Most Mentioned Inexpensive Healthy Foods
This word cloud was created using Tagul.com to display the most mentioned inexpensive healthy foods from various Internet lists. I complied five lists of inexpensive but healthy foods and the ones that surfaced the most are shown as the largest in the word cloud. Rice, pasta, potatoes, yogurt, oats, lentils, beans, and milk are some of the biggest and most eye-catching foods in the word cloud. The words frozen, brown and wheat also stand out in smaller forms, but are most likely referring to frozen fruits and vegetables, brown rice and wheat bread or wheat pasta, since the word cloud does not pair two words together. Read below to gain some insight from a Cal Poly nutrition student and learn what two other Cal Poly students think about some of these healthy foods!
Q&A with nutrition senior Amanda Hall about eating healthy while shopping on a college budget!
Q: What are some inexpensive, healthy foods you think are good to buy at the super market?
A: “Leafy Greens, anything like spinach, romaine, that you can buy in a non-packaged form its pretty inexpensive. Also produce like carrots, potatoes, corn and apples.”
Q: Are you surprised about the Tagul.com list and rice being the top one?
A: “No not at all, rice is awesome! I didn’t even think of that, white rice is good too. There’s that whole push right now with whole grains and wanting wheat but its still a complex carb, its still better than getting your carbohydrates than from a different source, like a candy bar or something. In America right now there is a whole push is for a low carb diet, like the Atkins kind of model, but there’s a lot of contradictory studies in other developing countries where some populations are consuming carbohydrates like rice, white or brown, and there’s low amounts of heart disease and other things that we are struggling with as Americans, and we don’t see that with them, so it definitely depends on the type of carbohydrate you eat.”
Q: How important is it to eat brown rice over white rice, or does it not matter much?
A: “Its definitely important. The white rice is more processed than brown, so in general a healthy diet includes less processed foods and with brown rice they don’t take out a lot of those nutrients like they do with white rice. Its not going to make or break your diet but there’s more nutritional extras with brown rice.”
Q: What about eating whole grain pasta over white, processed pasta that most people eat?
A: “Oh same thing. Whole grain has more of your nutrients in it and there’s been evidence proven that whole grains are better for you than processed foods or pastas, and you get more out of eating them versus a more processed white pasta.”
Q: If you were shopping at the grocery store on a budget, what would be some delicious, healthy foods to purchase?
A: “Cottage cheese, yogurts, greek or regular to get the probiotic nutrients from, frozen vegetables in varieties, frozen berries, brown rice, whole grain pasta, canned beans, leafy greens, peanut butter, canned tuna in just water, and frozen chicken are all healthy, and pretty cheap foods.”
Q: Is there a big nutritional difference between buying frozen vegetable or fruits over buying fresh produce?
A: “Just looking at the ingredients is your best bet, and health wise it totally matters on the brand and they way to package it. For example, I go to Costco and get the mash-up bag of mixed berries and if its done right then the ingredients will just say: blackberries, raspberries and blueberries. Just look at the ingredients because if they add sweetener or a bunch of different things to preserve it, then it’s not going to be as great for you as fresh produce would be for you.”
Q: What’s your favorite cheap college meal to make and eat?
A: “At Traders Joes I get a can of corn, can of black beans, can of kidney beans and some balsamic vinegar. I’ll two of each can and mix them up, throw them in a bowl, so it’s a bean salad but with corn and balsamic. Then, this is a little weird, but then I’ll chop up kale, throw it in, then put it in the fridge, and the balsamic will break down the kale. You can make a bunch to take it with you throughout the week. At Trader Joes I’m pretty sure the canned beans are around 89 cents so it’s really not that expensive of a meal.”
Non-nutrition students' view of some of these foods:
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