10 Healthy Foods for Less #10

My last healthy food that is inexpensive is yogurt. Yogurt should be the live culture variety as this contains the bacteria which are healthy for the gut.

Yogurt also contains lots of calcium which is helpful for bone health. Watch the amount of sugar content in the variety that you buy. This can be one of the problems with yogurt.

10 Healthy Foods for Less #9

My last healthy fruit that can be fairly economical to buy is Kiwi. It is packed with antioxidants like Vitamin E, Vitamin C, Vitamin A and Vitamin K.

Kiwi's contain as much potassium as bananas are are better for you. They are rich with antioxidants and help the immune system.

10 Healthy Foods for Less #8

My healthy food today is oranges. We all know that oranges are very high in Vitamin C, but they also contain high levels of potassium as well. Eating real oranges is better than drinking juices.

More important about eating oranges is to eat the pith as this is where many of the vitamins are. The pith is the white matter just under the peel. Some oranges have a very thick pith and some have a very thin pith.

Other nutrients in oranges include things like folic acid, potassium, calcium, thiamin, Vitamin B6, and magnesium.

10 Healthy Foods for Less #7

Canned tuna or salmon is a great source of protein and usually fairly inexpensive. In addition, these canned fish contain a good source of omega 3. One serving size is 3 ounces which is about half a can.

You can mix these with fresh greens and or tomatoes to make a healthy salad. They can also be used in casseroles as a protein source.

10 Healthy Foods for Less #6

A food similar to yesterday's food is pumpkin. Obviously these aren't always available, but in the Fall there is usually lots to go around at a very reasonable price. Buy some extra and freeze it or can it. One small or medium pumpkin will yield lots of pumpkin that you can eat year around.

Pumpkin has lots of Vitamin A and Vitamin C and is loaded with fiber. You can eat it similarly to sweet potatoes.

10 Healthy Foods for Less #5

Another very healthy food is sweet potatoes. These can be expensive if not in season or locally grown. Sweet potatoes are high in Vitamin A and Vitamin C. Plus they are an excellent source of fiber.

To maximize the benefits, avoid boiling them as this leaches out some of the nutrients. Bake them and be sure to eat the skins as this is where most of the nutrients are. These are a great substitute for regular potatoes and much better for you.

You can also wash them and cut them into what look like french fries. Instead of frying them - be sure to leave the skins on - coat a pan with olive oil, a small amount, and put them in the oven to bake. Everyone in our household loves these.

10 Healthy Foods for Less #4

Berries of any type are good healthy foods. Look for those in season and locally grown. If they are in season, often time stores will have a big sale on them and you can buy extras and freeze them for later use.

Berries are rich in antioxidants and can be added to things like salads or be made a dessert in and of themselves. You can use them in smoothies which just adds to the nutrient value of the smoothie.

Berries contain lutein, and a substance which can help decrease the risk of bladder infections. They make a great dessert and are very healthy for you.Heal

10 Healthy Foods for Less #3

One of my favorite healthy foods is spinach because of the variety of ways in which it can be used. Again, locally grown in season is best and usually the least expensive. This food is really a nutritional powerhouse.

Spinach is rich in antioxidants and is a real boost to your immune system. One cup of it raw is one serving. You can use it in salads, sandwiches, eggs, soups, or other side dishes.

Spinach is rich in iron, carotenoids, lutein, bioflavanoids, calcium, folic acid, Vitamin K, fiber and Vitamin C. The lutein specifically targets eye health. You can read more about lutein by going to the other posts about lutein in this blog.

10 Healthy Foods for Less #2

The next healthy food is beets. These are best when you can buy locally grown in season. Beets are very high in fiber, Vitamin A and Vitamin C. They also have anti-inflammatory properties.

Again, if you can buy them fresh instead of canned, they are usually less expensive. I often cook them and cut them up with greens, a couple boiled eggs and onion. You can use a little mayonaise, or what we like best is a little olive oil and lemon or lime juice. Makes a tasty salad or sometimes we just eat this as our main course.

