A Healthy Diet You Can Afford

Mental Health

A Healthy Diet You Can Afford

Does a healthy diet in fact cost more?

Include more healthy and affordable meals

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Introduction

“Eating healthy is too expensive!”

Well, this is not entirely true. Truth be told, some healthy food items are in fact a bit more expensive than others, but this doesn’t mean that a healthy diet should be doomed expensive and unaffordable. So why do healthy foods cost more sometimes? Or let us rephrase that. Why does junk food cost less and how can we afford a healthy diet on a budget?

Does a healthy diet in fact cost more?

It is undeniable that following a healthy and diversified diet is a key player in fighting or preventing a lot of diseases. Unfortunately, one of the main barriers keeping us from doing so is the issue of affordability. Let’s compare two different shopping carts. The first one is packed with fresh fruits and vegetables, lean chicken, nuts and some protein bars for our post workout quick snack. Now let’s put chips, frozen meals, processed meats and some jellybeans as a snack in the second one. Which of these two carts do you think will ring higher once you get to checkout? You guessed it right, it’s the first one!

“Eating healthy is too much for the poor, but less than what most of the world’s people already spend on food”- William Masters.

All around the world, what is mostly cheap to grow and produce are vegetable oils, root vegetables (potatoes) and starchy grains (wheat and subsequently flour). On the other hand, the cost of producing and distributing organic fruits and vegetables, eggs, milk, and dairy products is higher than the ones mentioned earlier. Naturally, your food cart will cost a bit more if it’s mostly filled with healthy products rather than potatoes, pasta or vegetable oils.

This doesn’t mean that eating healthy cannot be achieved at a lower cost. On the contrary! If we take a closer look, we can see that we usually tend to spend a lot more money on “affordable” junk foods and unhealthy products without realizing it most of the times. These food items have little to no nutritional values, are not filling and cause cravings quite frequently.

Imagine having to grab a quick bite on your way back home at the end of the month. The first thing that jumps to your mind is stopping by the nearest fast food chain to grab something to eat. Although you’re trying to stay healthy, you cannot but notice that the burger is cheaper than the salad so you decide to get one of those with a side of fries and a soda, ending up spending almost the same amount you would’ve spent on that salad! We’re not done yet. Being high in simple carbs, the meal you just had will make you feel hungry again in no time and even make you crave more sugar. While walking into your kitchen, you stumble upon the jellybeans we grabbed in the second food cart earlier and decide to take it as a snack, which is also not filling and will make you eat more and eventually spend more on your food throughout the day.

At the end of the day, if we do a quick math, wouldn’t it have been cheaper to actually get that salad, feel full for a longer time, have more control over our cravings and cut down on some expenses?

Tips to afford a healthy diet

A more affordable trip to the supermarket

Plan your meals ahead to know exactly what to buy instead of randomly selecting items. This way, you can set a budget for your weekly meals in advance.
Never shop on an empty stomach. Fun fact, have you ever noticed how you tend to buy more food, especially unhealthy ones, when you’re doing your grocery shopping on an empty stomach. All you can think of is the next meal you’re going to have and you start craving a lot of things, ending up buying a bunch of stuff you don’t even need!
Instead of buying snacks that will make you more hungry like chips and candies, grab healthier and affordable alternatives. Eating a full bag of chips while watching a football game is easy, but what about eating the whole bag of apples or nuts in one sitting. Sounds almost impossible right? The bag of chips is definitely cheaper than apples or nuts, but truth is, you’ll quickly run out of chips before the game has even started. Buying the nuts however will provide you with a quick healthy snack for over a week, eventually saving you the money you would be spending restocking your chips drawer!
Try to buy from local brands or farmers markets since they tend to have cheaper items.
You don’t have to buy expensive products that are labeled as “healthy”. If you’re not lactose intolerant, go for the old school regular milk instead of spending more on almond or soy milks.
Be smart in your food choices and choose healthy and affordable products. For example, instead of buying a large expensive tuna, go for smaller types of fish that have almost the same nutritional values at a lower price. Meatless protein alternatives (beans, chickpeas, peas, lentils, etc…) can also be a great option to provide you with enough proteins when chicken or meat get too expensive.

