During difficult economic times, avoid
the pitfalls of replacing healing foods with cheaper and
less nutritious processed and fast foods. If you invest
a little time into planning your meals, and follow some
basic tips, you can maintain a healthy diet on a low
budget. The following SIX TIPS are a guide to eating
well on a low budget.
TIP #1:
Focus your organic
purchases on the most highly sprayed worst offenders.
Organic fruits
and vegetables are no doubt more expensive. In
order of pesticide levels they are:
peaches, apples, sweet bell peppers,
celery, nectarines, strawberries, cherries, pears,
grapes, spinach, lettuce and potatoes. On the other
hand, you may choose to purchase non-organic for those
foods with lower pesticide contents such as avocados,
onions, sweet potatoes, cauliflower and Brussels
sprouts. Keep a list in your wallet.
TIP #2:
Shop at health food stores that offer better prices.
Click
HERE for a detailed list of health food stores in
Toronto including my own personal ratings from least
expensive ($) to most expensive ($$). The differences in
prices can be quite dramatic from store to store. Some
of my personal favorites are Evergreen Natural Foods,
Ambrosia, Qi Naturals, Healthy Planet and Karma Coop.
If you want to find health food stores in your area,
simply go to
www.eatwellguide.org and enter your postal code.
TIP #3:
Buy bulk items.
If you purchase organic beans in bulk, and cook them
yourself, they cost you
less than buying ordinary non-organic canned beans.
This goes for most of the legumes. Did you know you
can cook large amounts of beans and freeze them for 3
months? Buy a variety, cook them all in one day, and
you will have inexpensive organic beans for months. For
recipe ideas click
HERE and scroll down to “beans and legumes”.
TIP #4: Lean towards the less costly
vegetarian proteins instead of animal proteins. In North America the wonderful legume family is
underused. Beans and lentils provide sustenance,
excellent nutrition and great protein for less than half
the cost of their animal protein counterparts such as
meat, poultry and dairy. Take a few months to learn to
cook some legume dishes such as curried lentil soups,
hummus, chili, bean salads and burritos. This will save
you lots of money if you tend to eat meat daily and will
also benefit your health dramatically.
TIP
#5:
Grow your own sprouts.
Growing
sprouts is incredibly easy, requires no soil, very
little maintenance, and you get highly nutrient dense
foods for only pennies. You can sprout just about any
seed. However, I recommend you buy organic spouting
seeds at the health food store. Click
HERE for instructions. Enjoy sprinkling
mustard, broccoli, onion or bean spouts in your salads,
stir fries and the like.
TIP
#6:
Eat out less and cook more.
If you don’t know how to cook take a few classes at
Loblaw’s or watch the cooking network on TV. You only
need to learn one new dish a month and before you know
it you will have a variety of delicious meals you can
prepare. Cook large amounts and freeze to save time.
Don’t be afraid to try inventing things. Trust your
taste buds as they often have a keen sense of what goes
together well. Remember, cooking is creative and very
forgiving.