By Kay Leaman, HealthyDay HealthyLife
What sparked this month’s topic? I ran a report for our grocery expenditures for February; what a shock!
As we maneuver through the times we’re in, creating new habits around how we shop and consume can improve our health and wallets. Below are nine health tips with thoughts to help reduce spending at checkout:
• Focus on eating more fruits and veggies. A salad with every meal will usually create more leftovers which creates another meal at no added cost. Also, buying fresh vegetables offers multiple lunches and side dishes. Non-processed foods will always offer health benefits. Salads don’t always have to be served with lettuce. Consider brown rice, quinoa or gluten free noodles. Change up the veggies for variety. Serve the salad warm vs. cold.
• Who doesn’t love a delicious plate of spaghetti or lasagna? Dishes like this are filling and can be stretched. A big pot of sauce can give you several dishes: spaghetti, lasagna, or dinner-in-a-dish (seashell noodles, veggies, sauce and cheese). Be sure to par-boil (not quite done) noodles. Doing this slows down how quickly the sugar in the noodles is absorbed.
• Scratch baking can also save money. Replace white sugar with Turbinado (cane sugar), honey, date sugar or pure maple syrup. Check the prices on these. Raw honey and pure maple syrup can be pricey, but they also require a much smaller amount due to their sweetness which also makes it last longer. On the health side, the body recognizes these natural sweeteners as real food which allows it to be broken down easier.
• Cut your white flour in half with almond flour, oat flour (You can make this by grinding whole rolled oats.) or another less processed flour. This cuts down on the sugar impact on the body.
• If you’re a yogurt person, switch up to plain low-fat Greek or regular yogurt. It should have only two-three ingredients. Add your own fruit (frozen fruit works well) and add nuts, seeds, and a touch of honey or maple syrup. This is cost effective and makes a great breakfast or lunch.
• Supplement with a high-quality vitamin. The company should be able to guarantee that the ingredients on the label are in each and every tablet. Consumer Lab tested 74 products and found defects in 40% of them. Taking control of our health includes becoming more informed with what we are putting in our bodies.
• Soup! I love soup. It’s filled with all kinds of good stuff, from chili to veggie to chicken tortilla soup. I’ve found with soup that by cutting the chicken up in smaller bites I can stretch my chicken breasts for more meals. And, soup usually always allows for left overs. Tacos are another way to stretch out ingredients.
• Make your own beans. You can make a big pot and freeze them. Soak them over night. Rinse and fill the pot with fresh water and cook until done. An Insta-Pot cooks them quickly. You can also crockpot them on high for a few hours. This is a great savings and offers us the benefit of less salt in our diet.
• Replace cereal with oatmeal. Soak it in the bowl overnight in milk or water. Serve hot or cold. add nuts, seeds, fruit, nut butters, natural sweeteners, etc. You can also add a few chocolate chips (dark chocolate) for a little treat. The benefits of this one is huge. You’re cutting back on starches and a high amount of sugar.
• Lastly, consider a garden. If you’re like us, growing a garden has it challenges. To make this less overwhelming, grab some neighbors and friends. One can grow tomatoes, another peppers, another squash, another lettuce and so on. Then you can share with each other. You can use containers, growing bags, etc. If you have a green thumb the ground works too :-). You can even grow flowers for sharing.
Have an amazing summer. I hope the above thoughts spark you to think outside the box. Here’s to Health!
HealthyDay HeallthyLife succeed.hdhl@gmail.com
