How to eat healthily through the recession (& still have fun with your food)

Last post we looked at the reality of how people’s food shopping has changed during the recession. Some of it is good stuff like eating plenty of seasonal vegetables, while other aspects, like turning to cheaper cuts of meat are potentially less healthy. I’ve gathered together a few tips for turning those changes in food shopping and lifestyle into healthy ones.

Make staying in the new going out
Rustling up something wonderful at home rather than going out is a shrewd move for both health and wallet. Eating at home means that you have control over what you eat, how it is prepared and the size of your portions. And what better excuse to invite your friends over and use them as guinea pigs for experimenting with whole new area of cuisine? (I’ve been thinking about trying my hand at Japanese cooking but Mediterranean and Indian foods have a similarly strong reputation for combining nutritious ingredients in a flavourful way).

Replace those cheaper cuts of meat with non-animal protein
Casserole and stewing cuts, meat pies and sausages are all generally high in saturated fat and best kept as an occasional treat. More expensive cuts of meat such as lean beef and chicken breast are usually lower in fat which is better for your health, but reducing your total intake of meat seems the best overall strategy. Limiting meat to once or twice a week will save you money, be beneficial for your health and is gaining consensus opinion as the most important dietary change we can make for the environment.  Foods such as tofu, beans and eggs can provide all of the protein, iron, zinc and other valuable nutrients your body would otherwise get from meat.

Find a comfort that isn’t food based
A lot of people are feeling the pressure and it’s easy to see why sales of comfort foods are on the up.  The recession is likely to be here for a while (and even without it life tends to have a way of sending us twists and turns), so now is the time to start thinking about a few boosts that aren’t food based.  Exercise is a fabulous way to improve your mood and there are few activities cheaper than a walk round the block, or or half an hour in the garden. Exercise can also help to ease the health effects caused by more serious financial worries such as depression, anxiety and lack of sleep. For more cheap exercise suggestions these posts on Digeratilife and Bankrate.com are good places to start.

If your comfort eating is more boredom based and you’ve already been out and exercised then consider finding some other (cheap) activities to do of an evening (it’s no coincidence that stay-home hobbies like knitting see such a resurgence in popularity in a recession).

Keeping up your fruit intake without relying on imported, tropical fruits
Tropical fruits are expensive and not sustainable after they have been pre-prepared, over-packaged and air-freighted half-way round the world,.  But with the lack of locally grown fruit available at this time of year it can be hard to know what to eat instead.  My compromise is to buy hardier, more locally imported seasonal fruits
(such as European citrus) as well as nutritious frozen summer berries and canned fruits.

Eat a wider variety of seasonal vegetables
To hear that we are embracing seasonal British vegetables is a wonderful recession side-effect. This rise in seasonal vegetable sales has largely been in starchy and root vegetables such as potatoes, carrots and parsnips.  These are all good nutritious foods, but eating a wider variety of veggies is even better for ensuring that your body gets all of the different vitamins and minerals that it needs.  Eating a range of colours is the easiest strategy to ensure nutritional variety.  The colour most obviously missing from the root vegetable list is green. There are plenty of lovely seasonal leafy green vegetables to try such as brussels sprouts, cabbages, kale, leeks and spinach, with purple sprouting broccoli and asparagus just making their first appearances.

Get inventive with your home baking
A recession makes for a perfect time to stay in and hone those baking skills.  Baked goods are not always the healthiest food and can be high in saturated fat and sugar, but with a bit of experimentation baking doesn’t need to be unhealthy. These are just a few ideas to get you started:

• Try experimenting with your favourite recipes, replacing some of the fat in your baked goods with fruit or vegetable puree or developing a healthier version of your favourite muffin.
• There are a plethora of healthier grains out there to investigate; wholewheat, wholegrain spelt and buckwheat are three flours that are relatively easily to obtain in the UK, as are whole oats.
• Don’t limit yourself to baking sweet items either; learn how to make one of the many styles of bread that are baked across the world (I’ve been experimenting with chapatti which are easy and fun to make).
• Try baking with beans and legumes for a soluble fibre boost, for example these Chickpea blondies (simple to make and tasty) or black bean brownies

Phew, that was a bit of a long post. Thanks for sticking with me. I hope I’ve given you a few ideas to eat well and save a bit of cash. And of course I’d love to hear what you’ve come with yourself.