If you cannot afford healthy food, what are your best options?

There is no greater gift that you can give yourself and your family than going overboard on groceries!

The simplest life advice I can give is to spend your whole check (if you can budget for it) at a healthy store!

Food is the greatest gift! If you cannot afford healthy food, what are your best options? I like jam on bread and tea.

 

Everyday raw food is generally healthy when bought from reputable shops. Organic is slightly better, but increasing food hygiene and quality regulations is closing the gap.
Another thing that can save money, is rather than deciding on a meal before you shop, looking for the items on promotion. At the end of the year, it will all balance out, while saving up to 40%
At the end of every day, from around 7pm, most supermarkets reduce food on it' sell by date by between 25 and 75%. Safety margins are huge, but raw food should be cooked within 24 hours.

The biggest threat to health is comfort foods, since their sugar levels are mostly high. But the biggest problem is that they are mostly eaten in addition to your normal diet.
Pre prepared and pre cooked foods are generally fairly healthy, but they are a huge waste of money.

Likewise, takeaway food is even more expensive. While they is not generally unhealthy as part of a controlled weekly diet, they are VERY unhealthy if eaten between meals.
Companies selling packages that include fries and fizzy drinks also make the meals unhealthy.

We all love home cooking, so we have a well equipped kitchen including induction hobs, fan ovens and low pressure steamers, along with built in fridges and freezers, all manufactured my Siemens.
Our essential luxury is an automatic Zeolith dishwasher. No one likes washing dishes.
Our non essential luxury is a coffee maker that produces the full range from only beans and fresh milk. Our daughter and her friends drive 12 miles return to save the cost of visiting a coffee house. LOL

 

Great responses! Beans and rice are the cheapest options around. Fresh veggies can be expensive depending upon where you live and the season.

Canning in season fruits and veggies can save lots and provide year round food. Community gardens also provide good fresh food.

Anything processed and packaged is always going to cost more than the produce itself.

Gleaning the leftover produce from a farm after the harvest is a good option if you live in the countryside.

Food banks will often have fresh produce and canned goods available for free if you really need it. But there's always some junk food there.

Staying away from packaged junk food is always wise and healthy.

Cheap and healthy veggies include potatoes, onions, squashes, carrots and other root veggies that last a long time, cabbage too. Pasta is also a good option for a cheap meal.

Baking your own breads and sweets saves big time now with the price of a good loaf more than $6! Sharing food with others also cuts down the cost and food waste.

 

You can get bags of frozen veggies for about $1.40 per pound. Prices may vary from state to state, and certainly store to store. You can get a 5 pound bag of potatoes for about $3. Sweet potatoes, maybe $1 per pound. Rolled oats, about $4, maybe less, for 2 pounds. All of these foods can be cooked quickly and easily in the microwave. With potatoes, you'd probably need to get a microwave potato cooker bag, but those are pretty cheap. Olive oil is expensive, but a nice condiment for veggies.

Rice and beans can be pretty cheap. Beans are both cheaper and better if you by them dry instead of canned, but it takes a while to cook them. You can cook beans relatively quickly if you've got a pressure cooker.

 

In the US and Canada, you can call 211 to ask for sources of free food (they can also help connect you to housing, healthcare, employment and other services). I think you could also search for community pantries online.

 

I've deleted this post because I edited it and added more info before then posting it anew, on page 2.

 

Seeing people purchase canned goods at a dollar store; saying that the food wont go bad.

Dollar stores will stock foods nearing the expiration date.

 

Slim mother, fat daughter

The problem for people on a budget is that high-calorie foods, such as sugar and fat, which should be restricted, are cheap and often on sale, while low-calorie foods, such as vegetables, are very expensive in western countries, but are dirt cheap elsewhere and make up a substantial part of the diet. At the same time, the popular protein sources of meat and fish are very expensive.

But people suffer not only from too much sugar (carbohydrates), fat and salt, but also from too many calories. So the least we can do is learn to estimate and limit the calorie content of our food. Other than that, it's a pretty hopeless uphill battle:

Professor Marion Nestle, Former Professor of Nutrition, Food Studies and Public Health at New York University, says, “I can't think of a single area of food or nutrition policy that isn't subjected to lobbying [by the largest F&B (= Food and Beverage) companies.”

“Let’s start with nutrition. If a patient's diseases are caused by food, what’s causing the food? It’s the food system. What's causing the food system? It's our food policies. What’s causing our food policies? It’s the food industry that’s lobbying Congress.”

And finally, a little food adulteration for those interested in chemistry (“American cheese”), just for fun:

 

We found that out the hard way, when Walmart started opening stores in the UK. Everything looks delicious, until you try to eat it.
When we left the EU and started talks with the US about importing some of your fine steaks, Donald Trump offered us chlorinated chicken. You don't need me to tell you how our food standards authority reacted to chicken soaked in bleach. Donald Duck was one of the kinder names they gave him.

 

You should check the ingredients in these cubes, esp. Knorr.
These are highly processed with preservatives and flavor enhancers.

Why not make your own broth? Veggie and chicken broths both easy to make with discarded scraps. Or you can buy ready made low sodium, even organic broths in cartons. They're not expensive.

 

When we have a roast chicken, the carcase goes straight in the pot for boiling down. Jane cooks a variety of vegetables and puts them in a row of dishes along the center of the table so that we can select what we like. The remains go in the liquidiser. We have all the ingredients for soups and gravies, just some seasoning and sometimes a little flour to thicken.
We also mix them into food for the dog and the cat.
We literally waste nothing. With starvation in other parts of the world, we all see wasting food as a sin, not to mention wasting money.

 

Dollar stores, Pound stores in the UK, solve the date problem by rubbing the date off the can with a brillo pad, or tearing the offending part of the label off.

 

@Toker In the UK, these are the ingredients. Am I missing the existence of a bad additive?

Knorr Stock Gel Pot Vegetable
Concentrated vegetable stock (65%) (water, leek†, carrots† (0.2%), red pepper† (1.7%), CELERIAC†), salt, yeast extract, palm fat, sugar, potassium chloride, gelling agents (xanthan gum, locust bean gum), spices (CELERY seeds, lovage root†, nutmeg, pepper), flavourings, CELERY juice concentrate†, carrot juice concentrate†, leek juice concentrate†, onion juice concentrate†, parsley† (0.1%), caramel syrup, maltodextrin.†From sustainable agriculture


MOD NOTE:

meat crap deleted.

 

Check out Knorr ingredients here:
Knorr, Bouillon, Chicken Flavor - SmartLabel™

That's just one bullion cube...too many artificial ingredients to list, the salt alone should send you fleeing!

 

Yeh 48% seems a lot but it's just 1.1 gram. I don't add salt to my food, when the ingredients already contain it.

 

O

ops; apologies. I hadn't realised it was a Vegetarian forum. Shall I edit my posts to remove the parts that refer to non-vegeterian items?