Healthiest Cheap Food In America

shellshalla

I found this article today and I assume that i'm not the only one on a budget, so I thought others may find this helpful

http://eatthis.womenshealthmag.com/content/healthiest-cheap-food-america?article=1&page=1

LoriT129

LOVE this! You aren't the only one on a budget! We have two teenagers and have switched their unhealthy foods to healthy ones. This will come in handy. Thanks for sharing!

theatremack

Thanks!! I love the Eat This Not That series and this is really nice to see how to do it on a budget.

angelwings2000

Very interesting, thanks for sharing.

KendalBeee

awesome! awesome! awesome! awesome!


thanks so much!!!

knittygirl52

Very interesting article. I have the "Eat This, Not That" books, and they were eye-opening, even for a life-long dieter.

shannahrenee

this is great, thanks!

aklindsay

Eat This, Not That also has an app for the iPhone that really comes in handy!

julie737

Great article, but does anyone on a budget actually pay $4.50 for a box of cereal? Just asking...

kayemme

fair advice, but not completely sound. I've been doing some independent research on the costs of things

for instance eggs @ $1.76/doz are from corporate farms that don't give a crap about your health. eggs are something you should pay more for and therefore eat less of. but just bcause you pay more for it, doesn't mean your overall budget should go up.

my boyfriend & i (two healthy adults with large appetites) eat for around $50/wk, together; that's $25/wk apiece. no meat, $7/doz eggs and $6/gal milk.

many other things are really, really inexpensive when in season. yes, that means we don't eat fresh blueberries in february. just sayin'.

my blog w/ the prices/ haphazard recipes and breakdowns is here: http://scratch.kerimarion.com

(don't mind the bad spanish, i'm learning)

PJilly

for instance eggs @ $1.76/doz are from corporate farms that don't give a crap about your health. eggs are something you should pay more for and therefore eat less of. but just bcause you pay more for it, doesn't mean your overall budget should go up.

Could you elaborate on this? I love eggs, and I eat a lot of them. Why is it better to pay more for eggs and eat fewer of them? Is it better for me? The chickens? The environment? And if more expensive eggs are better for all of the above, why shouldn't I eat as many as I do of the "bad" eggs?

questionablemethods

fair advice, but not completely sound. I've been doing some independent research on the costs of things

for instance eggs @ $1.76/doz are from corporate farms that don't give a crap about your health. eggs are something you should pay more for and therefore eat less of. but just bcause you pay more for it, doesn't mean your overall budget should go up.

my boyfriend & i (two healthy adults with large appetites) eat for around $50/wk, together; that's $25/wk apiece. no meat, $7/doz eggs and $6/gal milk.

many other things are really, really inexpensive when in season. yes, that means we don't eat fresh blueberries in february. just sayin'.

my blog w/ the prices/ haphazard recipes and breakdowns is here: http://scratch.kerimarion.com

(don't mind the bad spanish, i'm learning)

I liked the posted article and I thought it had some good points. Thanks for posting it. But I also agree with Kayemme in a lot of respects. Sometimes you have to think about WHY those eggs are so cheap.... And I've heard people balk at the price of things like asparagus.... in Minnesota.... in January. Um.... yeah. That's because it was flown in from ARGENTINA!

I am still struggling with wanting to eat healthfully AND sustainably/ethically without putting myself in the poor house. The answers I keep coming back to are: local, seasonal and low in animal products. (That last one is the biggest struggle for me so far, but I will be transitioning to eating meat far less frequently so that I can be sure, if I do choose to spend my money on/eat meat, it was raised as well as possible. )

kayemme

Could you elaborate on this? I love eggs, and I eat a lot of them. Why is it better to pay more for eggs and eat fewer of them? Is it better for me? The chickens? The environment? And if more expensive eggs are better for all of the above, why shouldn't I eat as many as I do of the "bad" eggs?

Well, there are a number of reasons, but I'll try to list them all:

1) Corporate egg farms are raising sick hens. The corporate farm is all about the dollar, and therefore they're not exporting food, they're exporting "product". The hens are typically kept in very poor conditions and become sick or lame (the lameness in itself doesn't hurt the egg, but the fact that the lameness is a byproduct of the sickness is the problem). These chickens are fed the cheapest feed possible.

2) Much of the cheap chicken feed is laden with GMO crops. We don't know exactly how GMOs will react in our bodies, even second-hand (egg), but what we DO KNOW FOR SURE is that many GMO crops are created to withstand heavy applications of herbicides and pesticides, which gets run off into rivers, lakes and other soils. The feed itself will likely contain these same chemicals which the chickens eat and then we eat.

3) Eggs are a high source of protein and cholesterol, but they're very good for you if they're eaten moderately, maybe a couple times a week? With low-nutrient eggs, you are getting the cholesterol without the nutrient. The yolk of an egg should be almost orange, not yellow.

