Cheap Sources of Good Food

I dug out my old copies of the ‘Motherhood and Childcare’ magazine from January, 1987 and found this interesting piece on feeding a family on a lower budget. Nowadays, I could not find such a magazine in KL stores anymore. I don’t know if it is still available in Singapore as it was then published in the republic.

The suggestions in the article are still relevant today as it was 22 years ago.

One needs to be extra creative now, when the same amount of money you had one year ago cannot buy the same value of goods today. Now, how do you feed your family with the same budget without sacrificing either taste or good balanced meals?

During the good times, we became accustomed to ‘good ‘food. Our tastes expanded with improved lifestyle patterns. We loved eating out, spending on convenience food and as we spend on fast foods, steaks and not forgetting our local commercialized delicacies, our diet became poorer. We forgot about balanced meals and ate whatever our palates desired.

The recession may be a blessing in disguise if we looked at it positively. With less money to spend, more families have no choice but to cook and eat at home. Cooking it yourself need not be a chore as there are lots of appliances and ways to save time and efforts nowadays. You may end up being wiser on the choice of cheap and nutritious meals you can prepare if you do a bit of homework before you shop. Comparing prices and deciding on the menu for a whole week may save on trips to the supermarket.

Knowledge on what makes a well balanced diet also helps. Knowing the sources of proteins, carbohydrates, fats, vitamins and minerals, fibre and water , what they do and how much we should eat each of them daily also helps. We may end up obese after consuming too much of the wrong thing and yet we are undernourished!

Now is the time to change our ways. By cooking yourself and adopting the following tips you can take charge of what goes into the mouths and the stomachs of your loved ones and not forgetting into yourself as well. You can control the amounts of the essential food types in your food and encourage good eating habits in your family. Here are some tips you can adopt:

Reduce Eating Out Hawker and quick service restaurant food are often fat laden and full of refined carbohydrates. Eating a lot of them leads to obesity, constipation and the incidence of high blood pressure, heart disease, diabetes and bowel cancers.	Increase Fibre High fibre can prevent constipation, haemorrhoids and even colon cancers. Fibres satisfy us for longer as they take a longer time to chew and digest and stay longer in our stomach. Insoluble fibre is not digested and is passed out of the gastrointestinal tract while soluble fibre passes into your blood stream and reduces bad blood cholesterol and at the same time increases good blood cholesterol. Whole grains, (brown rice, whole-wheat flour), beans and pulses are good fibre sources.
Reduce on Soft Drinks and Sugar Most soft drinks are full of excess sugar. These empty calories are not only expensive but lead to insatiate thirst. Stop adding sugar or half the sugar when cooking your food and buy fewer sweets, cakes, ice-cream and soft drinks for your children. Reduce on canned foods and don’t add sugar to cereals.	Increase Fresh Fruits and Vegetables Fresh fruits and vegetables are relatively cheap and not only are good sources of fibre but a store house of vitamins and minerals as well. They are also lower in calories.
Reduce on Proteins We tend to eat too much protein when our body only needs about 60g a day. Excess proteins get converted to carbohydrates and fats.	Increase Water Intake Since our bodies are made up of 70% water, it is natural that we replenish the water content of our bodies. Insufficient water put our kidneys under a great strain. Children should be encouraged to drink unsweetened water and consume thin, clear soups or broths.
Reduce on Animal Fats Reducing animal fats in meat, fish and dairy products and halving the amount of oil used in preparing meals go a long way to promote good eating habits and a healthy lifestyle.	Increase on fat substitutes Using substitutes like vegetable oils for butter and yoghurt for coconut milk are healthier and cheaper choices. It is often better to steam, roast or grill over low heat.

By adopting the above tips, you not only cut your food bills, but you will find that you are more alert and feel so much better. With the money you saved, by discarding refined and processed foods, you can now afford a new recipe book on healthy cooking. Or better still; look up the Internet for great recipes.