Oh, that food bill

Janice Carter Lifestyle Medicine Coach Has your food bill been blown to smithereens?

If you're a dyed in the wool carnivore looking to go plant based to lower your food bill then this article is for you! Or, if you are waking up in the aisle at the supermarket staring into the face of a paramedic because of the price of food, then this is for you too.

Many pensioners and low-income earners in NZ are absolutely feeling the pinch financially when it comes to putting food on the table. This is resulting in food choices that are not healthy or nutritious, which leads to further poor health outcomes.

Let’s hear the bad news first – until we get some credible competition in the supermarkets, food prices are going to get a lot worse. Fresh food quality is steadily going down the “thunder box” and supply is rapidly dwindling at a pace that would make an

Indy car driver envious!

Now for the good news. It is easy and very possible to eat a whole food plant-based lifestyle without fearing cardiac arrest at the check-out! And, all the benefits that come with that are just so exciting!

The Nutritarian way

So how do you do it, I hear you ask? The best option I have personally discovered is the Nutritarian way. How do I eat in a Nutritarian way and stick with in my budget? What is a Nutritarian?

According to Dr Joel Fuhrman, one of the world’s leading wholefood plant-based Lifestyle Medicine Doctors, a Nutritarian diet is a nutrient-rich, plant-based diet centred on the following principles: • An eating style focused on nutrient-rich foods that unleash the body’s tremendous ability to heal, achieve optimal weight, and slow the aging process. • The term ‘whole food’ describes natural foods that are not heavily processed. Basically, the majority of our diet is made up of fresh, clean unprocessed produce rather than food that comes out of a package. • No S.O.S means that we don’t add salt, oil, or sugar to our recipes or to our prepared food, because these ingredients have been shown to have a negative impact on our health. When we eat the whole nut or vegetable over just the processed oil, we are eating the fibre and its protective nutrients too!

First, let’s do a comparison of meat prices right here and now

100g Beef vs 100g Beans

22g of Protein Og of Fibre 1.9mg of Iron 16mg of Calcium 23mg of Magnesium 74mg of Cholesterol $2.59 per 100g 1,480 Litres of water

22g of Protein 15g of Fibre 5mg of Iron 123mg of Calcium 171mg of Magnesium 0mg of Cholesterol $0.80 per 100g 103 Litres of water

From information originally compiled by Rip Esselstyn

in the middle of April when this was written. Frankly, I nearly needed a paramedic myself when I went on line to Pak ‘n Save to do this comparison. I literally felt a shudder go through my body as I looked at the first item – beef sausages, 450 gm - $8.79! This packet had six sausages in it. Now, I am assuming that a family of five would want two sausages each so there is not even enough in this packet to feed a family. Two packets would be needed which is $17.58. For one meal! Next, beef mince – this one nearly had me gasping for air! I was starting to fear for my own health just looking at the prices! $15.69 a kilo!

Chicken - $4.89 to $24 a kilo! This was for chicken necks to thighs. And from what I can tell, again there is not enough in a packet to feed a family of five. This was a serious eye opener for me – a WFPB eater who, for 30 years, has skipped the meat section of the supermarket and

My EV?

never paid any attention to what the vast majority of Kiwis choose as their main source of protein. I can totally understand the plight of New Zealanders battling to make the food dollar stretch and I have come to the conclusion that this has just got to reach beyond low-income families and pensioners! Every Kiwi household is being impacted by food prices.

So, what is the answer to this dilemma – nuts and legumes!! Legumes are really cheap and nuts are actually less expensive than you think. Let’s now compare the prices of these splendid little gems of power-packed nutrition! The perfect Nutritarian source of excellent quality protein full of fibre, quality nutrients and no saturated fat or bad cholesterol – Let’s get full of beans! Slowly at first of course if you are not used to eating a high fibre legume or you may find yourself needing roof repairs!

There are many wonderful places to buy a wide variety of beans, lentils and nuts. The cheapest option is to buy in bulk. There are places that sell in bulk like Davis Foods. Get together with a couple of friends and buy a 20kg sack of your favourites and divvy up the costs between you. My favourite place is Vetro Mediterranean. I also often shop at Bin Inn and there are many Asian shops that have really good variety and prices. I personally find Vetro has the best quality and good prices so I am using their online prices in this comparison. Looking at legumes

Let’s look at the top four most used legumes – brown lentils $5.50kg, chick peas $5.99kg, red lentils $5.99kg and red kidney beans $.8.00kg for dry beans – so cheap!! And you can get three to four family meals from every kg of legumes mentioned. So, a kilo of chick peas divided into four different dishes cooked is $1.50 worth of quality protein per meal – that is just plain good value! No rocket science here.

All hail the humble legume! What a hero!

Let us now look at nuts for comparison. Again, I am using my personal favourite store for value and quality – Vetro Mediterranean.

To make a cheesy cashew sauce as found on page 180 of Sophie Steevens book Raw & Free, you need 1.5 cups of cashews. This will cost $4.60. To buy that much Edam cheese at Pak ‘n Save it will cost less at $3.00 for 250grams to make a cheese sauce. This is cheaper by $1.60.

Worth the spend

I consider it worth spending an extra $1.60 to have the high quality nutritional package found in nuts along with its usable, quality calcium and good fat rather than the saturated fat, high cholesterol and poor quality and poorly utilized calcium in dairy cheese.

The extra $1.60 is still not a hit to the wallet when you consider the price of meat and the significant savings when switching to legumes and lentils. I see nuts as affordable in this case. There is another beautiful planet-loving way to lower your food bill – get growing! You don’t need a lot of space to grow basic vegetables. If you can find a north facing sunny spot in your back yard and can convert a few meters to vegetable gardens, you can grow an amazing number of herbs and vegetables in that small area. Even if you only grow silver beet, spinach, broccoli lettuce, parsley, chives, there is a significant saving in growing your own and you know it is fresh to the table without any toxic sprays.

There are many New Zealand based websites to browse through to learn the art of basic gardening for very little cost. I have been harvesting fresh cos lettuce for nine months in my garden – that is a huge saving when a lettuce can command anything from $3 to $5 in the supermarket. And of course, there is another wonderful way to obtain cheap fresh produce – bartering and swappsies. Swapping what you have an abundance of with a friend or neighbour that may have an abundance of something else is a win-win for everyone. Growing your own and bartering your excess is a win for the planet also as there is no packaging and virtually no food miles. It's good for you, good for your wallet and good for the planet – a truly positive way to live!