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An important factor in overweight is denatured foods. Supermarket store shelves are crammed with junk and this is what you must avoid. Amongst the junk, supermarkets do have some things that aren't too bad. As we keep emphasizing on this site - wholefoods are important. Eating healthily is not expensive. In fact, within reason, you will see that the less you spend on food the better you will be eating. You are not going on a 'diet', you're changing the way you live. But not too drastically. Consider some of the
items from your local store that are
both reasonably priced, good to eat, convenient and reasonably healthy.Canned foods. Not generally classed as the healthiest way of eating but they needn't be as bad as some people would think. Canned vegetables. Drawback with these are the added sugar & salt. But their effects can be much reduced by draining the juices and then filling the can with water and draining again. This will remove most of the additives. Tinned vegetables are convenient and can be used in conjunction with other tinned, or frozen, foods for a quick, convenient, and inexpensive meal. While not the healthiest form of vegetables they are better for you than most takeaway meals. Canned fish. Good source of protein at a reasonable price. Buy the varieties in brine rather than sauces or oil. Dried foods. Dried pulses (peas, beans, lentils etc.) are good sources of protein and starch. Possible drawback is the long preparation and cooking times of some of them. This is where a pressure cooker comes into its own. And you can always cook in bulk and freeze for future use. Fresh foods you can of course still buy fresh foods from your local supermarket. Fish and meat and vegetables, and most stock a range of organic vegetables at a reasonable price. Frozen foods. Not too infrequently better than their fresh counterparts. Commercially frozen foods are frozen close to the time of their capture, or harvesting, and what you get is often fresher than what you will buy from you local butcher, fishmonger or greengrocer etc. This also goes for tinned foods. Cheeses Another good source of protein and fat. Cheese, slowly eaten and chewed properly is very filling and can be combined with a number of different things to make many interesting and good healthy dishes. Cheese is one of the foods that the manufacturers haven't yet found need to add any artificial colourings to. So it's pretty natural. Fats aren't necessarily fattening. They are an essential nutrient. Eaten slowly you will find small amounts filling and satisfying. Like any other food fats shouldn't be gorged on. The reason too much of the wrong types of fat are consumed is because we take it in via take away foods, crisps and the like. Properly savoured and not bolted fats are an essential, healthy part of your diet. Olive oil okay, pure extra virgin olive oil isn't the cheapest of oils but you're not going to bathe in it (although it makes a good skin lotion). I specify olive oil because the production methods of most cheaper oils is very artificial and undesirable. Pure olive oil is made by cold pressing the olives, thereby producing oil in its most natural state.
It's very good for roasting,
shallow frying and as a basis for salad dressings etc. Try rubbing your
potatoes with salt and olive oil before baking then, when you cut them
open, mash and add more olive oil and your favourite hard cheese and
black pepper. Serve with a salad. Very satisfying, nutritious and
healthy. Definitely not fattening.Avoid as much as you can the highly processed snack foods like crisps, chocolate bars, ice creams etc. These are the junk foods to avoid as much as possible. Also avoid foods which contain hydrogenated vegetable oils. As well as contained in the above snack foods they present in a lot of things we buy. Look at the labels. Back to Healthy cooking
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