A word of warning. Beets will give the stool a bright red color and the water in the toilet will look like bright red blood. Don't be alarmed, this is just from the beets.

10 Healthy Foods for Less

Over the next 9 days I'll be giving you a food a day that is a healthy choice that is not so expensive. You can use these foods to improve your health and save money doing it.

The first food is beans. Raw beans or legumes are a great source of fiber and protein. You can use them in a variety of ways, as a main course or added to salads. Canned beans are not quite as good because some of the nutrients may have been cooked out of them. So buy them raw which are less expensive and cook them yourself. The broth in which they cook is great for soups and is nutrient rich.

Food Inc

I just watched the movie Food Inc which is a documentary about where are food comes from and what is happening to our farmers these days. Most of us don't have a clue about any of this. The food is in the grocery store and we buy it, end of story.

Seeing this movie really makes you think about what you are putting into your mouth and into your body. One of the lines out of the movie is if your great grandmother would not recognize what you are about to eat as food, don't eat it.

A few major corporations have a strangle hold on our food sources and we have no idea of what is genetically altered food. While there is no hard evidence that the increase of heart disease, diabetes and multiple other diseases may be related to our "food," I think we need to be looking long and hard at what we are eating.

The fact that junk food is cheaper than organic fruits and vegetables sends many shoppers who have little money to the junk food isles. I think this may be an excuse as well to eat junk food rather than healthy foods. What other things are these individuals buying? Cigarettes? sodas? specialty coffees?

Things to think about and take a stand to only eat healthier foods. Don't settle for the beef that is full of growth hormones and antibiotics or only corn fed. Cattle were designed to eat grass and if they are only fed corn, they do not produce CLA - conjugated linoleic acid - a nutrient that helps us as humans. See my previous posts on CLA.

Rent the movie. It is worth the 90 minutes to see where your food is coming from.

Keep Your Immune System Healthy

What's most important for your immune system is to keep it strong and healthy. In this day and age we are bombarded on a minute to minute basis with free radicals, viruses, stress, and multiple other things that can weaken the immune system.

So taking care of the immune system becomes crucial. One way to do that is to get plenty of rest. Make sure that you get your 7-8 hours a day of rest. This is a time when your body is able to actually rejuvenate it's army, the immune system.

Also, as with any army, you need to feed it. Eat lots of fresh fruits and vegetables as these contain antioxidants which help strengthen your immune system. Supplementing with a good multiple vitamin and mineral supplement is also advisable since our food source have lost a great deal of their nutritional value. Eat organic - these items are really better for you because they contain more of the nutritional value needed by the immune system.

Should I Eat Frozen Yogurt or Ice Cream?

You may be surprised at my answer here. Pick the ice cream, just don't eat too much. Frozen yogurt is another one of those products that the manufacturers have perpetrated as a health food. The fact of the matter is that while yogurt with live culture actually does support your digestive tract, frozen yogurt does not contain any active live cultures! In addition, the frozen yogurt is often loaded with artificial sweeteners which actually make your sugar cravings increase. This is not to mention all of the other chemicals in the frozen yogurt.

Read those labels and you'll see. Pick the ice cream, just limit your portion. Here's a trick instead of buying the 5 gallon bucket of ice cream, buy a quart of smaller size and then eat less of it. You can put it in a custard cup which will look full but you will be getting less.

Isn't Salmon A Healthy Food?

Everyone believes that salmon is a healthy food and it is. But once again, you need to read the label. What you want to look for is "wild" salmon. Most of the salmon in the grocery stores is farm salmon.

Because farm salmon are raised in pens, fed grains, plus a variety of other things including antibiotics, they are not the healthy food of wild salmon. They are more likely to cause cancer and have less of the good omega 3 in them. As with most of our food, you can consider farm raised salmon as processed food. Not the healthiest of choices.

Read the label and look for "wild" salmon.