Is there a food that is cheap, delicious and healthy at the same time?

nijntjefan@lemmy.world to No Stupid Questions@lemmy.world – 93 points –

I have a theory that there is a impossible trinity (like in economics), where a food cannot be delicious, cheap and healthy at the same time. At maximum 2 of the 3 can be achieved.

Is there any food that breaks this theory?

Edit: I was thinking more about dishes (or something you put in your mouth) than the raw substances

Some popular suggestions include

  • fruits (in season)
  • lentils
295

Onion. It's cheap, nutritious, acts as a low-key anti bacterial solution, can be served in a multitude of ways, or eaten raw.

Subscribe for more onion facts. 🧅

Subscribe for more onion facts. 🧅

Be careful what you offer, 'cause that's actually a thing on ActivityPub (nothing's stopping anyone from following you as a user, Mastodon-style).

I thought your facts would lean more towards the lemon lifestyle.

You already mentioned them, but I'm a huge fan of lentils. They go with so much stuff and you can combine them with a variety of spices. Give me any leftover ingredients and some lentils, and I'll cook up something delicious. I can and will eat lentil soup for days.

They are also a pretty solid crop, they can grow in a variety of climates, require little water and are good for the soil.

Well, something being delicious is subjective, but if we assume a "general acceptance" of most delicious foods, potatoes could fit easily. They can be cooked in all kinds of ways, are very nutritious and, again, pretty much everyone says they're delicious.

That's a good point, but even within potatoes there is perhaps still a trade-off between "delicious" and "healthy". As in steamed potatoes without sauces or stuff is kind of meh, while french fries are not that healthy.

I have a feeling that the answer to this might be anything that you can grow from seeds. So, fresh fruits, vegetables, beans, grains, etc. then, like tomatoes or snow peas or apples or wheatberries. The thing is that these all take time to transform from seed to fruit, so if you include time in your constraint space these don't work. But you didn't so here you go :D

Mmmm... Fresh Snow Peas. I used to grow them in the winter here in North Florida and my son (who was like 4-5 at the time) would sneak into my garden and eat them all. He would refuse to eat his vegetables at dinner then "go play outside" thinking he was getting away with murder 😁

To be fair, they were fucking delicious. Far more sweet than store-bought or even fresh from a local farmers market. I have no idea why 🤷

I should really start growing food again. I stopped like a decade ago when I lost the great stink bug war ☹️

I live in a new house now with a much larger bird, snake, lizard, and frog army to defend the crops. I even have snail-eating-snail shock troops to deploy on a moments notice if need be. It might be time to lay out some war plans...

As someone attempting to grow from seed here in Central Texas:

It would be SO MUCH cheaper for me to buy store bought.

You have to factor in a watering costs, soil quality, fertilizer costs, and time commitment. Oh and potentially overhauling large swaths of your yard to grow crops and flowers to encourage enough pollinators to show up.

I spent probably over $1,500 this year getting my yard in suitable enough shape to grow, after a complete bust on any kind of yield last year. I also grow herbs indoors, and yes that can be more cost effective. That isn't to say it's not worth it, I'm about to have an insane yield of tomatoes that I won't know what to do with. I currently get to make my own fresh bruschetta every week with home grown basil and tomatoes. I get fresh strawberries off the vine every day, though the bushels aren't very large. If all goes according to plan, I'll also have some bell peppers and okra later in the season. All grown from seed. I have morning glory and passion flower vines that have volunteered all over parts of the yard, the latter being a critical food source for butterflies, so I now have a few dozen butterflies flapping around on a given day. I also have a ton of volunteer sunflowers after setting up bird feeders with black oil sunflower seeds as feed.

It's wonderful, my yard is slowly rewilding and I love being able to grow a little food. It'll get cheaper over the next few years to maintain. But it certainly was not cheap to get here! Container gardening is cheaper, but you still have to have the right light sources and watering schedule. If you live somewhere naturally rainy and sunny in equal measure, and the climate isn't trying to kill you, then it might be cost effective. It was at one point in time. But it isn't here, now. Still worth it for me though.

Yeah only cheap if you don't include your time. And the cost of land. But as a Florida food gardener - OKRA is like nothing else. It grows even in the summer here, is beautiful, the flowers are lovely and my whole family loves it. If you grow it, you can pick them when younger, and the few you inevitably miss, save for seeds. Nutritious and delicious, and in hot climates, cheap.

Beans are the obvious answer to the OP's puzzle though. Beans and rice, build up your spice cabinet, endless variety and so delicious, cheap, and healthy.

I tell ya, I tried okra last year and it was a total bust. Had enough seeds to try again this year, started them indoors. Of the 10 seedlings I sprouted, six made it into the ground in March, and only two are still growing. They're by far my slowest growers, but the good news is they look like they're finally picking up speed and are looking strong. They're about 18"-2' tall now. I hope they survive the next 3 months set to have more 100*+ days than not.

Our summer has 95-99F but rain everyday, the okra absolutely thrives in the heat, the hotter the better as far as I could tell. The flowers really are beautiful too. I didn't do it this year (rotating to avoid nematodes that love okra as much as we do), peppers are doing ok and tomatoes, basil, watermelon. Eggplant. Still waiting for the rain this year though.

My winter garden was unfortunately destroyed when we had a very unusual freeze.

I stick to native heirlooms and sturdy heat tolerant hybrids and managed broccoli this spring, was absolutely stunned that it worked. Never imagined it could grow here.

That's awesome!! Natives are where it's at. I got a bunch of drought tolerant natives for the side and front yard, where I don't have an automatic drip hose set up, and they're all thriving just fine.

I'm not sure what to rotate in for the fall garden. Or next year's, for that matter. I've learned so much and in so many ways I still feel like a complete novice! How do you go about planning your gardens?

Honestly I browse Johnny's seeds with a filter on for "heat tolerant", and thanks to my ex (who was a raving violent lunatic in his midlife but did have a wide knowledge of plants and creatures) I do know what grows here. Winter is always greens, and cilantro likes our winter so cilantro/coriander always. Plus a couple of reach things, experimental.

