Diet and Health FAQ

Tagged As: low glycemic diet plan

Question:
I'm looking for advice about inexpensive food choices. I need to cut my food budget quite a bit. People talk about low-carb being inexpensive because so much junk food is high-carb...but I've been avoiding processed foods for a long time. What works for me, physically, is 100-150g carbs/day, with the rest of my food about evenly divided between protein and fat. I eat a lot of non-starchy veggies, as well as nuts, beans, low-glycemic grains, and a little fruit. (And occasional sweets in small quantities.) My main protein sources are chicken, canned tuna, cottage cheese, and eggs. I eat a lot of lettuce, because it's the cheapest non- starchy veggie at the market, and it's filling. I get bored with it, and wonder about the nutritional consequences of using it as a dietary staple. I also eat a fair amount of frozen broccoli and spinach. It's sometimes tempting to go back to high-carb, because it's so cheap. Not just this moderate-carb, low-glycemic that seems to work for me, but buying pasta and rice in bulk. (Using rice to stretch the beans, rather than serving beans with the much more expensive vegetables, or the meat, which is more expensive yet.) It's frustrating. I'd appreciate suggestions about foods, recipes, shopping suggestions, encouragement. I don't eat pork, shellfish, or any kind of artificial sweeteners (no sucralose!) I'm interested in controlling blood sugar spikes, and general health, but not particularly interested in weight loss. Thanks.

Answer:
That's pretty darn good compared to the 300+ that 'average' eaters consume with donuts, soda and big pasta dinners. How do you feel about cold cuts? Sometimes if you look around you can find things like hard salami under $2 a pound. I buy a lot of that. If you have a heavily ethnic/ immigrant neighborhood in your city you can most always find less familiar cuts of meats at much lower prices than what your average yuppie buys.Would adding rice and whole grains in small amounts help? Maybe half a cup of rice with dinner a few times a week? How does oatmeal fit into your diet? Carby, yes, but one of the best cheap foods I've found for day-long blood sugar control. It fills you up and sticks with you better than sugary cereal or danish will. Cabbage is low-carb, cheap and goes a long way. It's good in soups, stir fry, and steamed with butter as a side dish. Try making meatballs with shredded cabbage, soy sauce, ginger and garlic mixed into your beef or ground turkey. Speaking of which, frozen ground turkey is a $1.50 a pound. As for shopping, I look at whatever veggies are in season and cheapest at the time. When possible I shop across town at the upscale 'natural foods' market even though they are a few cents more expensive, because it is better quality and lasts longer in the fridge. Sure, I could get lettuce 50 cents cheaper closer to home, but I'd have to throw it out three days later. Cauliflower seems to be abundant and cheap right now. I'm waiting for the price on asparagus to go down. And for artichokes to get to 2/dollar. Shop the sales, especially for meats that keep well. I plan on buying about 6 corned beef briskets next week when they go on sale for St Pat's Day and keeping them in my freezer. Another trick for maintaining steady blood sugar levels is to eat lots of small snacks during the day instead of big meals every 6 hours or more. Same amount of food, just eat a little bit every two hours or so. Also, I noticed in college that products labelled in spanish are much cheaper than those labelled in english.