I don’t have extra money to buy fancy, expensive foods!

 

Eating a plant-based diet can be much cheaper than eating the diet that is SAD (Standard American Diet).  You don’t have to buy expensive foods which are often more processed anyway.  Let’s consider the main components of a plant-based diet – legumes such as beans and lentils, whole grains, vegetables, fruits, nuts and seeds.

 

Legumes of all kinds are powerhouses of nutrition!  Canned beans are inexpensive, and dried beans cost even less!  You can cook a pot of dried beans and use them in soups and stews, with pasta, on salads, as dips, mashed for sandwich spreads – the list is endless!  Buy whole grains in larger bags, or in the loose bins; they are generally cheaper than in small boxes or sacks, and you save on packaging materials as well.  Vegetables and fruits are cheaper when in season.  When they are not in season, buy the frozen versions, since they are nutritionally much the same as fresh, as they are picked and frozen immediately.

 

Ideally, it’s best to buy organic.  If your budget doesn’t allow buying organic all of the time, then buy those fruits and veggies that have been shown to be lowest in pesticides. 

 

The non-organic fruits and vegetables that have the highest known levels of pesticides are known as the “dirty dozen;" these are celery, peaches, strawberries, apples, blueberries, nectarines, bell peppers, spinach, kale, cherries, potatoes and imported grapes.  The “clean 15” are those fruits and veggies that test lowest in pesticides.  They are onions, avocados, sweet corn, pineapple, mangos, sweet peas, asparagus, kiwi, cabbage, eggplant, cantaloupe, watermelon, grapefruit, sweet potatoes, and honeydew melon. 

 

Food shopping can be completed in any type of grocery store – one need not go to expensive stores to eat an excellent plant-based diet!