I tried to do beans in fall/winter because they are a staple and good for the dirt but the once in 15 years freeze killed them. But had successful collard greens, broccoli (Green Magic, cannot say enough good things about it, it survived both the freeze and the heat, the dry and the rain), fennel did shockingly well, romaine and arugula.

Summer this time is basil, watermelon, tomatoes, eggplant in the shade of the tomatoes, jalapenos and habaneros and purple sweet sweet potato - the watermelon and sweet potato are the experimental ones, not sure they will work. Started the sweet potato from a Stokes Purple from whole foods.

Oh and mint all the time in one of the planters, the one with tomatoes and eggplant now. I cut it back brutally once in awhile but it just lives there.

I mostly just try to rotate so nothing is in the same place twice in a row. Except the mint. It's tough as nails and nothing here really attacks it.

If I was in Texas I think it would be beans and peppers all the time! I eat so much of them and beans can take the heat but don't like our rain, peppers too taste so good when grown in dry climate.

Woah that was long. But a mix of heat tolerant hybrids from Johnny's seeds & plants from a local grower. I get dirt from same local guy, it's amazing and our soil in this yard is unusual for Tampa already, not so sandy.

I love all of this, thank you so much for going into such detail! I've seen Johnny's seeds online, and was curious to order from them, but I didn't know how reliable they were. I'll go take a look at their stuff.

I've been getting soil, mulch and compost from a wholesale landscape supply place. Unfortunately I didn't haul off my sandy turf mix entirely, so now the grass has grown over and there's a lil hill on the side of my front lawn, oops. Way too hot to do jack squat about it right now, though!!

Ah yes, a food that you can eat for three days without pooping while you stay in a tent?

I make a curry of: tofu, green lentils, pearl barley, pearl cous cous, pumpkin, potato, onions, and whatever else is in the vege drawer of the fridge. Then I cook it in a laksa paste with coconut milk. it's delicious and keeps in the fridge for at least a week with no meat.

When I was in college, I had the rule of not buying anything that is >$1.50 per pound. This is what I was reduced to (prices may be different now due to inflation and geo area):

  1. Apples, oranges, grapes, strawberries when they are on sale
  2. Milk, yogurt
  3. Pork shoulder, chicken quarters, thighs, drumsticks
  4. ground pork, ground beef
  5. Carrots, broccoli, potatoes, cabbage (you'll be surprised at how good thinly sliced cabbages taste in a sandwich)

Cabbage sandwich? Is there some special prep to it? Seems like it would be super bland

Spice it up with sriracha mayo on toasted bread. salt, pepper and a sprinkle of msg on tomato slices and add simple pickled pink onions. Slice the cabbage into very thin strips and assemble. It's my favourite sandwich.

Pickled onions: Red onions, sliced thinly, Boil 50/50 water and vinegar, add salt to the solution and optionally a bay leaf or other aromatics to create the brine. Put sliced onions in a jar and fill the jar with the brine, put it in the fridge after cooling down and wait a night for the sharp oniony taste to disappear.

Chana masala is pretty delicious and I'm pretty sure it's healthy. I think it's mostly chickpeas and vegetables which are both pretty good for you.

I had never heard of Chana masala. Thanks! I am excited to try it out!

Scrambed eggs.

Done right and yeah you can't be scrambled eggs. Throw in some bacon, sausage, or other breakfast meet nd you got a good large breakfast that's pretty healthy.

Another one is curry, which is actually real easy to make. I bought a bag of curry powder for a few bucks years ago and it's still just fine. You can get cans of paste too but honestly I can go either way, both are great, and I love that the curry powder is so absurdly cheap per serving.

I just julienne an onion and red pepper, saute for a bit, add a few teaspoons of curry powder, throw in some garlic and ginger, then add a can of chicken broth, and a few drops of fish sauce. I simmer for a while to let it reduce, then add a can of sweetened coconut milk at the end. Also at the end I add a ton of basil. Maybe some other stuff in there too that I'm forgetting, you really can't go wrong with this either.

For protein you can obviously do chicken or something, but if you want to go ultra cheap and healthy, just throw in a cup of lentils to that curry you got going. Give it 20 minute or so and you're in flavor city. I'm always blown away at how insanely tasty it is, like it's just impossibly good. You can add literally whatever spices and flavorings you want and it just gets better.

There's an asian grocery store near me with all these ingredients for super cheap so I can make that curry sauce for literally like $5-10. It's delicious, cheap, super easy, and healthy, if not a bit calorie dense from the coconut milk.

So… Are you just unaware of fruits, vegetables, and legumes, haha? In my opinion there’s a huge amount of food that fits all three categories. One of the best example of cheap, delicious, healthy, and easy is beans and rice, spiced up however you like.

Yup. Mexican, Indian, a lot of cuisine from poorer countries figured this out long ago. Beans or lentils over rice with the right spices, incredible. The restaurant version will add a lot of fat and heavy cream but if you make it yourself you can adjust that so it's not unhealthy.

Yeah! Exactly! A huge amount of the best food (imo) comes from these cultures. Plus many of these dishes are also really easy to make in bulk, which is a big win too.

the three sisters are very nutritious. corn, beans, squash. add any spices you like, and a good oil (my faves are la tourangelle olive oil and their toasted seasame oil, sold on amazon and not expensive). salt and spices make all the difference.

IMHO, steamed vegetables are right in the middle of the triangle. I've bought a steam cooker and it's a game changer compared to boiling. It's healthier since less nutrients are lost, preserves so much more taste and texture, there's a timer so you can start the steamer and go do something else. Also makes you use less water. I've still got to try steamed fish but I expect it'll taste great.

on a perhaps relevant note air-fried stuff may also fit the category. like air fried sweet potato chips, delicious even without seasonings!

humus

Only truly cheap if you make it yourself. That's why I commented below on the missing item of "effort".

Sweet potatoes. Very nutritious, very cheap, and taste sweet. Easy to prepare to, you can just boil or bake them for a little while without adding anything and they're great just like that.

are we allowed to add ingredients? A little soy sauce on that and you’ve basically got yourself a meal

Try making a bean salad some time! It is cheap, tasty, and healthy.

