Healthy foods are expensive
Often people talk about how eating healthy food is expensive, buying fresh vegetables is out of their budget, vegetables don’t taste good.
There are ways to make fresh vegetables and healthy foods affordable and start incorporating them into your diet.
- One of the easiest ways is to eat seasonal- fruits and vegetables in season tend to be more affordable
- Make home made meals is less expensive then eating out. You can control what goes into your food like amount of salt.
- Look for better prices, different stores have different pricing for the same food.
- Vegetables and fruits can be frozen to help stop them from spoiling. Buying frozen fruits and vegetables is less expensive than fresh.
- Buy from local farms
- You can also consider growing your own greens.
Healthy foods
Protein: increases your short-term calorie burn, it decreases your hunger and makes you feel full. You want to eat lean protein like fish, chicken or Turkey. You want to cut down on red meat. You can also get protein from vegetables which can help cut down on animal protein. Beans and lentils are a good source of protein.
Fat: not all fat is bad, we need good fats or essential fatty acids to make hormones. We also need fat to absorb some essential vitamins like A, D, E, and K. Healthy fats should be consumed in small amounts and can be found in avocados, nuts and olive oil or vegetable oil. Unsaturated is “better” because can raise good cholesterol and are found in olive oil, nuts and avocados. Saturated fat is in between but can be bad in large amounts. This can be found in butter, bacon, cream, cheese and red meat. Trans Fat is the bad fat and should be avoided. Just remember that fats are dense in calories.
Carbohydrates: when it comes to carbs think green foods for the win and a base amount of brown foods. Green foods are non-starchy vegetables and brown food is whole grain foods. You can also think of yellow foods like fruits, they are little more calorie dense.
Now that you been reading about color foods what are they:
Green food: they are the least calorie dense and have a lot of nutrients. These should be most of your diet. These are vegetables like spinach, broccoli, cucumbers, kale, collard greens, egg whites, tofu, tuna in water and dairy alternatives.
Brown foods: These are less dense in calories, provide a lot of energy but in large amounts can be store by the body as fat. These are whole grain foods like brown rice, oat meal, whole grain pasta, whole grain bread and whole grain tortillas.
Yellow Foods: Have more calories than green foods and less nutrients and servings should be less than green foods. These are legumes, fruits, low fat dairy and lean meats like fish or chicken. Some yellow foods are avocado, whole egg boiled, scrambled or poached. Some plant-based protein like tempeh, seitan, whole grains like quinoa and starchy vegetables like peas, beans, chickpeas, lentils, edamame,
Red Foods: More calorie dense foods, the least amount of healthy nutrients and contain a lot of cholesterol. These are red meat, sugary desserts and candy. Red foods also include good fats like oils like olive oil or nuts but is more because they should be consumed in small amounts. Also seeds, whole dairy foods like whole milk and whole cheese, butter, nut or seed butte, tahini, and peanut. Red foods are not bad but amounts should be limited and if weight loss is desire all red foods should be limited.
