Posted on 07/05/2007 6:00:55 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
For students living on ramen noodles or people in low-wage, time-consuming jobs, folks who are down on their luck or living on fixed incomes, healthy eating may seem too expensive.
Nutritionists say, however, that's a false perception. Healthy eating, in fact, is cheaper. The cost of expensive eating often isn't the food, it's the bells and whistles of trendy packaging.
"You pay for convenience," says Amy Moore, a dietitian at St. Louis University. "What it takes is planning and sometimes a little investment."
That means eating more fresh food from low-cost stores and farmers markets, watching store sales and using store coupons. The nutrition gurus, from the United States Department of Agriculture to the American Dietetic Association, say healthy diets should be built around vegetables, grains and fruits, not meat and prepared foods — the biggest expense on grocery bills.
Rep. Jo Ann Emerson, R-Cape Girardeau, lived on $3 a day (to prove a point about food stamps) for a week and ended up eating mostly salads and lentil soup. She repeated that planning was the key.
"I learned how to shop. It gives you great insight on what it is to live on a fixed budget for your food," she said. "Most people who get food stamps are working poor."
She spent 2 1/2 hours planning and shopping at one store for the food for a week, which included reading grocery store ads for bargains.
"As one who doesn't eat a lot of carbs, I found it difficult to live on $3 a day," she said. "You can buy fresh fruits and vegetables, but you have to know how to cook."
PUBLIC ASSISTANCE
Dorian Jones, dietitian and counselor for People's Health Centers, says low-income families must learn to use money wisely.
(Excerpt) Read more at stltoday.com ...
An expression heard from farmers in northern Vermont to describe drought conditions: “It’s drier than a popcorn fart around here.” what that has to do with the subject of this thread is.....nothing.
Especially since most wheat is heavily refined into starchy white flour, you have a good point.
I like rice, some veggies and perhaps just a little bit of soy sauce on top and it's a delicious dish.
Minus the lentils and split peas — I can’t stand either — your bean soup sounds strangely like mine :)
[Poor folks have poor ways...]
I am not trying to denigrate anyone who is poor, but truthfully many of them are the ones eating fast food all the time and end up overweight. It’s strange.
I have no doubt that goes on all over the USA!
Unless the popcorn's buttered with that cheap movie theater goo....then you gots yourself a whole 'nother ballgame.
Along this line, I run Free Republic's most exclusive, tight-knit ping list = "Flatulence Ping". Er, um...if you share such fascination, just FReepmail me.
Cool. My daughter loves bananas.
The first week after school got out one of my daughter’s friends spent most days here. Those girls ate me out of house and home when it came to veggies. There is always junk food in my house, and especially when I know there will be other kids around.
In two days those 2 girls went through over 2 pounds of carrots and 2 bunches of celery. Of course they also did serious damage to the ranch and blue cheese dressing bottles :)
Thanks for the ping, HG :)
I am well versed in the cooking cheap and healthy chore from hell.
Here is a link someone posted here, and I have reposted at least once before. Great site for good tips and recipes:
http://www.hillbillyhousewife.com
Maybe tonight I will make her version of chocolate shakes :)
“I love a breakfast that includes eggs, a veggie like a few stalks of asparagus and fried RED tomatoes.”
Of course fried RED tomatoes are food - Good food! And asparagus too. You also mentioned beet greens - asparagus and red beets are at the top of the healthy list, and the green from the beet is also very good.
Organic is better, of course, for the beef. Or naturally raised, free range. Same for poultry.
And what you say about chewing the food - right on! Saliva has digestive enzymes, and we miss out when we do not chew our food. Lots of digestion problems and IBS type diseases result from not chewing, and from fast foods.
Rice noodles
Rice
Cheap & filling. Half the world lives on them. I eat lots of both because I like them. Being cheap doesn’t hurt, either.
Pasta is cheap and nutritious also.
Anyone ever noticed how poor people aways have cats or dogs and smoke?
Yes, the Asians tended to be slender because of rice as their staple. They come here, become Americanized and gain weight.
Yeah, must be nice to get all those food stamps. We’re probably poorer than they are, but we’re as white as the sheets Byrd wore....
Therefore, we don’t qualify.
I wish Republicans and Blue Dog Democrats would find a way to flag all such foods as not eligible for food stamps; or a way to flag only cheaper basics as eligible for food stamps. In other words, disallow potato chips and frozen fries but allow raw potatoes, disallow bread but allow wheat flour (they can make their own bread, or at least biscuits or pan breads), disallow sodapop but allow raw sugar (I grew up with a lot of Kool-Aid). Allow beans and rice but disallow any meat since foodstamp users always have enough cash for cigarettes and alcohol and they could use some of that for hamburger or tuna.
I grew up as what most would consider “poor.” My parents, however, saw the value of good nutrition. Candy and pop were rare treats. Fruits were the norm, and most every spring (even to this day), we bought seeds and planted a small vegetable garden. Some hard work, yes, but we ate out of that garden in the late summer and it paid off.
Same here. We got one case of pop twice per year -- Christmas and Independence Day. Most of our candy was homemade fudge. We also raised chickens and had an extensive garden. The latter is not an option for apartment renters whose income precludes buying a house with enough yard for a garden.
I’m sorry! Things just don’t seem to be fair anymore since the liberals have taken over. Take care.
Some level of family stabilty coupled with a knowledge re growing your own fruits and vegetables and then actually being taught how to cook change the situation significantly.
Makes the garlic have a wonderful copper-y taste.
Foodstamps should only get them oatmeal, cream of wheat, corn meal, etc. and disallow the expensive boxed cereals. Even bulk puffed rice or corn flakes should be disallowed for foodstamps. Have them eat grits!
Don’t be sorry. Paying with food stamps is embarassing. I’ve done it years ago. Luckily, I found half price meat, day old baked goods, and dented cans. That and coupons made those gubmint bucks go a lot farther :)
I just get irritated when people game the system, but others don’t qualify, because they are honest and play by the rules.
[I just get irritated when people game the system, but others don’t qualify, because they are honest and play by the rules.]
Hard to teach children nowdays, isn’t it. Being honest doesn’t seem to pay off anymore. How sad is that!
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