I just buy a few cans: black, kidney, garbanzo, whatever. Some romaine lettuce, tomato, red onion maybe. Mexify it if you want with some shreddy cheese and sour cream, served with tortillas/doritos (not healthy obv). Or plain with an italian dressing or something.

It's basically impossible to fuck up, you can modify it however you want, it takes like five minutes to throw together, super cheap, totally fits all three categories. Try it some time!

I eat tofu like four days a week and it is the best thing ever.

What do you do with the tofu? I have tried a few time but it always taste kind of "bland"

Basic recipe for nice tofu:

  • freeze the tofu. This is important as it changes the structure (it becomes dryer and more "meaty"), this is a common technique in asia.
  • after unfreezing it, dry it with paper towels or something like that, cut it into die sized cubes if you want, sprinkle it with potato starch and fry it in a wok or hot pan with some oil. It should get brown and crispy.
  • sprinkle a few drops of Japanese soy sauce on it while it the pan and continue to fry it. The soy sauce adds taste and makes it caramelise.
  • add cooked rice, vegetables or whatever you want.

You can leave out some steps above. Without the freezing the texture won't be as firm, without the starch it won't be as crispy and without the soy sauce it won't taste as good. I'm just saying that because sometimes it has to go fast or you're missing ingredients, so you can compromise if needed. Doing all is of course best.

What flavors do you like? It Marinates up well and doesn't take long to absorb the flavors, then fry, air fry or roast in the oven. I Love cooking it with a sauce/gravy to add flavor too. Also silken tofu chocolate pudding/pie filling. You cannot even tell it has tofu in it.

Roasted brussel sprouts with butter and parmesan cheese

That's not cheap at all, at least where I live

$2 for a bag of pre shredded parmesan

$1.50 for frozen brussel sprouts

$1.25 for a stick of salted butter

You'll get 2 small meals out of this, $2.37 for a small meal isn't exactly expensive. Realistically, it's even cheaper because you won't be using the whole pack of cheese or all the butter. Your main expense will be the $1.50 per bag of veg depending on how many you want to make

It depends where you live (I'm in Bangkok, so grocery choices are quite limited).

I love Oats. I got massively back into them again this year... now I buy around 3kg every month (instant oats).

It's only this year, really, that I discovered that oats are still really good and creamy when not made with milk... and it's really easy to boil a single cup of water to dump on a cup of oats for a perfect breakfast (left standing for a minute - done... no need to 'microwave' oats).

Also, cheap staples include: carrots, potato, broccoli, spinach...

Frozen strawberries are dirt cheap here too.

Breakfast 1:

  • Instant Oats (1 cup, 1/4 tsp salt, 3tsp sugar, 3 tsp creamer)
  • pulsed to powder in the blender with a cup of boiling water poured over.
  • Blend 100ml milk with 3 strawberries and mix that in. The beauty of this is (as my son does NOT like stodgy/thick porridge) I can add an extra 100ml of milk to his breakfast, and it becomes a liquid smoothie.

Breakfast 2:

  • Weetbix are not too cheap, but ONE biscuit mixed with ONE cup of oats is a massive breakfast - and tastes of Weetbix... and is ridiculously cheap in comparison.

Breakfast 3

  • Oats work great with eggs...
  • 1 cup oats, some salt, some cumin (maybe a teaspoon)
  • 2/3 cup boiling water (soak a minute)
  • 2 duck eggs mixed in
  • butter up the frying pan and dump it in there, cover and cook gently for 3 minutes, flip and give them another 3 minutes.

DIsgusting poopy one

  • 2 teaspoons of cocoa powder mixed with 4 teaspoons of non-dairy creamer + 1 cup oats
  • pulse to powder, add a cup of hot water.

That's choccie heaven right there.

Thanks for this prompt. Reading this thread was the first time I felt like I was on reddit since I've joined this instance. I laughed and learned.

I like pickling things. Pickled Red Onions are delicious and easy, and Pickled Green Beans are probably my favorite. Fresh Green Beans can be had by the big bag for about two bucks. Throw in a couple Habanero peppers for spice, maybe $.50 worth of seasoning, $.50 worth of vinegar if you buy it by the gallon, and you have some delicious cheap snacks that are also relatively healthy. The worst ingredients would be salt and sugar, but you can minimize its use to taste when you make them yourself. I guess it's all relative, but to me a few bucks for a quart jar of quality homemade pickles checks all the boxes when it comes to cheap, healthy, and delicious. It does take a bit of prep work though so it's definitely better if you enjoy that type of thing.

I have a related one - I'm kinda continously on the lookout for a refreshing (evening) drink especially during hot weather.

So far, I haven't found one that doesn't contain at least one of:

  • (added) sugar
  • caffeine
  • alcohol

Or a combination of those.

On the other end of that scale, I do quite like White Russians. The Dude says hi.

Carbonated mineral water. Yeah there are environmental concerns with bottled water but this stuff breaks up the monotony of just drinking water pretty good without any caffeine, alcohol, or sugar.

To take it one step further, a drink that is quite popular where I like - carbonated water mixed with freshly squeezed lemon juice. Very refreshing in summer and I drink it all the time.

It doesn't have to be bottled. You can buy your own carbonation machine for less than 100€. Use nice cold water and add some ginger or lime to it, and it makes for a great summer drink.

I don't know much about it but isn't carbonation machine kind of unsustainable with all those carbon bottles?

You just need one soda maker and a single reusable bottle.

yeah right but you need to buy those cylinders of CO2 no?

they are refillable. there is no reason to throw them away.

Curiously, peanuts 🥜.

100 gr of peanuts have almost all the fatty acids that you need in a day, with almost half the minimum calorie intake required and half the protein you need. They are satiating, VERY easy to grow, and even used as a way to replenish the soil with nutrients in crop rotation.

If you ask me what was the mana taken through the dessert, I'd say most likely peanuts.

