yeah, I did that. Way to oversimplify the issue there, buddy.)
17. Avoid Impulse Buying. "Failing to plan is planning to fail". The best way to avoid impulse buying is to prepare yourself before you do the grocery.
- Makes a List and Stick to It. Plan your meals ahead, including portion size. List all foods you need for the next 7 to 14 days. Go the grocery store, get what's on your list and get out.
- Eat Before You Go Shopping. This prevents buying foods not on your list because you're hungry. Eat a solid meal before doing the grocery.
- Shop Alone. Prevents impulse buying from wife/husband and/or kids. Leave them home. Take them to more fun places when you get back.
18. Stop Buying Food Outside. Preparing your own food gives you total control over the ingredients and is cheaper than buying food at work/school.
- Take Food with You. Food containers for work/school, protein shake for the gym, bag of nuts when you go to the movies, ...
- Eat Before Leaving Home. Eat breakfast, eat before doing the grocery, eat before going out with friends/family, ...
19. Prepare Your Own Food. Cook all your meals for the day on waking up or before going to bed. It takes 30-40mins, saves you stress about what you'll be eating the rest of the day and you eat healthy while saving money.
- Stop Buying Processed Food. Buy oats instead of cereals, make home made protein bars, home made tomato sauce, home made pizza, ...
- Keep it Simple. Make double portions, take leftovers with you, use cans of tuna & mackerel, rice & pasta, frozen veggies, ...
- Learn to Cook from Scratch. Learn to work with spices & herbs. Try the recipes on this blog.
Invest in a cook book like Gourmet Nutrition.
OP Note: THIS IS ALL YOU NEED! GO AND FIND YOURSELF THE LATEST EDITION, STAT!
Amazon
20. Grow Your Own Food. Cheaper than frozen, tastes better and you control what you put on them to keep bugs off. Plant your own trees that grow berries, walnuts & apples. Buy chickens for free eggs & meat. More ideas:
Some dude proudly posin' GANGSTA in front of his Brooklyn backyard garden! Git it, sir!
- Square-Foot Gardening. Build a raised bed and divide it into sections of 1 square foot. Check Mel Bartholomew’s site & book for how to's.
- Container Gardening. Grow vegetables in containers on your balcony or doorstep. Check this & this guides.
- Rent Garden Plots. If you don't have a yard, some cities rent garden plots. Just google rent garden plots in your state.
More info on how to grow your own WINDOW FARM here!!
Bonus Tip. Healthy & budget don't mix well. If you really want to eat healthy you'll have to put money down. Get a job if you don't have one. Work on a salary increase or additional stream of income if you do.
OP Note: On that bonus tip....... yeah..... good luck.
Source
5 Best Coupon Clipping Websites
11 Tip For Eating Healthy on a Budget
30 Ways to Stretch Your Fruit & Veggie Budget
Healthy Budget-Friendly Recipes
Iowa State's Spend Smart Eat Smart - Planning a smart diet for your family's budgetary needs
Supplemental Nutrion Assistance Program - United States
Top 7 Tips for Eating Healthy On a Budget
Getting the Best Nutrition On a Vegetarian Diet
You may follow a vegetarian diet for cultural, religious or ethical reasons. Or you may eat a vegetarian diet to stay healthy and prevent health problems, such as cardiovascular disease. Whatever your reasons for choosing a vegetarian diet, this guide will help you make smart choices to ensure that you meet your daily nutritional needs.
Indeed, a well-planned vegetarian diet can meet the needs of people of all ages, including children, teenagers, and pregnant or breast-feeding women. The key is to be aware of your nutritional needs so that you plan a diet that meets them. If you aren't sure how to create a vegetarian diet that's right for you, talk with your doctor and a registered dietitian.
Types of Vegetarian Diets
When people think about a vegetarian diet, they typically think about a diet that doesn't include meat, poultry or fish. But vegetarian diets can be further categorized into three types:
- Vegan diets exclude meat, poultry, fish, eggs and dairy products - and foods that contain these products.
- Lacto-vegetarian diets exclude meat, fish, poultry and eggs, as well as foods that contain them. Dairy products, such as milk, cheese, yogurt and butter, are allowed in a lacto-vegetarian diet.
