This is a fun problem I’ve thought about in the past, though never specifically with regard to money. With the recent personal finance bloggers’ weight loss challenge I’m participating in, though, I thought it made sense to try to integrate it with money management.
I once went on a very strict no-sugar diet (no sweeteners, no aspartame, no maltodextrin, no carbs, no sucrose or even any fruit!) and lost a ton of weight. I was only able to keep it up for about 6-9 months, though. It was unsustainable for a lot of practical and circumstantial reasons. But I did end up learning a lot about nutrition. I researched the effects of sugar online, trying to figure out what else I could eat or shouldn’t eat. I’d do it again, but more moderately. I’d keep fresh fruit in, for example.
A post by Jacob from Early Retirement Extreme on why he hates eating out got me thinking again about what it is we really need to eat to live.
Going along with the idea of living simply in general, this definitely extends to simplifying our finances, budget, and what we eat. From my research we can live completely healthily and most efficiently on just a few key foods:
- fruit
- raw vegetables
- water
- nuts
- beans and legumes
Did you know there are a lot of carbs in fruit, and protein in vegetables and nuts? There are fats in fruits and nuts as well. And those are the basic three categories our body uses: carbs, protein, fat (and needed in that order).
If you look closer at these categories, you eventually find what can be considered the “super foods” in each. These are foods that give you maximum nutrition for the amount of calories and metabolic activity they require from your body (think of metabolism as the work that wears your body down over the years – that’s basically it). Here’s a list of a few power foods that provide a huge range of vitamins, protein and minerals for the amount of wear and tear they place on your body:
- broccoli
- spinach
- chick peas (garbanzo beans)
- black beans (Matt Jabs can vouch for this one!)
- dark seaweed
- quinoa
- millet
- kale
- blueberries (great for quick breakfasts)
- carrots
- lentils
Do you know of others? I haven’t included meat because it takes so much of our body’s energy to break down. And I haven’t included any other drinks than water (indeed, don’t forget to drink enough water). Most drinks are derivative of more whole ingredients in other foods. Even fresh squeezed fruit juices are slightly less healthy than the fruits themselves – the sugar becomes too concentrated. This is why my own ideal diet would just consist in water in terms of beverages. I don’t need red wine – I can get my reservatrol and antioxidants in other places.
Save Money Eating Power Foods and Super Foods
Since you are literally getting more nutrition for your buck, you’re scoring big twice: better food and less money needed to spend on it. Now imagine if you also coupled this ideal nutrition regimen with periodic financial fasts and no-spend days.
Food is the biggest drain on our resources, it seems, beyond shelter. Cars are a lot of money, but transportation is not inherently something essential to our survival. And you can always bike or carpool. But the need for food enslaves us everyday. We literally change our schedules and organize our lives around it. And though we need nutrition, it’s unfortunate that most of our relationship with food is a result of habits and addictions (most of which are socially reinforced).
I realize I’m talking about ideals – I have as many food addictions as the next person, and they’re hard to moderate. My own weaknesses are for dairy and bread products – I’d be so much healthier if I could cut those out! Pizza is the worst culprit here. But ideals are ideals for a reason: they’re like goals in that way: what we want to strive towards.
If you could get by on simple meals of plain rice with a side of veggies everyday, you would save not only a lot of money, but also all the time it takes to shop for different foods in the grocery store as well as preparing many different foods at home.
A simple cooking schedule could rotate through one grain serving and two servings of vegetables for each night’s dinner (with just fruit and/or maybe some oatmeal in the morning and when still hungry). Example meals:
- brown rice and broccoli, carrots
- quinoa and spinach, lentils
- millet and black beans, tomatoes
- kidney beans, carrots, kale, tomatoes, onions
- broccoli, spinach, onions, chick peas, garlic
Regarding the very apparent lack of meat in this diet, I won’t comment here on the benefits and drawbacks of meat. Suffice to say that meat of all kinds is very complex. If we’re striving for simplicity, it is my personal opinion that meat is a hindrance. Other bloggers who also don’t eat meat might have different views on this – ask Baker from ManVsDebt, Ola from I Run For Life, Leo from ZenHabits, Jonathan from Illuminated Mind, Steve Pavlina and Erin Pavlina, or Alan (from Saving For Serenity)’s fiancee. This is not to say you couldn’t save money on a diet that included meat, but it seems to me it wouldn’t be the most simple regimen possible. I haven’t eaten meat in so long that I don’t even know how to safely cook it (I stopped eating it for good when I was about 20-21).
You can also save money while eating healthily by using some of these free online resources for losing weight posted by Pete at Bible Money Matters. Related to this, Jacob also has a great post on how to get in shape without paying a dime. In fact, I’d suggest you ask him for ideas on any frugal topic – he’s got that area mastered.
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Thanks for the nice words!