It couldn't be peanuts, because it evaporated or melted when the sun hit it.

Peanuts are 50%, even worse than potato chips. 100 grams aren’t very satiating, at least to me. I’m not sure I’d consider that healthy.

I heard that tacos are actually quite good for you, and I assume they could be if you get proper ones with lots of veg and natural ingredients rather than going to Taco Bell or some other fast food place and getting processed defrosted junk.

Source: Dr Karan on Youtube (yes, Youtube doctor, but he's British, so I trust him)

Honestly, I think most food can be found pretty cheap, except for proteins. The best bet I think is chicken drumsticks, but even those will add up. Beans are a cheap protein, but it's about just as carby as it is proteiny.

Most fruit that’s in season would cover all three.

Yes - generally beans are both healthy (33% protein, 33% fiber, 33% carbs), cheap (dried or in cans), and can be pretty tasty, even out of cans, but if not with eggs, as part of a soup (tomatoes + grain + spices + veggies).

Everything from my garden!

Right now, lettuce, kale, dill, peas, strawberries, oregano... the lettuce is on its sixth year of re-seeding, same with the dill.

Dill & vinegar flavored kale chips are amazing.

This will be controversial. I'm going with Costco rotisserie chicken. $5. They taste good fresh but bad reheated. I don't eat the skin

I can here to say this.

Chicken is all of these things. I food prep chicken dishes because I need the right amount of protein. It's delicious and it's one of the cheapest types of meat.

When there's a half inch layer of fat, I think healthy has booked it out the door.

I'm not sure what you mean. Who eats chicken fat?

Some people don't eat the skin because they think it's unhealthy.

Carrots. Same as potatoes. Boil em, mash em, stick em in a stew. Someone already mentioned onions, same idea.

I know your edit says you were thinking about dishes, and I think carrots can be their own dish with very little preparation. I like to bake mine on a sheet for half hour or so at 425f, and they are wonderful on their own. Also so low-calorie you can eat a practically infinite amount of them without spoiling a diet!

BEANS

Addictive carbs and salt, dirt cheap, and healthy as shit. Also convenient and compatible with most dietary/ethical restrictions.

If you learn to like beans when you're 20 and throw it into an index fund, you'll have a modest retirement fund just on the money you saved (yes, I calculated it based on money saved and growth of the S&P).

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Rice and beans, just be a little creative with preparation. Also you can make lots of soups that are cheap and healthy and its super easy to make too.

My vote too.

If you expand the format to rice + dried bean/legume/grain (e.g. lentils, quinoa), you can really expand your possibilities without breaking the bank.

Roasted broccoli from the freezer

Herb Chicken on the stovetop

Lemon vinaigrette with garlic (pour it on the chicken and toss the broccoli in it)

Herbed rice, or rice steamed with coriander

Granita (frozen fruit juice and sugar, stirred occasionally for a icy creamy texture, or do coffee and sugar)

All of these work independently, or together they are wonderful.

Buy raw material and cook yourself.

Most premade food is expensive because:

  • labor on cooking
  • restaurant profit
  • rent of the restaurant/owner of the place sell you food
  • service

Purple asparagus! You can grow it and it grows in incredible quantity quite quickly. Then you can toss it in the air fryer each day for ten minutes with some seasonings and it's phenomenal.

Kebab plate with vegetables.

A coleague of mine was eating it when he was on a diet to lose weight. It's basically kebab/gyros meat and a vegetable salad with a dresing (usually tzaziki). You have basically no sugar in it, it's just protein and vitamins.

Back in the day it cost like 4-5 € where I live which was pretty cheap for a lunch. Now it'd more like 6-7 € but that's still decent

That is not at all a healthy meal, lol.

Umm what's unhealthy in it? :)

I guess it depends how we define what's a healthy meal but in my book few rules to eat healthy are:

  • lower your sugar, flour, potatoes income to minimum
  • lower your fat income and choose right fats
  • eat more fruits and vegetables
  • maintain right ballance of carbs, fats and proteins

A "kebab salad" sounds quite healthy in that take. Despite sounding strange that a common street food could be healthy

It's a lot of salt, processed meat, and the salad bar at a normal kebab shop is not filled with nutrient dense vegetables. If it's me, I'd eat it as a takeaway and spread the meat over three days' worth of meals and up the nutrient content with broccoli and nuts.

Oatmeal with bananas, cinnamon, soy milk(unsweetened), flaxseed and sugar + extra fruits according to preference.

I eat it everyday for breakfast and I never get tired of the flavor. Sometimes I even get a bit greedy and eat it more than once. It's very filling, healthy, and cheap.

The biggest problem with this is subjective metrics.

"Healthy" depends a lot on both what your needs are and the rest of your diet, there's no one-size-fits-all.

"Delicious" is even more subjective.

'Cheap' at least is fairly objective, but even so different qualities, different locations, or different seasons can change prices drastically, and that's before you get into the fact that what really matters is the more-subjective 'cheap to someone of your means.'

Today I learned that I absolutely despise every single food that is healthy and cheap. You would think at 50+ years old a person wouldn't be a fussy eater, but here I am. Despise rice, despise most vegetables, hate tomatoes with a passion, and coffee and tea is absolutely disgusting, to just name a few. And then there are the foods that massively upset my stomach, like bananas and eggs, not to mention anything with artificial sugar or Yellow Dye.

I'm not fun trying to find food to eat. And people wonder why I'm not healthy.

I’m sorry to read your comment. But I’m curious about why you despise vegetables and even hate tomatoes.

I wonder if it’s because you “learnt” to hate them or because your body refuses it. If it’s the first one, I’m sure you can also learn to appreciate it. Not all at once, not in one day, but little by little, it can truly change your life for good. It’s never too late (I’m 48 so I’m almost there with you).

No learning, my body just actively rejects them. My entire life I have tried tomatoes and all sorts of vegetables prepared any number of ways, and the taste is just something I absolutely despise each and every single time. There is no learning to appreciate them when it tastes like I'm eating absolute trash.