Cut down on food waste

Don’t buy a lot of foods that tend to go bad quickly. For example, don’t buy a dozen of eggs or a whole block of cheese at once if you know that you’ll be the only one eating from them. Instead, buy exactly the amount you’ll be needing over a couple of days to make sure nothing will perish and go down the bin.
Buy and freeze! If you find that some seasonal products are available at lower prices than usual, it wouldn’t hurt to buy more of these products and simply freeze them. This way, you’ll have access to these products in your own freezer over a long period of time and for a very good deal!
If possible, do not throw away your leftovers. One of the biggest money drains when it comes to food waste are leftovers. Make sure to slide what’s left of the thanksgiving sides in the freezer and you have yourself a meal whenever you’re tight on time. Oh and we cannot forget the 2 days old piece of bread that’s always laying around in our kitchen. Instead of throwing that away, cut it up into cubes and turn it into delicious croutons by simply seasoning it with some olive oil and spices and baking it.
Do not buy new products if you already have some left at home. Instead, use the money to buy foods that you actually need instead of adding to the collection sitting in the fridge waiting to go bad.

Include more healthy and affordable meals

If we think about it, meal prepping can save us a lot of time and money. By cooking a homemade healthy meal during your spare time, you’d be cutting off on fast foods, including more nutrients into your food and you’ll be cutting down on expenses by not having to worry about the next day’s lunch because it’ll be waiting for you in the fridge. That being said, here are some healthy and affordable recipes that will help you save some money and can be frozen too:

Homemade chicken tenders

Instead of buying the ready to go bag that can only make 2-3 servings, invest your money by buying fresh chicken and turning it into tenders that will make a bigger serving and can last in your freezer for months.

Get your skinless and boneless chicken breasts and cut them into stripes. Season the chicken with some salt, black pepper, garlic powder and paprika.
Prepare the coating layers. First, the flour mixture. Dip each stripe into some flour to make sure the tenders turn out super crispy. Second, crack and beat an egg with a splash of water and some salt. Then, dip the strips in the egg mixture. Finally, prepare the outer crust. Mix some plain corn flakes (unsweetened) with some oats and add salt, garlic powder, dried coriander and paprika. Oh, and remember the leftover bread we talked about earlier? You can grind it and throw it into the crust too! Dip the chicken strips into the crust mix and put in the freezer.
Whenever you’re craving chicken tenders, you can simply preheat your oven at 200oC and throw some of the frozen ones you got on a lined baking sheet and bake for 35 mins or until golden brown.

Baked falafel balls

Falafel is known as the food of the poor in middle-east since it’s made of very few and very affordable ingredients. Falafel has also caught a lot of attention worldwide mainly because it’s easy to prepare, delicious and packed with proteins and nutrients.

Start by soaking 1 cup of dried chickpeas in some water for at least 4 hours or preferably overnight.
Once the chickpeas have softened, throw it into a blender with one small chopped onion, 3-4 garlic cloves, ½ cup of chopped fresh parsley and fresh cilantro each, some salt, black pepper and cumin. Mince everything together until the mixture comes together. You can add 1 Tbsp olive oil if you feel that the mixture is too dry.
Shape into balls and place in the freezer. Whenever you want a quick meal, put some falafel balls in a preheated oven (200oC) and bake for 25-30 mins.
You can either make the traditional falafel sandwich with the tahini sauce or you can add it as a source of protein on top of a salad and make yourself a delicious and filling falafel salad.

Banana bread

Instead of throwing away the ripe bananas that have been sitting in your fruit basket, why not make a delicious banana bread with a healthy twist. Spoiler alert! Instead of using butter which can be a bit expensive, we’re going to add moisture to the cake using plain yogurt. Do not worry at all, this a fool proof technique that will guarantee you a super moist healthy cake without anyone knowing that yogurt is the star player in the recipe.

Start by mashing 3-4 ripe bananas. Then add 3 eggs, 1 tsp of vanilla and ¾ cup brown sugar. Whisk everything together before adding 1 cup plain yogurt and ¼ cup vegetable oil. P.S: The eggs should be at room temperature and do not use olive oil in this recipe.
Add 2 ½ cups of flour, 2 tsps baking powder and ¼ tsp cinnamon. Combine the dry ingredients with the wet ones and place in a greased cake pan.
Add some sliced bananas on top and bake in a preheated oven at 180oC for 45 mins.

Bottom line

We cannot deny that most of junk foods are easier on the pocket than a lot of healthy alternatives. This doesn’t mean that a healthy diet does in fact cost more. We tend to spend more money on junk foods thinking that we are saving money by buying the cheaper options on the menu instead of the salad or grilled chicken. In fact, we are unconsciously making the wrong decisions based on some quick mind calculations. Surprisingly, the burger might definitely seem cheaper than the salad at the moment but will definitely cost us more later on. By shopping in a smart way at the supermarket, cutting down on our food wastes and meal prepping, we can easily afford a healthy diet without any extra financial burden.