- Lacto-ovo vegetarian diets exclude meat, fish and poultry, but allow eggs and dairy products.
Some people follow a semivegetarian diet - also called a flexitarian diet - which is primarily a plant-based diet but includes meat, dairy, eggs, poultry and fish on occasion or in small quantities.
Vegetarian diet pyramid
A healthy diet takes planning, and a food pyramid can be a helpful tool. The vegetarian pyramid outlines food groups and food choices that, if eaten in the right quantities, form the foundation of a healthy vegetarian diet.
Source
How to Be a Healthy Vegetarian - for everyone, but geared towards women's health
WebMD Article on Vegetarian Diets - WARNING: Do not click outside of the article, WebMD is toxic.
A gluten-free diet is a diet that excludes the protein gluten. Gluten is found in grains such as wheat, barley and rye.
A gluten-free diet is used to treat celiac disease. Gluten causes inflammation in the small intestines of people with celiac disease. Eating a gluten-free diet helps people with celiac disease control their signs and symptoms and prevent complications.
Initially, following a gluten-free diet may be frustrating. But with time, patience and creativity, you'll find there are many foods that you can eat and enjoy while observing a gluten-free diet.
Purpose
The gluten-free diet is a treatment for celiac disease.
Diet details
Always avoid
In order to avoid eating gluten, avoid food and drinks containing:
Barley
Bulgur
Durham
Farina
Graham flour
Kamut
Matzo meal
Rye
Semolina
Spelt (a form of wheat)
Triticale
Wheat
Avoid unless labeled 'gluten free'
Avoid these foods unless they're labeled as gluten free or made with corn, rice, soy or other gluten-free grain. Also check the label to see that they're processed in a facility that is free of wheat or other contaminating products:
Beers
Breads
Candies
Cakes and pies
Cereals
Cookies
Crackers
Croutons
Gravies
Imitation meats or seafood
Oats
Pastas
Processed luncheon meats
Salad dressings
Sauces (including soy sauce)
Self-basting poultry
Soups
Certain grains, such as oats, can be contaminated with wheat during growing and processing stages of production. It's not clear whether oats are harmful for most people with celiac disease, but doctors generally recommend avoiding oats unless they are specifically labeled gluten free. The question of whether people eating a gluten-free diet can consume pure oat products remains a subject of scientific debate.
Many other products that you eat or that could come in contact with your mouth may contain gluten. These include:
Food additives, such as malt flavoring, modified food starch and others
Lipstick and lip balms
Medications and vitamins that use gluten as a binding agent
Play dough
Toothpaste
Cross-contamination also may occur anywhere ingredients come together, such as on a cutting board or a grill surface. You may be exposed to gluten by using the same utensils as others, such as a bread knife, or by sharing the same condiment containers - the condiment bottle may touch the bun, or a knife with bread crumbs may contaminate a margarine stick or mayonnaise jar.
Allowed foods
There are still many basic foods allowed in a gluten-free diet. With all foods, check to see that each is labeled gluten free or call the manufacturer to double-check.
Grains and starches allowed in a gluten-free diet include:
Amaranth
Arrowroot
Buckwheat
Corn
Cornmeal
Gluten-free flours (rice, soy, corn, potato, bean)
Hominy grits
Polenta
Pure corn tortillas
Quinoa
Rice
Tapioca
Check the label when buying amaranth, buckwheat and quinoa. These can be contaminated with gluten during processing.
Other gluten-free foods include:
Fresh meats, fish and poultry (not breaded, batter-coated or marinated)
Fruits
Most dairy products
Potatoes
Rice
Vegetables
Wine and distilled liquors, ciders and spirits
An increasing number of gluten-free products, such as bread and pasta, are becoming available. If you can't find them in your area, check with a celiac support group or on the Web. Gluten-free substitutes are available for many gluten-containing foods, from brownies to beer. Many specialty grocery stores sell gluten-free foods.
Results
People with celiac disease who eat a gluten-free diet experience fewer symptoms and complications of the disease. People with celiac disease must eat a strictly gluten-free diet and must remain on the diet for the remainder of their lives.
