The 6 Best Cheap & Healthy Foods You Should Be Eating Every Day

Today, I want to share with you six healthy food groups I eat every single day and how easy it can be to incorporate these six foods into a daily diet. These are the best cheap, healthy foods to buy and eat on a budget.


I eat a whole-food, plant-based diet due to my autoimmune issues. I previously had a carnivore, paleo, AIP (Autoimmune Paleo Diet) diet, but then switched to a whole-food, plant-based diet five years ago.


Here are six food groups that are beneficial to me and why.


Grains are part of a healthy diet

1. Grains

We eat wheat, oats, and brown rice every single day. I was gluten-free for eight years. Then, when I started learning about the health benefits of eating grains, I slowly started to incorporate them back into my diet and I have never felt better.


As the saying goes, bread is life. People have been eating bread since biblical times. Bread is important to eat unless you have celiac disease since your body can’t tolerate it. 

Milling wheat

I freshly mill our wheat so we have the highest concentration of all the essential minerals and vitamins that are found in wheat berries, such as vitamin E. Did you know that wheat has one of the highest concentrations of vitamin E? It makes your skin glow!

Black beans

2. Beans

I've heard some people say that beans are bad for you because they contain lectin. I believe God created beans with lectin so you wouldn’t eat them raw.


You may have gas in the beginning because your gut is trying to get used to beans. I’ve been eating beans for five years and I don’t have that problem anymore.


If you look at the longest-living people in the world, many of them eat beans daily. Okinawans eat tofu which is soybeans. People who live in the Mediterranean region eat chickpeas. People in Costa Rica eat black beans.


Some studies have suggested if you eat a cup of beans a day you will live four extra years longer than if you don’t eat beans.

Backing sourdough

3. Fermented foods

We eat sourdough daily. Sourdough is fermented flour and water. In the process, gluten is broken down and mostly eliminated. Fermented foods have thousands, maybe trillions of good bacteria that are in there to help your gut boost your immune system.


I also like sauerkraut made from cabbage. Pickles, made from cucumbers, are delicious. Other cultures eat kombucha or kimchi. 

Green leafy vegetables

4. Green leafy vegetables

Cruciferous vegetables include kale, spinach, broccoli, cauliflower, bok choy, Swiss chard, and romaine lettuce. It's easy to forget about greens. We also eat broccoli sprouts or alfalfa sprouts that have a concentrated form of nutrients you can’t find in any other vegetable.


They are powerhouses for your endothelial cells, which keep your arteries open and they are also cancer-fighting. When you eat greens you turn the nitrate into nitric oxide, which fuels your cells.

Platter of fruit


Frozen fruit slices

5. Fruits 

Fruit is full of fiber, vitamins, and minerals that other foods might not have. I even freeze sliced peaches, plums, apricots, and nectarines to have all year long. Eat these and you’ll feel so much better than snacking on chips or a candy bar. 

Hemp hearts are a healthy source of nuts and seeds

6. Nuts and seeds

These are good healthy fats. Chia seeds and flax seeds are also fantastic for your body. Chia seeds are prebiotic and good for your gut health and cleansing your liver of toxins.


I focus on walnuts. Eating a small handful of walnuts daily is fantastic for you. Pistachios are my favorite, too.


Don’t forget that quinoa is not a grain, it is a seed and it is full of protein. Hemp seeds are full of protein and healthy fats. Snack on nuts and seeds or add them to your salads or oatmeal daily.

Breakfast burrito mix

Breakfast

I love breakfast burritos. The mixture is potatoes, okra, chopped kale, and red lentils cooked in salsa and water. I sauteed it all together and put it in sourdough tortillas made with fresh milled wheat and sourdough starter.


In this meal, I have greens, beans, and grains.

Oats and seeds mixed with soy milk


Oat bowl topped with fruit

Lunch

For lunch, I make an oat bowl. I put oats, flaxseed, and chia seeds into a bowl and add soy milk. I use unsweetened soy milk from Trader Joe’s. The oats and seeds absorb the milk. Then, I add fruit topped with hemp seeds.

Coffee sweetened with maple syrup

Afternoon snack

We nibbled on strawberries and blueberries. I made myself a coffee and added some pure maple syrup. That’s my afternoon treat.

The best cheap & healthy foods

Dinner

For dinner, I ate a barbecue chicken salad. I’m using soy curls instead of chicken. The soy curls are non-GMO soybeans that are dried. I also had some potato chips from Trader Joe’s that are just potatoes, olive oil, and salt.


I am having romaine lettuce with black beans, corn, and soy curls I sauteed in a skillet with some zucchini and peppers from my garden. I added some organic barbecue sauce from Costco.I topped it all with black olives, cilantro, and salsa. 


The best cheap & healthy foods

I hope you enjoyed my explanation of what I eat, why, and how I incorporate these six food groups into my daily meals.


I hope I was able to help you make better food choices for your health. Without our health, we have nothing and I promise if you eat these foods, your health is going to improve.


Let me know what you think of the six cheap and healthy food groups that I love to eat every day. 

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  • Ann15330867 Ann15330867 on Dec 06, 2022

    I make a side dish with hemp hearts I buy at Trader Joe's. Simply bring your stock to a boil , 1 1/4 cups broth to 1c. hemp hearts. simmer for a few minutes until you like the texture. You may stir in some sauteed mushrooms, green onions etc. ~ what ever you like. Add more broth to your liking.

    we also make our own broth powder ~ it's cheaper and has none of the pesky chemicals and sugars in the prepared ones. We finely grind dry Shitake mushrooms, adding powdered garlic and onion (Whole Foods 365 are great), with a pinch of salt and MSG (which, it turns out, isn't bad for you). Try it ~ we never use the commercial ones. You can find recipes online too.

  • Ann15330867 Ann15330867 on Dec 06, 2022

    Also ~ we eat very low carb, so chia seeds are our friends. I make chia pudding with full fat Coconut milk, adding dried shaved coconut at serving time for crunch. Delicious!

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