Often, when it comes to proper nutrition, people begin to give such an argument against him as its high cost. They believe that only those who have unlimited financial and time resources can afford healthy food. However, experts refute this point of view, explaining that you can use the right products without spending a large amount of funds from the family budget.
Opinion of the Russian specialist
The opinion that almost everyone can afford proper nutrition is supported by Oksana Drapkina. She is a professor, doctor of medical sciences, director of a research center and a corresponding member of the Russian Academy of Sciences.
She believes that in fact, a healthy diet significantly saves both time and money. Proper meals do not include complicated recipes. Cooking them, you do not have to stand at the stove for many hours.
And due to the fact that the ingredients that make up such dishes are not rare and expensive, your budget will not suffer at all. On the contrary, you will spend a lot of money when you buy all kinds of snacks and desserts, and not eat porridge with vegetables, cottage cheese and lean meat.
Few fruits and vegetables, but lots of salt
Oksana Drapkina expresses confidence that the consumption of too few vegetables and fruits is a big problem for Russians. According to WHO recommendations, they need to eat at least five servings per day. In total, this is approximately - 1-1.2 kg.
In addition, most people have a lot of salty foods in their diet, and, as you know, salt is one of the main health risk factors.
If you want to be healthy
Some people show excessive zeal in trying to eliminate foods that they think are harmful from their diet. For example, vegetarians. In fact, we need meat and fish if we want to be healthy.
Fruits and vegetables are also indispensable. And here we are not talking about mangoes, pineapples, avocados and other delicacies brought from overseas. Our domestic products, such as cucumbers, tomatoes, cabbage, carrots, pears and apples, are quite enough. But you need to clearly understand that eating them follows not from case to case, but daily.
But what you can safely refuse is milk. It causes stomach discomfort to some people, they have flatulence. This is due to lactose intolerance. The same cannot be said about dairy products, which are tasty and very healthy.
It will be useful to visit a doctor
Professor Drapkina recommends that you make a visit to the doctor before making a diet. He can receive individual recommendations by going through a study of cholesterol, glucose, pressure, and other indicators.
Begin to carefully approach the diet should be already 25 years old. And if there is a predisposition to completeness, then parents should deal with this issue at an early age of their child.
Food pyramid
And Dr. Drapkina advises you to familiarize yourself with the basic food pyramid above and adapt your diet to it. It consists of five tiers:
- Porridge, durum wheat pasta, bran bread.
- Vegetables growing in Russian territory.
- All fruits available.
- Fish, meat, eggs, lean meat, low-fat cheeses, dairy products.
- Desserts in very small quantities.
It is good if at each meal there will be products belonging to at least three groups. For example, from the lower tier - porridge, from the second - vegetables, from the fourth - eggs.
As you can see, no ultra-affordable and ultra-expensive products are not contained here. And allow yourself to eat this way is not so expensive. And simple food brings great benefits to the body.
However, here you need to take a reasonable approach, and, excluding mayonnaise and white bread, not get involved in expensive sea fish and fruits at sky-high prices. In this regard, below will be a few useful tips to help save money on nutrition and not harm your health.
Useful Tips
Among them are the following:
- Try to cook mainly at home and use simple products. It is much healthier and cheaper than food prepared by unknown people, unknown how and from unknown.
- Unlike products that have undergone technological processing, unprocessed ones are both more useful and cheaper. They need to be preferred.
- Leave salmon fish and steaks for special occasions. And for every day, buy eggs, chicken breasts, cottage cheese, beef liver, kefir, yogurt, tuna, mackerel, and sardine.
- Do not avoid frozen foods. As a rule, they are cheaper, while all the useful substances in them are completely stored.
- Use nutritional supplements. For example, fish oil will be much cheaper than fish.
- Eat seasonal fruits and vegetables. They are both cheaper, and taste better, and healthier. For example, root crops are good for acquiring in winter, berries and broccoli should be preferred in summer, and apples and zucchini in autumn.
Below we will talk about products that are not at all expensive, but very useful at the same time.
Cheap but very useful
Among these products can be noted:
- Buckwheat, which is the source of many vitamins necessary for humans, as well as micro and macro elements. When it is used, indicators such as sugar and hemoglobin levels are normalized, blood vessels are strengthened. Although the price has risen recently, it is much cheaper than the quinoa recommended by trendy nutritionists.
- White cabbage. It is the cheapest of all types of cabbage and the most wholesome. She is good in raw and boiled, and stewed. It has few calories and many benefits.
- Chicken eggs. They are low-calorie, have great nutritional value, due to the presence in them of a significant amount of amino acids, vitamins and lipids. It is enough to eat only one egg per day.
- Kefir. With its regular use, the digestive system normalizes. This is due to the fact that it contains beneficial sour milk bacteria. Kefir can successfully replace expensive yoghurts.
- Apples They are available throughout the year, and the price is almost stable. Among all fruits, it is the lowest. Apples, in the first place, are a source of easily digestible iron, as well as a lot of vitamins and fiber in them.
- Offal. They can be compared with little in nutritional value. They are distinguished by a unique balance of protein, carbohydrates and fats, as well as amino acids and trace elements. A low price in comparison with other meat products also speaks in favor of their choice.
- Bran. With their use, hair and skin growth noticeably improves, weight decreases, cholesterol levels. In this case, the costs will be minimal, and the result is comparable with the result from the use of expensive procedures.
Thus, the stories about the sky-high cost of products intended for healthy eating belong to the field of myths.