In some severe cases, a gluten-free diet alone can't stop signs and symptoms of celiac disease. In these cases, doctors might prescribe medications to suppress the immune system.
Risks
Not eating enough vitamins
People who follow a gluten-free diet may have low levels of certain vitamins and nutrients in their diets. Many grains are enriched with vitamins. Avoiding grains with a gluten-free diet may mean eating fewer of these enriched products. Ask your dietitian to review your diet to see that you're getting enough:
Iron
Calcium
Fiber
Thiamin
Riboflavin
Niacin
Folate
Not sticking to the gluten-free diet
If you accidentally eat a product that contains gluten, you may experience abdominal pain and diarrhea. Some people experience no signs or symptoms after eating gluten, but this doesn't mean it's not damaging their small intestines. Even trace amounts of gluten in your diet may be damaging, whether or not they cause signs or symptoms.
Source - includes additional links as well
Information on Celiac Disease
Teaching Yourself to Cook At Home: Ten Tips!
Regular readers of The Simple Dollar know I have a deep passion for preparing my own food. Not only is it less expensive than eating out, I have far more control over what goes in it and I am able to prepare the things I want, not just some choice from a menu.
The biggest challenge I have, and this challenge is shared with a lot of busy people out there, is time. It takes time to learn how to cook, and even when you do know how, it takes time to actually prepare the food as well. For many people, that’s a big threshold to cross, especially when it’s so easy to just pick up something on the way home.
I’m not ashamed to admit I was much the same way. For years, I lived mostly on takeout and fast food, and it wasn’t until I began to build an appreciation for culinary arts that I began to try making things myself. The first things I tried were abject failures, and it all seemed incredibly difficult, but after time that passed and now I’d rather make my own food from basic ingredients (even stuff like pasta) than eat out.
Here are ten big keys I discovered during this transition, and hopefully they will translate to your own kitchen as well.
Commit yourself to doing it regularly. This is the first big step. Make a commitment to prepare all of your dinners at home for one week, then see if you can actually do it. Simply getting yourself in the kitchen with a positive “I can do this” mindset is 80% of the work.
Minimize your tools. Most kitchens that I visit have tons and tons of cooking tools jammed in the drawers. You don’t need most of this stuff for day to day cooking. Get a big box and toss everything in your drawers into this box. Seriously. Then, when you actually use one of these tools, pull it out and use it, then put that tool in your drawer. You’ll find that in about a month, you’ll have about six to ten tools in your drawer and they’ll take care of 95% of the stuff that you do. Just stick with those in your drawer and only add to that number if you find yourself using something a lot; keep the rest in a box in the pantry or the closet.
Minimize your pots and pans. Many people go out and buy a ridiculously overblown set of pots and pans for their kitchen, then overload their cupboards with this stuff. The only problem is that if you buy a set of fourteen pans for $100, you’re not getting a deal - you’re getting a bunch of $7 pans that don’t heat evenly and often are covered with a no-stick substance that comes off after a few uses. Instead, take that cash and buy two or three top notch pans instead of an army of cheap ones - a sauce pan, a very large frying pan, and a pot big enough to cook soup or a roast in is great for most people. Spend that $100 on just the three pans and you’ll be way better off - plus you don’t have the obstacle of dealing with an army of pans in your cupboard.
Get out and measure all of your ingredients before you even start something. Seriously. You’ll find that when you’re in the midst of making something, the last thing you want to do is wash off your hands, get out an ingredient, measure it, then add it to the mix - you’re going to want to just keep going. So just measure out everything in advance. I usually put stuff in bowls and small cups on the table so I can glance and grab what I need at a given point.
Get a cook book that teaches technique. I almost exclusively point kitchen novices towards Mark Bittman’s How To Cook Everything This book is basically designed with the busy person learning to cook in mind; it’s loaded with details on preparation, explaining the finer points of almost every common culinary practice. The recipes focus on a merger of simplicity and flavor in an effort to show beginning cooks that it is indeed easy to create something delicious in the kitchen, but the book really shines when demonstrating technique. My genuine advice if you’re starting out in the kitchen is to get this book and use only this book for a while - take the rest of your cookbooks and put them away somewhere else for a bit. When you’re feeling confident about much of the stuff inside, move onto other cookbooks - you’ll suddenly find them easy where they may have been almost overwhelming in the past.
