Recession Can Lead to Better Health

Good Time for Traditional Food Values

An economic recession is a great time to return to traditional food values. If you’re feeling the crunch financially you could save a lot of money on groceries while actually improving your health by cutting back on processed and packaged foods. And if you’re smart about your choices you can actually improve your health at the same time.

If you go through the store aisles you’ll find opportunities everywhere to save money. These savings can add up to hundreds and even thousands of dollars for a family over a period of months and years.

Some of the simplest strategies are to return to the lifestyle of our parents and grandparents. For instance rather than boxed processed cereals such as Frosted Flakes and Cheerios old favourites such as oatmeal offer superior health at about one third the price.

You can also save money on food by going on the Keep America / Keep Canada Slim weight loss program for another win-win. KAS is the lowest-priced complete weight loss program in North America at only $129.95 for the entire program of CDs, DVD, books and website support.

For more information go to http://www.keepamericaslim.com/.

Many of our most expensive foods are also high in fat and calories. A health-based weight loss program such as Keep America Slim will show you how to reduce the consumption of these choices, which will naturally save you money.

In the produce section, look for sale products. This week you might find broccoli and cucumbers for $.99 each but next week they are $1.99 and something else is on sale. Staple fruits such as bananas and bagged apples are less than $.99 a pound and provide tremendous nutritional value. More exotic fruits from tropical areas such as strawberries, grapes and oranges also go on sale even in the winter. It requires going to the store with a flexible shopping list, as opposed to simply buying the same things every week regardless of price.

It’s a great time to revisit the potato and to also eat more brown rice, basic starch products that provide a lot of energy per dollar. This is also a great time to endorse the highly recommended habit of reducing the portion size of animal protein products such as meat, chicken and fish which can be expensive, and eating larger portions of vegetables and starches which are much cheaper. Potatoes and rice both lend themselves to a variety of cooking options, such as baked, mashed, roasted and scalloped potatoes, or stir-fried rice with diced vegetables, teriyaki sauce and so on.

Sometimes frozen chicken and fish can be much less expensive than fresh, and purchasing store brands instead of name brands can save even more. Buy chicken with the skin on and bone in and remove the skin and bone yourself at home the way your parents would have. Beans and lentils also offer inexpensive high-quality protein sources as alternatives.

Frozen orange juice can usually be found for a dollar a can on sale, as opposed to $3-$4 for the same amount in a carton. Instead of buying bottled water buy a small carbon filter and make your own. A $7 Brita filter makes 150 L of bottled water with savings of about $50 compared to the equivalent number of 500 ml bottles.

It’s important not to sacrifice nutritional value when making these substitutions. There is a tendency to believe that good foods are all more expensive but this has never been true and is certainly not true today. There have always been healthy choices for people on a budget but sometimes it takes an economic crisis for people to re-evaluate their habits. Just don’t throw out the baby with the bathwater. For instance, I wouldn’t eat white bread no matter what the price difference. I will continue to use cold-pressed olive oil for cooking and salad dressing, even though there are cheaper oils. The loss of nutritional value is just too great.

This would be a great time to spend a little extra time in the kitchen making foods that you have been in the habit of purchasing. These would include such things as tomato sauces, stews, salad dressing and snacks. Make your own muffins and cookies. You could spend a few hours in the kitchen on the weekend and make enough of these for a week or more.

Keep America Slim includes a cookbook with 60 easy recipes to start you on your way. Go to our What's in the Package page for more info.

You should check your neighbourhood for alternatives to the mainstream grocery stores that you may be more familiar with. Bulk stores and dollar stores today have a lot of non-perishable goods at cheaper prices and grocery stores. This would include pasta, rice, coffee, tea and flour.

And speaking of coffee, the recession might actually be beneficial to some companies such as Dunkin’ Donuts. I see a lot of people switching from designer coffees at five dollars a crack and going back to DD. You can feed a family of four for a week for the same price as a designer coffee every day.

So remember, there is always a silver lining in every cloud. This recession may be just what you need to get you committed to a healthier lifestyle!