ADDITIONAL RESOURCES IN YOUR AREA
MOTHER NATURE KNOWS BEST
Sticking to the most basic, natural, and nutritious foods is far better for both your health and pocketbook than ready-to-eat, highly processed, and expensive refined foods.
Keep this example in mind: Five pounds of naturally fat-free baking potatoes costs $2.79. In contrast, you’ll pay $16.50 for 5 pounds of high-fat potato chips. It’s easy to see which choice is better for your budget-and your health!
Money $aving Tip
Regular physical activity works to promote good health, helping to lower the cost of medical bills in the future.
Chapter 2 ECONOMY GASTRONOMY: PENNY-WISE MEAL PLANNING, COST-WISE COOKING
Penny-wise meal planning and cost-wise cooking are the first steps to stretching your food dollar while eating healthfully. The USDA has estimated that a family of four can eat at home for a cost of just $102.40 to $119.10 a week. That’s only $3.66 to $4.25 per person per day-the price of just one fast food value meal. Sound impossible? It’s not. For more information on economical eating, check out the USDA website at www.usda.gov, for sample food plans to match your individualized budget requirements.
Eating healthfully on a lean budget does require a small investment of time to plan meals for the week and cook the foods that match your budget and diabetes nutrition requirements. But, the little amount of extra time you spend is an investment that can really make a difference when trying to cut costs.
PENNY-WISE MEAL PLANNING
Like most people, you are probably pressed for time and often eat meals on the run. Why should you use even a few of your precious moments for meal planning? When you consider that food costs are usually the second largest monthly expense-after mortgage or rent payments-reducing that expense can raise the budget savings significantly. Take a closer look at the long-term savings in money, time, and health that come with taking the time to think ahead about what you’ll be eating.
SEVEN SIMPLE STEPS TO MEAL PLANNING
1. Determine your food budget.
2. Decide how often you will shop.
3. Know how many people will be eating each meal so you don’t buy too much food.
4. Plan breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snacks incorporating store specials. Stay flexible so that you can switch meals around if your plans change at the last minute.
5. Check what’s in the pantry, then make a list of ingredients that you need to purchase to prepare each meal and snack.
6. Keep the shopping list handy in the kitchen and add to it during the week as you run out of staples.
7. Make meal planning a habit.
How Planning Meals Helps
Planning your meals a week in advance enables you to:
How Do You Plan Menus?
If you are following a meal planning approach, such as the Choose Your Foods: Exchange List for Diabetes, the Diabetes Food Pyramid, or the carbohydrate counting system, you are already off to a great start.
Your meal pattern will tell you which foods you need and how much of each to include. If you are following an exchange/choices diet, you will know how many servings you need from the starch, vegetable, fruit, meat or meat-substitute, milk, and fat lists each day. If you are following the Diabetes Food Pyramid, use the serving guidelines from each section of the pyramid. The carbohydrate counting system outlines the number of grams of carbohydrates you can include at each meal and snack.
No matter what your method of diabetes meal planning, the foods you eat and the timing of your meals should be based on your personal diabetes treatment plan and blood glucose results.
Your meal plan is the basis for your menus and shopping list for the week. An RD can help you develop a meal pattern that is right for you. Having a meal pattern gives you the freedom to decide which foods meet your budget needs.
MEAL PLANNING CHECKLIST
After