Here’s what I ate about 90% of the time while I was in grad school. I probably overdosed on mercury, because I didn’t know any better, but here goes. I could cook this for 6 days in half an hour (including cleaning up).
Tuna salad. Basically, tuna, onion, mustard, mixed up. Served on lettuce, tomatoes, and bread.
Lentil soup. Red lentils, canned tomatoes, onion, garlic. Served with a little bit of cheese and rice.
Both have balanced amino acid profiles.
On top of that I ate a lot of bananas and apples.
After a while, this diet felt pretty normal and any other meal felt like a real treat.
I’m not the beacon of knowledge when it comes to nutrition, but where do nuts (almonds, pecans and walnuts, namely) factor in when it comes to metabolism and nutrition? I tend to eat a lot of nuts for protein.
@Jacob – yeah, I remember reading you talking about that. Since I’m in grad school myself, I would love a simple diet that doesn’t involve so much planning, cooking and cleaning. Apples and bananas have definitely helped for the mornings. A microwave is a handy must-have, too.
@ Matt B – yes, nuts do have protein, some more than others. They also have a lot of calcium (almonds especially). One thing to remember with nuts is that they are very concentrated – so of any given nut, don’t eat more than a small handful at a time. Also, raw and unsalted is always obviously better, too. But sometimes I fall on the side of what’s cheaper – it’s always cheaper to buy cashew pieces rather than full cashews. But it’s the same thing!
The more frugal I get, the healthier & more simply I seem to eat… which has turned out to be a huge blessing. My wife & I have both lost nearly 20% of our body weight & loving it. Thanks for including my posts in this great article.
@MattJabs – have you read Joel Fuhrman’s books? Now that’s radical, but also the most perfect way to eat, IMO. Even cancer was reversed when people just ate salads and beans.
One thing you might want to consider instead of just water is adding tea to the list. If you can learn to drink it without sugar it cheap and adds some good antioxidants.
@Robby – I suppose, if you can find a good herbal (no-caffeine) tea, and drink it without cream and sugar, that might be something to add if it contains things not already found in some fruits. But antioxidants can already be found in some fresh fruit, like blueberries.
This describes my wife and I’s diet pretty well. (Admittedly, it’s only half out of choice. I have celiac disease, which means I can’t have anything with wheat in it–which, it turns out, is essentially every processed food on the planet.)
You’re absolutely right. There’s plenty of delicious variety , and it’s all quite inexpensive. :)
Oh, yeah, gluten is such a huge problem, too. Vegan, gluten-free diets can be very healthy, but yes, can be boring. Funny how “boring” is often the best way to go, even in finance, though, too, huh?
Isn’t this pretty much a vegan diet; fruits, veggies, and nuts? or raw foods depending how you consume it.
I did vegan on and off and getting back into it again now, and it is definitely an awesome experience but tough to maintain when everyone else in the family holds a different diet.
I think the easiest way to save money on food is to eat only as much as you need (with a snack here and there), not wasting food by buying too much, and by eating unprocessed and local foods. Meat can be the most expensive item on your shopping list, especially if you try to buy organic or grass-fed (but in this case, you shouldn’t skimp cash).
Having a vegan or vegetarian diet can also be expensive if you eat a lot of processed foods, especially fake meats and cheeses, or if you rely on exotic and shipped from far away fruit and superfoods like cacao or goji berries.
I eat a similar type of diet to what you’re suggesting. I’m vegan and I try to eat as much fresh foods as possible, relying mostly on local fruit and vegetables with some grains like quinoa or buckwheat. This is really the cheapest diet I’ve been on in proportion to how healthy I am. Ramen noodles don’t even compare! :)
@Ola – congrats on maintaining such a healthy diet. I just got back from seeing Food, Inc. and although I’m not its primary audience (already aware of many of the problems), I was still shocked (again) and am even more motivated to continue paying attention not only to what food I’m eating but where it comes from. I am afraid of where we will be in another 30 years if systemic industrial changes to food production are not made now. If people choose to eat meat, I would plead them to at least support the grass-feed farmers! That move alone would have major beneficial repercussions. It’s more expensive, as you say, but the benefits far outweigh that extra cost. I’m sickened to know that it takes 75 gallons of oil to bring an industrial cow to slaughter.
I also learned that 90% of the soybeans grown in the U.S. are now genetically modified. I didn’t realize it was that high. So I checked the brand of soymilk I drink, Silk, and am glad to say it does not contain GMOs. It’s definitely high time to move towards a much simpler diet!
It’s so great to finally read a PF blog post giving a shout-out to vegan and vegetarian diets, and not just for financial reasons! I’m so sick of the “I save on meat by buying it in bulk at Costco” posts.
You are spot on. A vegan, vegetarian, or at least reduced-meat diet is better for your health, better for your wallet, and *amazingly* better for the planet. Thanks!
Thanks Victor, I appreciate it. See my recent post (from yesterday) on Food, Inc., too.