Eating Healthy on a Budget

Maybe you are a student scraping up the last bit of cash from his or her loan or you make national minimum wage and struggle to make rent at the end of the month. I've been there. That is why I've gone about creating a guide to eating healthy on a budget. Unlike most budget guides this goes by macronutrients.

Protein

As a student all I heard in the kitchen was complaints about the price of meat. I agree that meat can be expensive but you can work it out.
First of all you need to know where to shop. For example farmfoods offer 5kg of chicken breast for £10. It's also worth taking a trek down to your local butcher as they can often have some fantastic prices on fresh, organic products.
Then there's the packaging and perpetration to consider. Chilled meat is often more expensive but a pack of canned tuna will provide a protein source for 5 meals for under £2:50. Frozen products will last longer and more often than not they offer better value for money.
Finally you need to know why meat is important. Meat contains all essential amino acids making it a complete protein. Meat is also high in iron which is essential for oxygen utilisation. A meal with a complete protein and green vegetables will have a similar effect. A favourite of mine is scrambled egg with spinach.

Carbohydrates

Carbohydrates are much easier to get ahold of at a low cost. Students live off pasta dishes and bread. Let's focus on portion control. 1 fist size gathering of carbohydrates is a portion so a mountain of pasta is not on!
You can go to your local super market and buy gigantic value packs of up to 5kg. The taste is hardly different although in some cases the texture of these meals are not the best. Just mix these carbohydrate part ions in with your meat and vegetables and you'll be as happy as Larry. If you must eat bread please buy it fresh. The mainstream brands place so much preservatives in their bread that your everyday loaf can be a nightmare for your body composition goals. A good rule to go by is this:

"If the carbohydrate portion you are holding dissolves under a running tap it does not have the adequate fibre content that your digestive system needs."

Fruits and Vegetables

First of all let's look at fruit. Pits high sugar content has given it a bad reputation in today's world of weight loss but they hold important micronutrients. Most fruit gets neglected because of inconvenience. People don't like to spend a few minutes pealing a orange or chopping up a pineapple. If you don't eat fruit often you should consider starting with grab and go fruit. Something you can pick up and eat there on the spot with no hassle such as an apple. Don't let any fruit go off. Have containers ready so that you can chop your fruit and frees them into a healthy meal that you can pull out at a later point. On that note I will point out that some store bought frozen fruit has a better nutrient quantity. This depends on how quick the fruit was frozen after picking.
The same applies to vegetables but if your vegetables are starting to see better days just chop it up and stir fry it, stir fry dishes are brilliant as cooking a good stir fry requires little perpetration and offers more nutrients due to the fast cooking process.

Here are 3 bonus tips added in just for your reading pleasure:

Shop late. At the end of the day there are some fantastic discounts on the end of the isles.

Freeze. Anything can be frozen and it will stay fresher for longer.

Batch cook. It's easy to prepare up to 8 meals in 40 minutes. Just check out gethin_rhys_james on Instagram to see some of my meals.

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