Five of the Healthiest and Most Affordable Foods Available
Processed foods may be convenient, but they will not necessarily save you money—especially not if you count the cost of added healthcare expenses down the road when a poor diet starts catching up with you.
In terms of long-term disease-prevention, cooking from scratch using fresh unprocessed ingredients is perhaps your best guarantee.
Recent research1,2 on healthy eating suggests that home cooking tends to result in reduced calorie consumption. People who ate the most home-cooked meals wound up consuming about 130 fewer calories daily, on average.
The authors also noted that: “If a person—or someone in their household—cooks dinner frequently, regardless of whether or not they are trying to lose weight, diet quality improves.”
Contrary to popular belief, healthy unadulterated foods also do not necessarily have to cost you a lot more than processed fare. There are in fact many examples of exceptionally affordable health foods. Following are five examples that are frequently overlooked.
#1: Homemade Bone Broth
Homemade bone broth is a true staple that can go a long way toward improving your diet and health. It’s excellent for speeding healing and recuperation from illness, and it contains many valuable vitamins, minerals, and other nutrients that support your immune function.
These include calcium, magnesium, phosphorus, silicon, sulfur, trace minerals, and compounds like chondroitin sulphates and glucosamine, which are sold as expensive supplements for arthritis and joint pain.
Making your own bone broth is extremely cost effective, as you can make use of leftover carcass bones that would otherwise be thrown away. And while the thought of making your own broth may seem intimidating at first, it's actually quite easy. For instructions and a sample bone broth recipe, please see this previous article.
#2: Homegrown Vegetables and Sprouts
Growing your own food is a great way to lower your food costs, improve your health, and help build a more sustainable food system. Homegrown vegetables are fresher, taste better, and are oftentimes more nutritious than store-bought food that has traveled thousands of miles—and you certainly cannot beat the price!
Whole, organically grown plants are a rich source of natural medicine. Even our DNA contains much of the same material found in the plant world, which gives new meaning to the idea of healing plants.
Even if you only have access to a patio, you can still grow some of your own veggies using containers. Tomatoes, herbs, cucumbers, lettuce, and peppers are examples of plants that thrive in containers. You can also use hanging baskets to utilize your lateral space.
To learn more, please see my previous article on creating edible gardens in small spaces. I’ve also written about how you can garden during the winter. This clearly requires a bit more dedication and planning, but it can be done if you have the will.
If, for whatever reason, you are unable to garden or prefer not to, then you can still access healthy vegetables grown locally by supporting local farmer's markets.
One of the easiest plants to grow at home, even if you’re new to gardening and have limited space is sprouts. It’s also an excellent choice during winter months, when outdoor gardening is limited or ruled out.
A concentrated source of enzymes, vitamins, minerals, and other phytochemicals, sprouted seeds are a true superfood that many overlook. In fact, the protein, vitamin, and mineral content of many sprouted seeds far surpass that of organic homegrown vegetables!
An added boon is that they grow really quickly. You can have homegrown sprouts ready to harvest in a matter of days, which you can then add to salads, soups, or fresh vegetable juice.
Some of my favorites include watercress, broccoli, and sunflower seeds. Sunflower seeds can provide you with 30 times the nutrient content of organic vegetables, and sprouts in general also contain up to 100 times more enzymes than raw fruits and vegetables. These enzymes are important as they allow your body to absorb and use the nutrients of other foods you eat as well.
Broccoli sprouts, specifically, have been shown to help detoxify a number of environmental pollutants, including carcinogens like benzene and acroleine. They’re also an excellent alternative if you don't like the taste or smell of broccoli, which has well-established anti-cancer properties.
Studies suggest that watercress may have cancer-suppressing activity resembling that of broccoli sprouts, and its overall nutritional profile surpasses most other sprouted seeds, including sunflower seeds.
I started sprouting seeds in Ball jars about 20 years ago. Now I grow them in them in trays using soil instead, as it’s far easier and produces more nutritious and abundant food. For directions, see my previous article, “How to Grow Your Own Food in Small Spaces.”