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Don’t tackle complicated stuff right off the bat. Start off by preparing simpler stuff. For example, if you’re making pasta, start off with a very basic sauce recipe and make sure you’ve got it cold, then move on from there. If you’re making bread, make a few loaves of basic white bread so you know what you’re doing, then try more complicated stuff like a rye-pumpernickel swirl. Trust me on this one - with the bread, I made five loaves of it before I got one that turned out like I wanted. I just kept trying and making adjustments and then finally… fantastic. After that, I knew how to make bread and made a few loaves of excellent white bread before moving on.
OP Note: Okay this picture is cracking me up. I mean she's like in an apron and holding a cake but she appears to be standing in a bathroom but there's a sewing machine in front of her too and WAT???
Try to learn something each time you make something. I even go so far as to try to take some notes each time I prepare a dish, but that’s not necessary. For example, the first time I made a loaf of bread, it turned out very dry and dense. The problem? I let it sit out for far too long and the yeast was basically completely finished before it ever went into the oven. Later on, I would see some loaves coming out very tall, light, and fluffy, while other loaves would be more dense and smaller. The difference? When I prepared the yeast by putting it in warm water, if I stirred that yeast and warm water more until all of the yeast particles were dissolved, the bread rose a lot more - in fact, you can almost see a direct connection between how dissolved the yeast is in warm water compared to how high the bread rises.
Make comfort foods at first, safe ones that make you happy and excite your taste buds. If you like Italian, focus on Italian dishes - make some homemade pasta, homemade pasta sauce, and homemade Italian bread. Like steak? Pick up some of your own and experiment with preparation and grilling techniques. Put aside the desire to eat healthy and focus on preparing food that you enjoy eating, so that when you start nailing it (and you will), you’ll know it with your taste buds. When you’ve built up some skill, then focus on options that match the level of healthiness you want.
Focus on fresh ingredients. If a recipe calls for a vegetable, don’t pop open a can. Get the fresh vegetable from your local grocer. The same goes for fruits and other items - the fresh forms of these items just pop with flavor in a certain way that frozen and canned versions do not. Plus, when you use fresh ones, you’re avoiding preservatives and potentially unhealthy packing materials, like the sickeningly sweet high fructose corn syrup that canned fruits come in.
Keep your kitchen clean. One big part of cooking is the cleanup, and I find it’s always better to just clean things up as soon as possible. If something goes in the oven, I make it a point to have everything cleaned up (or at least in the dishwasher) before it comes out of the oven. Doing this consistently ensures that the kitchen does not become a disaster area, which is often another difficulty that people have when first learning how to cook.
If you follow these ten tips, you’ll find that preparing your own food at home can be much, much easier than you ever thought it could be - and then you’ll discover how much healthier and tastier the food is and how much money it can save.
Source
Another article from wisebread.com
Cooking Blogs & Websites
101 Cookbooks
Ai Bento
allrecipes.com
AZ Cookbook
Brown Eyed Baker
Food52
For the Love of Cooking
The Fresh Loaf
Not Eating Out in New York
The Pioneer Woman
Simply Recipes
Smitten Kitchen
Steamy Kitchen
Vegetarian Recipes
Dont be afraid to fail!
Additional Links
12 Dangerous Ingredients in Food
Surprise Ingredients in Fast Food
*The above would have gotten their own segment had I not maxed out the text limit so here they are!
Trigger Warning Resources
Depression Resource Links - from WebMD
EatingDisorder.org
National Eating Disorders Association (NEDA)
Resources from NEDA
Maude's Sunday Notes:
- We've been kind of depressing around here lately, so uh yeah, we're talking about food in here dammit.
- Please post helpful international links in the official thread. No suggestion thread this week.
Coming Soon:
Women's Health: Birth Control
Mental Health: Series Opener!
Global Issues: Isreal/Palestine conflict, Modern Slavery, Things Happening in That Place Called "The Middle East" 99% Of Us Won't Admit We Are Clueless About
AND OF COURSE THIS POST WOULD NOT BE COMPLETE WITHOUT...
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