My very Italian answer is "pizza bianca" . I guess "healthy" depends, but it's generally OK carbs, it's delicious and with few Euros you can buy quite a lot (enough for a lunch).

Oh boy I've got one! Bonus, it ticks a 4th box - convenient!

Not sure where you're located and there are different brands, so you'll have to investigate for yourself. But the Tasty Bite brand microwaveable Indian pouches to me manage to hit each of these dimensions. They're cheap (-ish, I wanna say $4 per meal?), healthy (probably high in sodium, but if you look at the ingredients list it's all just food - not weird processed and/or synthetic crap), microwaveable and totally delicious. Granted, it's delicious for a microwaved meal...can't exactly compete with a properly prepared Indian dish. But it's easily the best microwaved food I've ever eaten.

And they're vegetarian and sometimes vegan so a small win on the critter ethics too! Can't recommend em enough unless you mean REAL cheap or you're used to eating home cooked Indian dishes on the regular.

And then there is mc Donald's and similar chains. They managed to avoid all three of those things

I wonder if they are actually that unhealthy. After all a burger is just meat, bread, and some veggies. Doesn't seem that unbalanced.

I assume the most unhealthy part there is the gallon of sugar soda that people also drink there ._.

undefined> Kebab

It's all the additives to these otherwise quite wholesome ingredients that make them less healthy and not as nutritionally dense as they should be. McDonald's burgers are not JUST meat, bread, and some veggies unfortunately.

I don't know, they are pretty fucking cheap.

I could eat for a week in what I'd costs to buy one McD meal. It's wouldn't be a very varied diet for the week but it would probably be healthier than the one McD meal.

Not really. Making your own is cheaper in terms of money spent.

Not in Germany lol. A cheeseburger used to be 1€ now it’s at 2,29€ 💀. Cheeseburger menu costs 5,99€

I am making vegetarian lentil soup today.

Ingredients are cheap (you can add nearly any seasonal vegetables) and lentils can be grown locally (America, Europe, Asia, maybe elsewhere too) without too much environmental damage and dried lentils can be stored for long times, you do not need expensive spices and no industrial processed stuff.

Cooking it in a pressure cooker makes it energy effective and done very fast.

You can freeze it over longer periods, so you can make one big pot, but eat multiple times. It should stay perfectly fine for three month in a freezer* and we kept it for three days in a fridge just fine (could stay good longer but I haven't tried it).

And we love it.

  • If you plan to put it into a freezer do not salt it. Salt it when heating it up again.

Why not salt it to taste before freezing?

When in frozen food "salt loses flavour, and causes fat to go rancid more quickly". - source: my grandmother So depending on the food you put into the freezer much of its taste is gone anyway and it can harm the fat, especially if the food contains meat. Disclaimer: I am not a chemist or cook.

Eggs with salt. Boiled, scrambled, any style really

Popcorn is up there with low calorie snacks, not really a practical meal, but a good alternative to potato chips.

You should shop at a grocery outlet, that's how you get all three achieved. there's so much cheap overstocked healthy food, because originally was too expensive and people didn't want to pay that much, so I benefit. Best grocery store there's ever been, prove me wrong!

It also depends on the quality and processing of the food as well and taste and nutrients can increase with the quality of the food

for example your local farmers market would have fresher higher quality food than the mass produced stuff found in your average store

Beans! Especially stew with them, you can throw in pretty much anything (veggies, meat, adjust your spice levels...) and once you learn the correct balance it's very tasty and filling.

My favorite cheap + delicious+ filling meal is eggs and toast.

Peanut butter and banana sandwich is also dirt cheap and delicious.

Late to the party, but lately I've been addicted to microwavable broccoli florets (just the leafy part, not the stalks) covered in sharp cheddar cheese.

My brain has learned to think it's cheese fries. But it's broccoli.

Well chicken maybe as it is the most cheap meat. And it is subjective, but something like chicken soup (if cooked at home) can be relativly cheap and really delicious.

Also, just thought about it - fruits and berries also easily break this trinity

While I also like chicken, the more delicious chicken tends to be pricy (as in the cheap chicken is often bland in taste - but I'll concede that's kind of splitting the hair.

But you're probably right about fruits.

It requires more effort but buying chicken that is minimally processed is fairly cheap and far tastier. The bones can be saved for soups and stocks and at least breast are really easy to debone.

Are we talking about only the plain substance, not allowing for spices? Because I feel like every food isn't delicious unless you season it in some way, or at least use an oil in cooking. If we're just talking about baking everything then I'd say everything is "bland" Lol

For me it's all about how you prepare the food. I eat chicken, canned beans, and mushrooms pretty much all the time because I try to buy cheap as much as I can, but just those few main items can be made so many different delicious ways with other "smaller/lesser" ingredients.

Well-seasoned, air-fried chicken is super healthy and cheap.

Chicken has been heavily, heavily marketed as a health food, and while it's not the worst thing you could eat, if you actually look at its nutritional profile it's not particularly nutritious or "healthy". That's just Tyson Foods & co working their magic. It's more like the ultimate neutral food - nothing terrifying, nothing great, a bit like its taste.

Chicken breast lean protein. What do you mean by "nutritional profile"?

Lean protein =/= healthy. Like, at all. This is a myth from the freaking 1980s. Nutritional profile is a breakdown of the micronutrients that a food has, and it determines whether a food is "nutritious" and therefore, in general terms, "healthy".

Please, oh please, don't go around telling people that food is healthy if it is a lean protein. I'm sure it's well intended, but it's also misinformed. If you want to learn about how to assess whether a food is healthy, go make an appointment with a dietitian - your insurance will often cover the first appointment.

You sure typed a lot without explaining what the nutritional profile of chicken is or why it's not healthy.

