The idea is to use your money to buy the normal food that isn't diet or processed. Food can be processed and not diet so the idea is to get away from both. Oh and, BTW, food can be Organic and processed as well. Diet food examples are easy because they're clearly marked as "sugar free", "fat free", "Diet", "Lean", "Light or Lite", "Low Calorie", etc. You get the drift.
Everyday processed foods are harder to identify. Label reading can come in handy in this case, but if you don't have time to label read, here are some things to try and avoid:
1) Soda- I know everyone loves their sodas. Diet or not, these things are a bad choice. On the diet side, they contain artificial sweeteners (Splenda, Sucrolose, Aspartame, Nutri-sweet). These things can actually MAKE YOU CRAVE SUGAR! On the not diet side they contain High Fructose Corn Syrup. Both contain artificial color, flavor, etc. Cheap or not, my advise is to take them off your list. Replace with Water, Tea, or Whole Milk. I mix up lemonade to keep in my fridge. While it does have lemon juice and sugar in it, it has less sugar. My husband only has a glass in his lunch and one glass with dinner. We don't drink a lot of it. I don't drink it very much at all. By taking these out of your grocery budget you save that money. Chaching! Hey! Use the savings to invest in a food item of better quality!
2) Speaking of milk, the powers that be are finally realizing that full fat dairy is actually better for you than the low fat /non fat dairy; even when it comes to losing weight. SHOCK! So you can switch from the low fat/ non fat versions of dairy to full fat dairy without a difference in expense at all. In fact, if the calories in whole milk make you nervous, mix your whole milk half and half with water. It's 75 calories per cup to skim milks 90. The fat is cut in half as well, and you get a milk texture and taste similar to 2%. You get 2 gallons for the price of one! Plus you increase your water intake. It's a win win. I do this in baking as well. "Cheeses" that I don't buy anymore are: american cheese, Velveeta (or generic equal), anything made low fat or fat free, and Processed American Cheese Food. What I do buy are the full fat versions of Cheddar, Mozzarella, Monterrey Jack, Pepper jack, etc; hard cheeses. Soft cheeses I buy are 4% milk fat cottage cheese, and cream cheese. I JUST EAT LESS. In addition, eating less makes it go further and saves money!
*** BTW, don't worry about buying organic milk. All organic milk in the store is "Ultra Pasteurized" which means it's heated so high there pretty much isn't any nutritional value left. Might as well save some cash and just buy the store brand whole milk.
3) PLEASE NO MORE HYDROGENATED ANYTHING- I saw a commercial the other day for a brand of margarine. The whole commercial was touting the fact that it is now made with sunflower oil. Like that is all healthy. Sunflower oil is not solid. This was. In order to get the sunflower oil to this state is had to be.......Hydrogenated. Which turned a not so bad oil into a very bad oil. I use Butter, Extra Virgin Olive Oil, Coconut oil (some). If you opt to no longer fry foods, and you use sparingly like we do, the additional expense for using these items is very minimal. So no more fried foods means you can afford a better quality of fat to cook with. Again EAT LESS
4) Frozen Dinners/Meals- I don't care if they have "Healthy" or "Lean" in the title, Frozen dinners are highly processed; especially the chicken tenders, kids meals, etc. They have a lot of filler, hydrogenated fats, sodium. A better alternative is to cook a meal (one pot is my choice)but make it for two meals. Serve half and freeze the other half for later. This time of year it's easy to do that with soups, chili, and stews. Hey there goes the need for canned soup as well! I've even made a big pot of spaghetti and frozen half. I do buy whole wheat pasta. I haven't figured out how to make it yet. (smile).
5) Label reading- It's sad to say, but this is the best way to make sure what you're eating and giving your family is the best. When I read a label, I'm looking for the fewest ingredients possible. I realize some things are going to have more ingredients, but I need to be able to pronounce them and know what they are. If I'm buying sour cream, the ingredient label needs to say, "sour cream". Peanut butter needs to say "peanuts and salt". "Artificial", "Hydrogenated", "High Fructose", any Artificial sweetener, etc, and it goes back on the shelf. Soy is out too. If you can't pronounce the ingredients, or don't know what they are; move on. It's funny, but once I began to read labels, I began to take things out of our grocery budget. Boxed cereal is replaced by my homemade granola. Store bought chocolate syrup has been replaced with my homemade equivalent. The same can be said for all breads, sausage, pancake syrup, biscuits, pancake mix, season salt, taco seasoning, and ranch dressing/dip. I used to love powdered coffee creamer. It's out. I've replaced it with whole milk, and really prefer that. I even have a recipe for flavored coffee creamer, but in all honesty I either leave it with milk and sugar or maybe add a teaspoon of chocolate syrup or pumpkin pie spice.
6) Lunch Meats are highly processed and preserved with nitrates (a carcinogen). To get the nitrate free meats is pricey. Save your dollars and your health. Buy a turkey breast, a whole chicken, a roast. Cook them and save the meat for lunches and meals. Use what you want and freeze the rest. Much cheaper per pound, and much better for you.
"But I can't make all those things!". Never fear! I am including recipes on my page. Look to the right top of my page and you'll see the recipes. You can choose from everything from main dishes to desserts. Click on those and you'll see what I've added so far. I will continue to add til I get them all in. If you don't understand any of my instructions, just let me know. I'll be more than happy to help.
You may not be willing or able to make all of these changes at once. Pick one. Just one, and stick to it. Get that one down and try another one.
I strongly believe the vast majority of chronic and terminal, in some cases, illness can be linked to what we eat and how active we are. If you're the parents of small children, now would be the time to start so your children can grow up healthier. Sad to say, this generation coming up, which includes my two grandsons, is the first generation to have a life expectancy less than their parents. Don't wait to make changes. Start where you are. Don't worry about past mistakes. The body is a fabulous thing, and, treated right, can do wonders.
On an entirely practical level, making these changes will actually save you money! Promise!
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