I have a theory that there is a impossible trinity (like in economics), where a food cannot be delicious, cheap and healthy at the same time. At maximum 2 of the 3 can be achieved.
Is there any food that breaks this theory?
Edit: I was thinking more about dishes (or something you put in your mouth) than the raw substances
Some popular suggestions include
- fruits (in season) and vegetables
- lentils, beans, rice
- mushrooms
- chicken
- just eat in moderation
Edit 2: Thanks for the various answers. Now there are a lot of (mostly bean-based) recipes for everyone to try out!
Also someone made a community for cheap healthy food after seeing this topic!
Onion. It’s cheap, nutritious, acts as a low-key anti bacterial solution, can be served in a multitude of ways, or eaten raw.
Subscribe for more onion facts. 🧅
I thought your facts would lean more towards the lemon lifestyle.
Followed. Don’t let me down!
Great fashion accessory too
eaten raw
You, sir, are a monster.
Hmm time for a snack
Takes a bite from a raw onion like an apple
Listen for some of us that’s a delicacy.
Buy raw material and cook yourself.
Most premade food is expensive because:
- labor on cooking
- restaurant profit
- rent of the restaurant/owner of the place sell you food
- service
You already mentioned them, but I’m a huge fan of lentils. They go with so much stuff and you can combine them with a variety of spices. Give me any leftover ingredients and some lentils, and I’ll cook up something delicious. I can and will eat lentil soup for days.
They are also a pretty solid crop, they can grow in a variety of climates, require little water and are good for the soil.
So… Are you just unaware of fruits, vegetables, and legumes, haha? In my opinion there’s a huge amount of food that fits all three categories. One of the best example of cheap, delicious, healthy, and easy is beans and rice, spiced up however you like.
Cabbage + brain damage
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Sweet potatoes. Very nutritious, very cheap, and taste sweet. Easy to prepare to, you can just boil or bake them for a little while without adding anything and they’re great just like that.
classic
Eggs with salt. Boiled, scrambled, any style really
Lentils.
Well, something being delicious is subjective, but if we assume a “general acceptance” of most delicious foods, potatoes could fit easily. They can be cooked in all kinds of ways, are very nutritious and, again, pretty much everyone says they’re delicious.
I don‘t know about economics, but this is my entry to research:
https://youtube.com/watch?v=0Xa7Dp3-eYA
And cucumber prices went up more than 50% for me in the last 2 years alone, so maybe you‘re onto something.
good price is hit or miss
Jimmy Joy. Cheap (under 2 euros per meal), delicious and you can’t really get any more nutritious than that. It has all the recommended nutrients in one go.
+1, jimmy joy is great
Tacos and burritos could absolutely meet this criteria If you’re doing them well at home, with the most unhealthy thing being the tortilla itself (You could argue that those are empty calories). Of course that means no sour cream or cheap cheese abuse among other things
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BEANS
Addictive carbs and salt, dirt cheap, and healthy as shit. Also convenient and compatible with most dietary/ethical restrictions.
If you learn to like beans when you’re 20 and throw it into an index fund, you’ll have a modest retirement fund just on the money you saved (yes, I calculated it based on money saved and growth of the S&P).
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Pizza is pretty cheap in Italy, also Pasta.
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Huh, interesting, that page says that vegan diets “reduced food costs by up to one third [emphasis mine]”, which I guess is nothing to scoff at but on the other hand doesn’t seem that large; I would have expected the relative cost of including meat in your diet to increase food costs by much more given how resource-intensive it is to produce meat compared to producing vegetables.
The prices of animal products are kept artificially low by subsidies and don’t reflex the real world cost.