Sorry, unfortunately nutrition is more complex than what you can sum up in a few sentences. To answer that though:

  • Chicken isn't categorically "unhealthy" in the same way double stuf oreos cooked in lard are - I said in another comment that it's the ultimate neutral food, and if you look at its profile I think that's a fair statement. It's not completely devoid of nutrients, it has a couple of things in significant quantities - phosphorus, selenium, and B3 for example - but overall it's not very nutrient dense. It doesn't have a ton of huge negatives either - a bit of saturated fat, but nothing to write home about. If you're looking at a "Hitler-Hanks" spectrum where the lard oreos are on one end and a spinach chia seed broccoli whatever salad on the other, then chicken is probably right in the middle somewhere. Its D&D alignment is True Neutral. The point I was making in my earlier comment was that "protein" doesn't make a food healthy, and that there's a lot more to it than that, and if people use that mental shortcut they might end up making misinformed decisions.

  • The nutritional profile of chicken would be a lot to type out, but you can look at the NCCDB or Cronometer Gold (which uses NCCDB among others) for an elaborate breakdown. Just keep in mind that it doesn't capture everything - it's an amazing tool, but it won't cover the catechins in your tea, for example.

Ultimately though, if you're reading this, let me take this opportunity to encourage you to GO SEE A REGISTERED DIETITIAN. Your insurance will often cover 80+% of your first appointment, but even if they don't it's an amazing investment. You'll live longer, probably spend less on food, and spend a lot less on hospital bills after your first heart attack.

Today I learned that what I consider healthy is very different from what others consider healthy. Fried chicken would not be in my top 10 healthy choices for example. Not criticizing the other guy, but just noting that what is considered to be healthy is sooo wildly distorted by corporate indoctrination that there are likely people who think KFC has some healthy food.

8oz of skinless breast has 250 calories, 0 carbs, and >50g of protein. That's really nutritious and healthy in my book.

That's very similar to something like lentils, and a lot better than something like rice which other people are saying but is essentially empty calories with barely any nutritional value.

Macronutrients are not what makes a food healthy. In particular, high-protein does not make a food healthy. By that reasoning a lot of fast food could be considered insanely healthy, but it's not. That's just our downright shitty levels of education surrounding nutrition.

What actually makes a food healthy depends on a lot of different factors, but a common one and relatively reliable standard bearer is whether it is "nutritious". When a food is nutritious or nutrient dense, it is micronutrient dense. This includes things like spinach and beans and seeds and broccoli and all of the other foods that your parents made you eat. Micronutrient poor foods are ones that have relatively few micronutrients, but usually are relatively calorie rich. This includes things like mozzarella sticks, wonderbread, fruit gushers, heavy cream, twinkies, and so on. We do need macronutrients, but virtually anyone who gets enough energy (calories) from food also gets enough of them, except in specific cases like being a professional athlete. The athlete wouldn't die of protein deprivation if they didn't pay attention to their intake, but it would make it harder for them to perform well.

So no, chicken is not, by any standard, "really nutritious and healthy". It's not completely devoid of nutrients - it's relatively rich in phosphorus and selenium if you eat it on its own, for example, but it's far from what anyone would consider nutritious. It's somewhere in between fried mars bars and spinach.

I think you are the same kind of post brigadier that I've seen on reddit before from a certain 5 letter sub

Please know that what your doing is bad faith and you shouldn't be policing or harassing other users online for what they consume

stick to your own personal dietary preferences and let others stick to theirs

I don't care what people consume, unless they're telling other people things that aren't true. Eat a twinkie-only diet if you want - if you're happy then I'm happy for you. If not, go talk to a dietitian and educate yourself.

...Do we have a community yet for sharing cheap, healthy food recipes? I'd say cooking, but I don't want to get into all the back & forth over what counts as cooking/baking/frying/etc.

Maybe /c/cheaphealthymeals? Or maybe cheapgoodmeals would be better? 🤔

Whatever the case, I think it'd be a solid idea for a community for exchanging recipes and tips!

I just made one! https://lemmy.world/c/cheaphealthyfood

Can I kindly suggest maybe making a guideline post as to what constitutes "healthy"? It was really sad to see all of the people on the previous sub posting their supposedly "healthy" meals that weren't anywhere close to healthy. I get that there's a need to leave room for people who are starting at zero and still improving, but it also shapes people's perceptions in a very real and misguided way. If reliably sourced and well moderated that would make the space a lot better.

Great idea! I agree, it's such a good point.

Edited to add: I added a blurb to the community - please let me know if you think it needs any changes. Thanks again, I really appreciate the insightful feedback :)

Tacos and burritos could absolutely meet this criteria If you're doing them well at home, with the most unhealthy thing being the tortilla itself (You could argue that those are empty calories). Of course that means no sour cream or cheap cheese abuse among other things

Sorry for my ignorance but what’s an “empty calorie”?

Im not an expert but people argue that bread and esentially most products whose base is just flour aren't good. The reasoning is that those are carbohydrates that just add calories and nothing else (protein, vitamins etc...). So eating 200kcal of tuna is healthier than 200kcal of bread since those calories come with Proteins, phosphorus, omega 3 a bunch of vitamins etc. Whereas bread/tortillas are (basically) just carbohydrates which arent bad by themselves, but also arent good in excess

That's true for white bread, not the other kinds. Whole-grain bread is both delicious and healthy. I remember visiting the UK for the first time and being amazed that all the natives were eating white bread for breakfast and lunch. Here in Northern Europe, white bread is more on par with a dessert item.

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I've been replacing sour cream with plain full fat Greek yogurt. It's not as good, but in a burrito it is an as adequate substitute.

Also my sour cream would always go had before I finish it but I always have yogurt in the house so it solves that issue for me

The Instant Pot or equivalent is the best invention for this. Throw in whatever ingredients (beans, veg) were previously too much hassle to cook. Add water, press button, wait for beep, open pot, eat. Well better find some recipes first, but it's almost that simple.

Here's a favorite of mine: 1 cup dry beans, 1/2 cup tomato powder (yes that is a thing), 2 cups water, cook on high pressure for 35 minutes, stir in a can of corn kernels from trader joe. Done and delicious and nourishing, due to the protein combination from the corn and beans mixing. Or use rice instead of corn, except that's more hassle since it's best to make that separately.

Most things are unhealthy because we eat too much of it. For example (fresh) bread is delicious, cheap, and healthy, provided you eat it in moderation. Now if you ate nothing but bread all day you would gain a lot of weight.

