Sunday, September 25, 2011

Getting a balanced diet - Cheap.

This is very difficult to do. Healthy food is expensive, so It can be hard for a hobo to have a balanced diet. My diet consists mainly of pasta and other cheap carbohydrate based food, which is bad. I am at an all time low for cash right now, so I am stuck eating crap. But for those of you with maybe a few more dollars to spare, these tips will help you out.

First off, the food pyramid has changed this past year. Now they use a pie chart type diagram.



As you can see, your diet should consist mainly of fruits, veggies, and grains.

To get a balanced diet you need to incorporate all of the food groups into your daily diet. The best way to do this is to plan your meals out ahead of time.

Grains are the easiest thing to get a hold of. They are very cheap and come in many forms. I have gotten used to ramen noodles lately. Be careful though, some of the cheaper pastas and breads might as well be in the cookies/sweets category.

Fruits n Veggies. These can be very expensive, or cheap depending on where you live. I try to visit a pay by the pound salad bar once or twice week to get my essential vitamins in. If you can avoid the dense toppings like beans and cottage cheese, a pay by the pound salad bar can be a more efficient buy than getting the ingredients separately. Look around the store and compare prices. Where I am, fresh spinach costs around $15 a pound, but the salad bar is only $5 a pound. If you can make a salad out of ingredients that cost less at the salad bar than sold separately, than you are beating the system while nourishing yourself. Another cheap alternative is buying store brand canned veggies. I buy cans of beans for like $0.40.

Protein. Meat is expensive and you really need to cook it. If you can find a way to cook them, I suggest getting your protein from eggs. The yolk is pure;y nutrients, and has enough to jumpstart the life of a chicken in each egg. Other alternatives to getting protein include Deli meat (must be refrigerated) and nut based products. Peanut butter is always a huge hit.

Dairy. Dairy is the hardest to get because it is so hard to keep because it spoils. I have a dairy poor diet right now. Pretty much the only dairy I get is from a little cottage cheese in my salads. You need to get dairy in your diet though. If you have a calcium deficient diet, your body will take it from your bones. This can lead to them becoming brittle and breaking easy, or worse and more complicated health issues. If you can't get your dairy, take a calcium supplement.

Meal of the pros: Peanut butter and banana sandwich with a side of milk. Its very cheap and packed with nutrients. Also, its fucking delicious.

Loser meals: Fast food. In general, it is all crap and unhealthy. You may be attracted to the dollar menu for the cheap tasty calories, but they are empty calories and don't help you at all. Eating shitty food makes you feel like shit. The only fast food that I buy is the occasional sub at Subway, because with the right vegetables it actually has the potential to be healthy. Go get yourself a $5 footlong, or stay away from fast food.

That's all for now. I will likely talk about food and how to obtain it under a strict budget, in a later post when I have more time.

28 comments:

  1. My favorite sandwich is peanut butter, honey and banana. Just nothing like it.

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  2. Alot of things to think about. I've wanted to start eating healthier, i guess this is my chance. Thanks man, usefull post right there.

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  3. i simply make sure that i always "happen" to visit my friends when it's their dinner-time. they can't seem to figure out how to turn me away!
    great profit!

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  4. I need to start eating better...

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  5. Meh. Unhealthy food is more tasty :))

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  6. 4 strips of bacon at the breakfast it´s good dont?

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  7. I really need to follow the food chart, my current diet is basically 5 servings of meat+grains, rest is junk food.

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  8. my diet isn't that bad but I learned some stuff. good post

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  9. My philosophy is eat whatever the fuck you want, but work it out.

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  10. Getting some of those 5 isn't hard, but balancing it into a healthy diet is a big problem. Maybe you could dedicate a post to that?

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  11. and here im taking a lot of what i eat for granted :c, well a freind of mine told me that if i could go into the mexican or latino mini/super markets i would find cheap vegetables compared to the walmart big brand markets..

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  12. Well as an active bodybuilder (even though just a starting one) I have to say, for me this is too much carbohydrates, need more protein, I mean tons more. Generally 50:30:20 (protein:carbohydrates:fats), if you want muscles. Otherwise this chart is good for non-training people.

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  13. Oops, I meant carbohydrates:protein:fats. haha

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  14. good info, i need to start doing some bargain buying!

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  15. A bit motivational, thanks for this. I really need to start eating better...

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  16. Got to praise Jim and Sandie. That is an epic sandwich combination. <3

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  17. Peanut butter and banana sandwich with a side of milk.

    That actually sounds like a really good idea! :D I'm buying some banana's time I'll go shopping.

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  18. Can't believe they changed the chart! But I guess when you think food you think pie and not pyramids lol. But great stuff! I bookmarked this page to come back to it! Thanks for this info!

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  19. Out on the street, sometimes you have no choice what to eat....

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  20. Thanks for the tips

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  21. You can get loads of healthy food at cheap prices in the frozen food section, if you just thaw out each package. Asian tv dinners have more than average the amount of nutrients.

    Then there is the healthy marketed cereals like Quaker and Cheerios. They injects large quantities of nutrition for one single bowl serving.

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  22. Have you ever tried those dried jerky strips meant to be used as dog treats? When you get over the fact that they are dog treats, you realize it's just stiff dried meat.
    These dried meat strips come jam-packed in their packaging, and only cost maybe $10; at least quadruple the value of that moist human-intended jerky.

    They are rather hard though, and take a bit of chewing to soften them up. Still, great quantity.

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