Cut-Price 'Clean' Eating
"Eating healthy is expensive"
How often is cost used an excuse for not eating a filling, nutritious and varied diet?
To be fair a bag of apples is often more expensive than an on offer pack of Jammie Dodgers - but have you ever tried eating a whole bag of apples in one go?
It's pretty difficult!
But...
I can tell you a whole pack of Jammie Dodgers tends to go a lot quicker!
The problem is, they're more energy dense and less filling - even if they're cheaper.
See the 'healthy food is more expensive' narrative is somewhat a myth - a study by Cambridge University, which found that 'healthy food is 3 times more expensive than junk' measured this by assessing price per 1000 Calories.
This way of measuring food - price per 1000 Calories - is obviously going to show low price, Calorie dense food as being cheap, when compared to low Calorie healthy foods that may be similarly priced or even more expensive.
The one important thing, from a health point of view, is the level of nutrients in these two types of foods.
Foods such as fresh fruit and veg, lean meats, eggs, quinoa, fish contain far more nutrients, which are beneficial for health, than cakes, biscuits, sweets etc.
With that being said, how can your diet be healthy and nutritious but not break the bank balance?
Shop around! A weekly shop at Lidl for the main essentials (shown above) comes in at just over £20 (or the same as a dominos pizza for a frame of reference).
If Lidl isn't your scene, you can put together the essentials of weekly shop and compare the prices across all the major supermarkets (even get it delivered to your door) at Money Supermarket.
What are my essentials here though?
Lean meats - chicken breast and 7% turkey mince
Good sources of fat - cashew nuts, hummus
Carbs - basmati rice, seeded farmhouse loaf and frozen veg
For me, this will give you the main bulk of your nutrition across a week and you don't have to be boring - adding spices and sauces (be careful of sugar content) can make your food flavoursome and exciting.
On top of the food above, all you'd really need to add is some fresh fruit and vegetables, eggs, maybe some high protein greek yogurt, some oats - and this is for less than £30.
Now, if you live in London £30 is about 4 or 5 pints.
So if you give up max 5 pints a week you can 'eat healthy' too!
Which is a pretty good investment into your health and your fitness goals if you ask me.
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