this post was submitted on 23 Jun 2023
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I have a theory that there is a impossible trinity (like in economics), where a food cannot be delicious, cheap and healthy at the same time. At maximum 2 of the 3 can be achieved.

Is there any food that breaks this theory?

Edit: I was thinking more about dishes (or something you put in your mouth) than the raw substances

Some popular suggestions include

  • fruits (in season)
  • lentils, beans
  • rice
  • mushrooms
(page 2) 50 comments
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[–] count0 5 points 2 years ago (1 children)

I have a related one - I'm kinda continously on the lookout for a refreshing (evening) drink especially during hot weather.

So far, I haven't found one that doesn't contain at least one of:

  • (added) sugar
  • caffeine
  • alcohol

Or a combination of those.

On the other end of that scale, I do quite like White Russians. The Dude says hi.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 years ago (6 children)

Carbonated mineral water. Yeah there are environmental concerns with bottled water but this stuff breaks up the monotony of just drinking water pretty good without any caffeine, alcohol, or sugar.

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[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 years ago (4 children)

Curiously, peanuts 🥜.

100 gr of peanuts have almost all the fatty acids that you need in a day, with almost half the minimum calorie intake required and half the protein you need. They are satiating, VERY easy to grow, and even used as a way to replenish the soil with nutrients in crop rotation.

If you ask me what was the mana taken through the dessert, I'd say most likely peanuts.

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[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 years ago (6 children)

🥑
I think a ripe avocado can be a good meal by itself, it has healthy fat, vitamins & fiber.
One avocado as a meal is cheaper than alot of other options.

https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/nutritionsource/avocados/

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[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (4 children)

Well, first we need to define what healthy means, because you could die of water intoxication, meaning there is a point where quantity matters.

Are cheese and butter healthy ? Not if it's your only diet, but there are tons of very healthy things in cheese and butter. And of course, the same goes for every thing. So we must have balance in mind when defining an healthy food.

The second is to define what is cheap. In most of European countries, fresh food is relatively cheap, but in other countries they can be super expensive. And there's nothing more healthy than fresh food. So you definitely need fresh food as a base for an healthy balanced meal.

The third is highly subjective.

As for my healthy delicious cheap meal:

Breakfast

One scrambled egg by Gordon Ramsay with a melted slice of cheddar on toast and A fruit salad of one orange, one kiwi and one small apple

Lunch

Spaghettis with fresh garlic, olive oil, fresh basil and tomato wedges

Dinner

Pan-fried chicken fillet with frozen peas and carrot rings

Snack

Any fruit really

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[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 years ago

I like pickling things. Pickled Red Onions are delicious and easy, and Pickled Green Beans are probably my favorite. Fresh Green Beans can be had by the big bag for about two bucks. Throw in a couple Habanero peppers for spice, maybe $.50 worth of seasoning, $.50 worth of vinegar if you buy it by the gallon, and you have some delicious cheap snacks that are also relatively healthy. The worst ingredients would be salt and sugar, but you can minimize its use to taste when you make them yourself. I guess it's all relative, but to me a few bucks for a quart jar of quality homemade pickles checks all the boxes when it comes to cheap, healthy, and delicious. It does take a bit of prep work though so it's definitely better if you enjoy that type of thing.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 years ago (3 children)

I'd say sandwiches, depending on what you want to put in them. A loaf of healthy (low sugar) bread isn't going to be the cheapest option on the shelf, but if you're dividing the cost by the number of sandwiches you can make out of it, it still ends up amounting to a large number of really inexpensive meals. I normally just add some meat, cheese, lettuce, and tomato, and it's very nutritional and also delicious.

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[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 years ago (3 children)

When I was in college, I had the rule of not buying anything that is >$1.50 per pound. This is what I was reduced to (prices may be different now due to inflation and geo area):

  1. Apples, oranges, grapes, strawberries when they are on sale
  2. Milk, yogurt
  3. Pork shoulder, chicken quarters, thighs, drumsticks
  4. ground pork, ground beef
  5. Carrots, broccoli, potatoes, cabbage (you'll be surprised at how good thinly sliced cabbages taste in a sandwich)
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[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 years ago (3 children)

I was looking at similar requirements for my daily lunch during the workday. I live in London so you're paying between £5 and £10 per day even for just a sandwich-based lunch. I needed a packed lunch that was cheap, tasty, healthy and additionally: filling, easy/quick to prepare and low carb. So that's a big ask.

I settled on a kind of custom Greek salad. One cucumber, some red onion, pickled beetroot all diced up, olive oil (or cold-pressed rapeseed oil) and some feta cheese. Sometimes I add chickpeas and coriander.

It's perfect, I've been eating it for years now.

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[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (1 children)

Most things are unhealthy because we eat too much of it. For example (fresh) bread is delicious, cheap, and healthy, provided you eat it in moderation. Now if you ate nothing but bread all day you would gain a lot of weight.

Same goes for salt, fat, and sugar. To be fair, part of the reason we tend to eat so much of it is because normally this stuff is rare in nature and we are evolved to seek it, but we've made it so accessible and cheap, that we easily let our natural instincts take over. So that aspect explains your trinity. But it doesn't have to be that way. You can have all three with a bit of self control.

