Healthy Eating on a Budget: How to Prioritize Quality and Traceability in Your Food Choices

Author Michael Pollan has a great line in his book The Omnivore’s Dilemma. He encourages readers to think about their food and ask themselves the fundamental question, “What is it and where does it come from?”

Yes, it is a Cool Ranch Dorito from Walmart - and its delicious! But can it be traced back to flora and fauna? And more importantly, what is the journey of the food?

Is meat healthy? Depends. Lean cuts from a healthy, humanely raised animal can be part of a nutritious diet. Heavily marbled cuts of meat from animals force-fed grain, antibiotics, and growth hormones are bad news.

Choose organic fruits and vegetables. This limits the amount of nasty chemicals that are ingested. An apple a day keeps the doctor away - unless that apple is drenched in pesticides.

Eating quality food can be done on a limited budget. And cooking homemade meals is always less expensive than eating out. To get the best return on investment, focus on buying grass fed meat, eggs from free range chickens, dairy from grass fed animals, and always organic when buying the heavily sprayed Dirty Dozen: apples, bell peppers, celery, cherries, grapes, lettuce, nectarines, peaches, pears, potatoes, spinach, and strawberries.

Be a discerning connoisseur of food. Make an effort to understand the journey that food takes from earth, to store, to plate.

Be a healthy human!