4) Corporate accountability does not truly exist - they have millions of dollars invested in marketing teams to combat the bad press. I don't even trust the "organic" or "free range" label much myself, though I will choose them if I'm in a pinch. These labels have been bastardized by lobbyists to mean very different things than what they really are. For instance, "free range" can mean anything from a little bit of sunlight to actually free range. Marketers lie.

5) Purchasing eggs from a local, responsible, ethical chicken farm supports a local business whose livelihood actually DEPENDS on the quality of their product / word of mouth. You should be able to drop in on your farmer and keep him honest.

PJilly

Thanks for your input. I buy my eggs from the grocery store, but they come from a farm just miles from our home: http://www.wilcoxfarms.com/consumer/index.html#

So it's commercial, but it's local. Their website sounds (to me) like they're doing things the right way. Do you think I should be skeptical? And, while I do eat a load of eggs, I eat very few yolks. I have one yolk in my scrambled eggs every morning. If I eat more eggs in the day (and I often do), I eat just the whites.

andyxbear

for instance eggs @ $1.76/doz are from corporate farms that don't give a crap about your health. eggs are something you should pay more for and therefore eat less of. but just bcause you pay more for it, doesn't mean your overall budget should go up.

Could you elaborate on this? I love eggs, and I eat a lot of them. Why is it better to pay more for eggs and eat fewer of them? Is it better for me? The chickens? The environment? And if more expensive eggs are better for all of the above, why shouldn't I eat as many as I do of the "bad" eggs?

Yeah, please specify about the eggs. I'm wondering if you're talking about the way they treat & feed the chickens that produce the eggs as in the chickens are unhealthy, then so are the eggs?

Eggs are healthy for you. Not sure why you said we should eat less of them. One large egg has 6 grams of easily digestable protein and all the essential amino acids and are a significant source of a number of vitamins and minerals.

andyxbear

Okay, so I posted my previous reply before yours was. Ignore it. ha

kayemme

Thanks for your input. I buy my eggs from the grocery store, but they come from a farm just miles from our home: http://www.wilcoxfarms.com/consumer/index.html#

So it's commercial, but it's local. Their website sounds (to me) like they're doing things the right way. Do you think I should be skeptical? And, while I do eat a load of eggs, I eat very few yolks. I have one yolk in my scrambled eggs every morning. If I eat more eggs in the day (and I often do), I eat just the whites.

*I* would be skeptical, but if it's very close to your house, why don't you just drop in on the farm? Don't take my word (or anybody's for that matter) about it. If it seems fine to you, then fine. But I wouldn't take the website as proof that it's fine. Its your body, you put what you think you should in it.

Good luck!

kayemme

Okay, so I posted my previous reply before yours was. Ignore it. ha

no problem. the eat less part was regarding the budget. I'm a fan of pay more, eat less to keep in budget.

andyxbear

Okay, so I posted my previous reply before yours was. Ignore it. ha

no problem. the eat less part was regarding the budget. I'm a fan of pay more, eat less to keep in budget.

Okay, so do you think if I paid a little more for the eggs I buy, they'd be a little better nutritional wise? There are no local farms where I live, so I can't really go to one and buy them.

kayemme

Okay, so do you think if I paid a little more for the eggs I buy, they'd be a little better nutritional wise? There are no local farms where I live, so I can't really go to one and buy them

my advice is to always buy the best that you can with what you have available. just don't trust the label immediately. question all your food because you put it into your body. it's a very intimate act, and should be treated with respect. you know?

kayemme

go to http://www.localharvest.org

for new orleans, go here: http://www.localharvest.org/search.jsp?lat=29.932682&lon=-90.0732&scale=10&ty=-1

OlenaS

Thank you for this link, I checked out other links on the website as well, added to my favorites, loads of good info.

kayemme

Okay, so do you think if I paid a little more for the eggs I buy, they'd be a little better nutritional wise? There are no local farms where I live, so I can't really go to one and buy them.

and remember, it's not just about "paying more" it just means that buy the best you can. it happens to usually be "paying more" but if it's a matter of going to the grocery store, don't opt for $7/doz eggs just because they are $7. take the whole transaction into account. if you do this to one staple item at a time, before you know it, your pantry and fridge will be filled with really healthy, nutritious and ethically-raised food.

kayemme

Thank you for this link, I checked out other links on the website as well, added to my favorites, loads of good info.

you're welcome! this is a topic i am especially passionate about, so readers beware!

andyxbear

go to http://www.localharvest.org

for new orleans, go here: http://www.localharvest.org/search.jsp?lat=29.932682&lon=-90.0732&scale=10&ty=-1

Ah, thanks!

kiffypooh

Thanks for posting the article. Money is getting tighter and tighter every day and I really don't want to end up eating tons of pasta, potatoes and the other things we use to when we were broke. It's such a hard balance.