Same goes for salt, fat, and sugar. To be fair, part of the reason we tend to eat so much of it is because normally this stuff is rare in nature and we are evolved to seek it, but we've made it so accessible and cheap, that we easily let our natural instincts take over. So that aspect explains your trinity. But it doesn't have to be that way. You can have all three with a bit of self control.

Fried soy beans with garlic. Tastes approx like potato chips, about the same price as beans, and decently nutritious. Just don't use too much salt or oil.

Taste is subjective. I don't like more than half of the things listed so far.

There's also novelty.

I live in colorado right now and we get great, cheap melons in the summer. Fresh corn is also dirt cheap here when it's in season. When I first moved here (from Scotland) I was really excited about those things, but as time goes by they are less interesting to me. I eat way more seafood here, in Colorado, than I ever did in Scotland - and the selection is better here too which blows my mind.

Eating what's local and in-season almost always improves the deliciousness and the price - but you probably won't appreciate it because I think we some some innate desire to seek out different flavors.

Rice with lentils is a good option, add salt and pepper and salad of choice

I'd say sandwiches, depending on what you want to put in them. A loaf of healthy (low sugar) bread isn't going to be the cheapest option on the shelf, but if you're dividing the cost by the number of sandwiches you can make out of it, it still ends up amounting to a large number of really inexpensive meals. I normally just add some meat, cheese, lettuce, and tomato, and it's very nutritional and also delicious.

If you make the bread yourself (i.e. with a breadmaker) it's dirt cheap. I buy flour and yeast in bulk and it costs bugger all per loaf.

You could maybe argue bread isn't healthy because it's technically a processed food (flour, carbs, etc.), but as others have pointed out moderation is key.

My reply to the the whole thread would be bread/sourdough. Healthy might be pushing it, but a whole grain, hard wheat (bread flour) at least has a bit more protein. Plus I usually add eithe a bit of olive oil to the dough (good fat) and brush the top with butter (extra taste).

I’d put steel cut oats in this boat too, with a bit of honey to sweeten.

Yes, yes there are foods that are cheap, delicious and healthy. Sorry this will be a long post, many things to cover!

First I have to say, what I regard as healthy for me personally is generally Keto friendly foods. This is because, for an unknown, diagnosed (not for the lack of trying) reason I have muscle and joint pains that go away if I get to a very low carb intake such that it has an anti-inflammatory effect. Other than working around the reason I have pain, it also remove redness of Seborrheic dermatitis which I have. For me it also reduces quite a bit, but not stops dandruff. It has other health benifits as well, it is not a cure all, I've never said it has cured any of the symptoms above, just reduce or remove the symptoms. For me the symptoms come back when I eat carbs, even if I stay away from sugar. Well it can cure some things like fatty liver or insulin insensitivity. But its not a cure all, again my symptoms (except I was insulin sensitive which is cured) are not cured, but it does work in a palliative manner.

Keto doesn't work for everyone. Well if losing weight is a goal, and then you actually do a keto diet, it will work. People who say it doesn't work for losing weight are either knowingly (lying to them selves) or more often unknowingly eating carbs they don't count. Also by count I don't mean actually keeping track of, because literally counting carbs, nope, I don't believe in that. Too much work, and doesn't give a benefit over adhering to just what ingredients you can use.

What I actually meant for keto doesn't work for everyone, I mean work as in being healthy. It should work for the vast majority of people. But example my wife, she has Ulcerative Colitis, pre-diabetes, and she is underweight. Ulcerative Colitis in regards to keto mainly makes it so certain types of fiber is not good for her. And being slightly medically underweight, she can't eat enough, she needs the carbs. For Diabetes type 2 keto diet is super effective at palliative helping, especially if it's just pre-diabetes. But alas, she can't hit her calorie needs without carbs.

Before talking about the foods, I wan't to mention that Keto diet goes very well together with intermittent fasting. This is mainly due to how the liver works. Making ketons! Keton's isn't mumbo jumbo, simplified its what your liver makes when breaking down fat. Ketons is a very good fuel source for your body. If break down fat, you get much more energy than if eat carbs. So you want to stay in ketosis for more of the 24 hour day, than is easy without intermittent fasting. Ketosis is just when you produce ketons. So to get there, very grossly simplified, fast, don't eat carbs or eat very low amounts, and eat lots of healthy fats. Again grossly simplified, eat almost any fats, but not trans-satiated fats, those are poison to you anyway. When it comes to proteins, I just try to eat lots, and if I get a tummy ache due to eating too much proteins, then I eat less proteins. I don't worry so much about eating enough proteins if I don't workout. I lied above, by omission. I eat lots of carbs, because there are some carbs I don't count. By count I mean I don't regard them as being calories. What calories do I not count then? Mostly vegetables! Some veggies I do count though, like potatoes.

I need to have a short paragraph about eating fats. Its super important in a keto diet. Fat makes you feel satiated. It is no surprise since fats are much more energy dense than carbs including sugar. Feeling satiated is hormonal. Your body does send out hormones, or inhibit hormones, and Ghrelin hormone makes you feel hungry, and Ghrelin production is suppressed when you are digesting fats. Terms to google in regards to this is "fat adapted" which means that the body can more easily use fat as a fuel source throughout the day. And "insulin resistance", not directly related, but very important.

One more thing, when cutting out sweets, everything else starts tasting much better. Everything that has a hint of sweetness gets amplified. Even cold brew coffee. I often cold brew at home, and then heat it (pour some concentrated cold brew in a cup and add hot water), and its so sweet I almost dream about it.

Lastly, and shortly. What supplements do I recommend? Generally assuming you don't have any deficits due to your diet. If I want to eat as much protein as I can tolerate (like because of working out) then whey protein, without added sugar is great! Creatine is also great I could write 3 paragraphs about creatine, and lastly(assuming you get enough vitamins, minerals, and omega3) I also recommend, psyllium husk. Psyllium husk is a great source of amazing fiber, and it really helps me stabilize my gut. Especially together with a keto diet, I go from having close to IBS to feeling like I got a very healthy gut.