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[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 years ago (1 children)

I heard that tacos are actually quite good for you, and I assume they could be if you get proper ones with lots of veg and natural ingredients rather than going to Taco Bell or some other fast food place and getting processed defrosted junk.

Source: Dr Karan on Youtube (yes, Youtube doctor, but he's British, so I trust him)

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[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 years ago (2 children)

It depends where you live (I'm in Bangkok, so grocery choices are quite limited).

I love Oats. I got massively back into them again this year... now I buy around 3kg every month (instant oats).

It's only this year, really, that I discovered that oats are still really good and creamy when not made with milk... and it's really easy to boil a single cup of water to dump on a cup of oats for a perfect breakfast (left standing for a minute - done... no need to 'microwave' oats).

Also, cheap staples include: carrots, potato, broccoli, spinach...

Frozen strawberries are dirt cheap here too.

Breakfast 1:

  • Instant Oats (1 cup, 1/4 tsp salt, 3tsp sugar, 3 tsp creamer)
  • pulsed to powder in the blender with a cup of boiling water poured over.
  • Blend 100ml milk with 3 strawberries and mix that in. The beauty of this is (as my son does NOT like stodgy/thick porridge) I can add an extra 100ml of milk to his breakfast, and it becomes a liquid smoothie.

Breakfast 2:

  • Weetbix are not too cheap, but ONE biscuit mixed with ONE cup of oats is a massive breakfast - and tastes of Weetbix... and is ridiculously cheap in comparison.

Breakfast 3

  • Oats work great with eggs...
  • 1 cup oats, some salt, some cumin (maybe a teaspoon)
  • 2/3 cup boiling water (soak a minute)
  • 2 duck eggs mixed in
  • butter up the frying pan and dump it in there, cover and cook gently for 3 minutes, flip and give them another 3 minutes.

DIsgusting poopy one

  • 2 teaspoons of cocoa powder mixed with 4 teaspoons of non-dairy creamer + 1 cup oats
  • pulse to powder, add a cup of hot water.

That's choccie heaven right there.

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[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 years ago (7 children)

Sweet potatoes. Very nutritious, very cheap, and taste sweet. Easy to prepare to, you can just boil or bake them for a little while without adding anything and they're great just like that.

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[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 years ago (3 children)

Cashews. Benefits: heart-healthy fats, antioxidants, essential minerals.

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[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 years ago (2 children)

Rice, tuna from a packet, and soy sauce - cheap, delicious, healthy, and easy. You wanna get fancy, you can add some sesame oil, furikake, chop up some green onions, whatever you got kicking around.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 years ago

Sardines are a pretty solid alternative to tuna as well. Depending, they may be cheaper, andnas a bonus they're much more sustainable than tuna.

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[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 years ago (8 children)
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[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 years ago

Thanks for this prompt. Reading this thread was the first time I felt like I was on reddit since I've joined this instance. I laughed and learned.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (9 children)

I have a feeling that the answer to this might be anything that you can grow from seeds. So, fresh fruits, vegetables, beans, grains, etc. then, like tomatoes or snow peas or apples or wheatberries. The thing is that these all take time to transform from seed to fruit, so if you include time in your constraint space these don't work. But you didn't so here you go :D

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[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Rice and beans, just be a little creative with preparation. Also you can make lots of soups that are cheap and healthy and its super easy to make too.

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[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 years ago (1 children)

literally any bagel sandwich, unless the cost of eggs or ham is still rlly high in your area. low effort, immaculate.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

I'm pretty sure bagels are terrible for you. The delicous ones anyway.

Okay maybe not terrible but definitely not healthy due to the high sugar content.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 years ago (4 children)

Carrots. Same as potatoes. Boil em, mash em, stick em in a stew. Someone already mentioned onions, same idea.

I know your edit says you were thinking about dishes, and I think carrots can be their own dish with very little preparation. I like to bake mine on a sheet for half hour or so at 425f, and they are wonderful on their own. Also so low-calorie you can eat a practically infinite amount of them without spoiling a diet!

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[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 years ago

parsley in the form of tabbouleh salad: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tabbouleh https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parsley

check out the vitamins and minerals in parsley, it's one of the super foods.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

Fried soy beans with garlic. Tastes approx like potato chips, about the same price as beans, and decently nutritious. Just don't use too much salt or oil.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 years ago (1 children)
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[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 years ago

Rice with lentils is a good option, add salt and pepper and salad of choice

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 years ago (3 children)

Tinned tuna. Inexpensive, high in protein and fish oils, low in fat and calories.

Probably not great in huge quantities because of iodine, but generally very healthy

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[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 years ago (2 children)

Chana masala is pretty delicious and I'm pretty sure it's healthy. I think it's mostly chickpeas and vegetables which are both pretty good for you.

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[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 years ago (2 children)

Oatmeal with butter, brown sugar, and salt.

The above 3 primary ingredients will be cheap, healthy, and delicious when prepared properly. Adding milk and/or cinnamon to taste can improve the deliciocity.

But maybe don't eat it for every meal or you'll be shitting after every meal. Very clean colon though.

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