With the
rising cost of groceries and the rise in food related health issues (obesity, diabetes,
cardiovascular disease, etc.) it is definitely time to rein it in and eat a healthier
and much more nutritious diet. The best
way to save money on your grocery bill and to improve your health and nutrition
is to purchase only REAL food. Nothing
that is premade, pre-prepared, overly processed or ultra processed which culls
out the majority of the grocery store, but don’t despair. There is still plenty of good stuff to be
had.
Whole
ingredients lead to better eating. When
you are no longer purchasing the garbage foods, which ironically don’t have
much in the way of quality or nutrition, you will be amazed at what you can
actually afford. Meat, vegetables,
fruit, dairy, eggs, nuts, whole grains, legumes, healthy fats like butter,
olive oil, coconut oil and olive oil.
Your food will taste better and you will feel better too and in the
process you will save a lot more money.
Good food
fills us up, gives us sustained energy and keeps us full while ultra processed
foods are high in sugar, unhealthy fats and ingredients that don’t appear in
nature. They do not keep us full or satiated
for long so we always feel hungry. We
want more and that leads to overeating and consuming too much stuff that our
bodies were never designed to eat in the first place. By ingesting too many carbohydrates plus chemicals,
preservatives, additives, dyes and other unnatural ingredients we send our
bodies into a tailspin. Eventually we
get sick.
For the price of a bag of potato chips you can buy a lot of potatoes. For the price of a bottle of juice you can buy a lot of fruit. For the price of a premade entrée you can buy a lot of meat. For the price of a couple cans of chili you can make an entire crockpot full of delicious nutritious homemade chili. For the price of a twelve pack of soda you can buy two gallons of whole milk. Good food costs less money! It really does.
Replace
a bag of Cheetos with a block of cheese.
A couple slices of real cheese are far more sustaining than chips. Replace fruit snacks with fruit – grapes,
apples, bananas, plums, etc. You won’t
find the first ingredient in any piece of fruit listed as High Fructose Corn
Syrup. Replace expensive cracker snacks
and Lunchables with peanut butter and jelly on whole wheat bread cut into
fourths. Make your own lunchmeat with slice
pan grilled chicken breast, slice ham or canned tuna. You’ll get far more bang for your buck with
less sodium and nitrates. The possibilities
for healthy food exchanges are endless.
Need your
own copy of the REAL Food Pantry List? Is it time for you to revamp your pantry and
your shopping habits? How about what you’ve
been cooking lately? Could that use an
overhaul too? Stay tuned as more about
that will be coming up very soon!