Next the foods: I'll reply to my own comment because there is a character limit

Thanks for the long write-up. Not sure entirely if it is on the topic, but I guess someone might find your tips on keto useful

Mushrooms!!

The thing with mushrooms is that they can get pretty expensive in stores, especially if you're looking for a specific kind of mushroom. They can also be very easy to forage though, which does make them free! This is different from growing them in a private garden (which is something you can do with most produce, and requires time and resources). DELICIOUS AND HEALTHY OH YEAH BABY!!

Fruit is definitely the best answer though.

Also, beans!

Where I live soy milk is extremely cheap. I make a lot of smoothies with soy milk, bananas, and spinach. Costs about .30€ a serving.

Okra, it's easy to grow. Bugs and squirrels don't seem to bother it. Frozen isn't too expensive

I think falafel and pita with all the veggies and sauces might be something that fits the bill that you can find easily.

Falafel is made of chickpeas which are healthy, but deep frying them isn't very good for you. Not too bad as long as you don't eat it all the time, but OP asked for healthy foods.

You have two tiny balls of falafel with huge serving of veggies, pita and veggies. I don't think it's particular unhealthy compared what people eat usually. You could of course airfry or bake the falafels if you want to avoid that as well.

Yes but it's kind of a cheat... The food must be free somehow for one reason or another... This, in and of itself, makes it more delicious even if it was delectable to begin with. Also, obviously the healthy part is important first if it's important to you at all.

Oh wait... Did I wander out of /c/unethicallifeprotips

It'll be cool when them shits above become autolinks that work

We have a type of French toast. Old stale bread, milk, egg, sugar (and cinnamon) that's it. Simple, cheap and very tasty.

I'm not gonna say it's unhealthy, but I also would say that it's far from being healthy.

Look into Indian foods and even traditional japanese. Really hearty and nutrient dense foods there. Plus there's a book on Depression era cooking that has a lot of great recipes for low cost and self sustaining.

Any sort of cuisine from historically depressed areas is going to be great. For me, that's Cajun and Creole food -- lots of rice, beans, and spices in the skillet. Get frozen vegetables in bulk if fresh is too expensive, because you're going to be cooking them to mush anyway.

I've found that the key isn't minimizing the dollar amount, but maximizing the output. A little bit of butter may be more expensive, but if you add in a fuckton of rice and beans, that 2tbsp butter will improve your next week's worth of food.

Ground beef and eggs are about the most nutrition packed and inexpensive foods around.

Eggs

Eggs haven't been cheap lately

Bruh, Aldi has them for 1.12 a dozen. They’re literally less expensive than they were in the 90s adjusting for inflation.

Lots of people buying into the huge organic bs. I'm shopping at Aldi weekly. I like their humus.

literally any bagel sandwich, unless the cost of eggs or ham is still rlly high in your area. low effort, immaculate.

I'm pretty sure bagels are terrible for you. The delicous ones anyway.

Okay maybe not terrible but definitely not healthy due to the high sugar content.

The one thing missing from the trinity is "effort". For instance, you could make any Dal, which would fit the trinity, but takes a lot of time. There are books with hundreds of Dal recipes that all taste different and work, too. And this is just one example. Less than a dollar a meal if made in bulk with rice.

so something like this?

You just made a food pyramid that isn't stupid.

You know, thinking back, we should never have trusted that stupid infographic. It was a lie from the get go. It was a food triangle. This is a true pyramid.

I would consider Effort (time/energy) as a part of 'Cost'.

I work a government job and a side-hustle. I earn a large amount per hour in my private business. If I cancel a client so I can cook a time intensive meal, then the food is getting more expensive.

Also, if I'm exhausted from working 1.5 jobs, an effort heavy meal isn't cheap for me.

With a multicooker dal is a pretty easy one pot meal, or at least basicish dal is

Lots of bean/lentil dishes are pretty magic for that.

There's also an element of skill/experience in that category too. I can't find the exact quote but David Chang said something to the effect of "anyone can cook a filet mignon well, but cooking with scraps takes skill".

As i've gotten more competent in the kitchen i've absolutely gone from buying fancy cuts of meat to stew meat and will buy mutton any time i ever see it. I've also got much better at observing what fits well together, if there's some left over potatoes in the fridge then I know that I can mash them, roll them into gnocchi and make a quick pesto with some wilty kale from the back of the fridge and basil from the garden. I'd totally have planned and made the same dish ten years ago, but i'd have started by going to the store and buying the ingredients. Being able to work with what I have and balance it is key.

Imo, natto fits all three, also a bean dish.

Tinned tuna. Inexpensive, high in protein and fish oils, low in fat and calories.

Probably not great in huge quantities because of iodine, but generally very healthy

Getting too much mercury seems like it would be more of a concern than too much iodine.

I know tinned tuna is supposed to be good in macros, but I don't know if they're that delicious. Always tastes a bit too fishy for me. But there are like canned tuna in tomato sauce and those are quite good - tho i suppose it's less healthy because of the sauce

Mac n cheese.

Ratatouille.

A lot of cuisine that is lauded all around the world embraces all three of those, or at least the original dishes they came from did. A lot of really fancy food today and in the last 50 years is just "peasant food". Sometimes just with fresher ingredients and more butter

FUUUUUUUUUUUjk I gotta eat ratatouille now. Forgot the dish for some reason and it's tasty af

1 more...

Sustainable eating is cheaper and healthier - Oxford study

Huh, interesting, that page says that vegan diets "reduced food costs by up to one third [emphasis mine]", which I guess is nothing to scoff at but on the other hand doesn't seem that large; I would have expected the relative cost of including meat in your diet to increase food costs by much more given how resource-intensive it is to produce meat compared to producing vegetables.

The prices of animal products are kept artificially low by subsidies and don't reflex the real world cost.

Thanks but I'll pass on food advice from the UK /s

Always remember - the flavor of their food and the beauty of their women led Britain to be the greatest seafaring nation in the world.