Beauty Health for Life

If youve ever tried to eat healthy, and if youre reading this you probably have, then youve noticed the gaping hole in your wallet.  Real food can be expensive; naturally raised meat, fresh organic produce, extra virgin olive oil, nuts... healthy food aint cheap.  The cost has been one of the main obstacles for me in eating a real food, paleo-style diet.  Even though I make food a high priority in my life, Im still a poor college student.  I cant always afford top-quality food.

But luckily, there are healthy, dirt-cheap foods out there that even I can afford.  Sure, youve gotta make some compromises; you just cant eat optimally on a budget.  But you can make a damn good stab at it. Not poor you say?  Just looking to save some money on food to keep fueling your hookers and cocaine habit?  No problem.  Im here to help.  Here are 5 healthy, inexpensive foods that you can base your diet around.

1. Kale
$0.99/lb
$0.25/serving
Kale is everyones darling health food.  Some say its even the most nutrient-dense food on the planet.  I wouldnt go that far, but its a great food nonetheless.  Fiber, vitamin C, vitamin K, lutein, zeaxanthin, calcium... Kale covers all of your vegetable needs in one little package, and at a great price.  Its versatile too.  You can steam it and eat it on its own, put it in your eggs, add it to a smoothie, or use it in a stir fry.  It works in everything.  You can even eat it raw in a salad if youre up to it, although I personally dont like the taste unless its cooked.  But maybe thats just me.  Give it a try!  (If you really hate kale, substitute it with another green like swiss chard or collard greens, the difference is negligible.)


White potatoes have been getting a bad rap lately, but its completely unfounded.  Just because theyre white doesnt make them bad; its a case of nutritional racism I say.  In fact, according to Mat Lalondes nutrient density scale, theyre even more nutrient dense than sweet potatoes!  And they come in many varieties...  Russet, Yukon gold, red, theyre all good. You can mash them, roast them, bake them, or just stick one in the microwave for a quick meal.  Throw some butter on it and youre all set.  Theyre full of a wide variety of vitamins, minerals, especially potassium... screw bananas, potatoes are an even better source of potassium.  And if all that isnt enough, research shows that theyre one of the most satiating foods around, meaning theyll fill you up with fewer calories.  Perfect budget weight loss food?  Perhaps.


3. Bananas
$0.69/lb
$0.20/serving
Okay I know I just said screw bananas.  Dont take that literally.  But really, you shouldnt shun them completely, because they too are a cheap source of good calories.  At just $0.20 for the average banana, they make a great snack, or even a simple addition to your breakfast.  Bananas are surprisingly nutrient-dense as well, chock full of vitamin C, B vitamins, potassium, and manganese.  You dont even have to worry about buying them organic, since we dont eat the peel. No pesticide concerns there.  Have at it, hoss.



4. Eggs
$1.99/dozen
$0.17/egg
Gotta get your animal foods in on this Poor Man Diet.  Animal foods are typically more expensive, so that leaves our options few and far between.  But eggs provide far and away the most nutritional bang for your buck.  Weve got healthy fats, vitamin A, choline, selenium, and much more. Theyre a little low on B12 and iron for an animal food, but we can get that from the occasional red meat.  Were poor here, remember?  Oh, and remember back when eggs killed you?  Well dont worry about that anymore.  If theres one high cholesterol, high saturated fat food that we can all agree is healthy, its eggs.  Even WebMD agrees, eggs are no longer a nutritional no-no.  Have no fear, the egg is here.  Hard-boil em, scramble em, whatever you want to do.  Just eat them.


5. White Rice
$8.99/20 lb bag
$0.04/serving
Yes, white rice.  I choose white, not brown.  Brown rice may be posh right now, but dont let the hype fool you... brown rice contains higher amounts of arsenic, and it depletes the body of minerals.  Let go of your brown rice bias, just do it.  Is white rice high a nutrient-dense food?  No, of course not.  But therere a few minerals in there, and the white rice of today is fortified with B vitamins.  But thats not why Im recommending it.  Would you look at the price??  Its 4 cents per serving for crying out loud!  This is by far the number one budget food... not even close.  It may not be nutrient-dense, but its a good source of calories for your Poor Man Diet. You do have to eat something after all.  On top of that, its incredibly versatile.  You can eat it on its own as a side dish, incorporate it into a stir fry, use it as a stuffing.  Just use your imagination, you can do it.  Oh wait, we dont use imaginations anymore, we use Google instead.  So Google it.  Or ask your resident Asian.


There you have it.  Five inexpensive foods you can base your healthy diet on.  Now you have no excuse.  

Coming up next week, look out for the next step... 10 cheap supplemental foods for your Poor Man Diet. These will fill in the nutritional holes of the base foods, although I have to say these do a pretty decent job of covering everything considering the circumstances.  Stay tuned!

Low levels of vitamin D have been implicated as a potential cause of diseases ranging from cancer to diabetes. Now an extensive review suggests its really the other way around: Low levels of the "sunshine vitamin" are more likely a consequence -- not a cause -- of illness.

In their review of almost 500 studies, the researchers found conflicting results. Observational studies, which looked back at what people ate or the kinds of supplements they took, showed a link between higher vitamin D levels in the body and better health.

But, in studies where vitamin D was given as an intervention (treatment) to help prevent a particular ailment, it had no effect. The one exception was a decreased death risk in older adults, particularly older women, who were given vitamin D supplements.

"The discrepancy between observational and intervention studies suggests that low [vitamin D] is a marker of ill health," wrote review authors led by Philippe Autier, at the International Prevention Research Institute, in Lyon, France.

Vitamin D is known to play a key role in bone health. Low levels of vitamin D have been found in a number of conditions, including heart disease, autoimmune diseases, diabetes, cancer and Parkinsons disease. These findings may explain why so many Americans are currently taking vitamin D supplements.

Its nicknamed the sunshine vitamin because the body produces vitamin D when exposed to the sun (if someone isnt wearing sunscreen). Its also found in some foods, such as egg yolks and fatty fish, and in foods that have been fortified with vitamin D, such as milk.

The current review, published online Dec. 6 in The Lancet Diabetes & Endocrinology, looked at 290 observational studies. In these studies, blood samples to measure vitamin D levels were taken many years before the outcome of the study occurred. The review also included results of 172 randomized clinical trials of vitamin D. In randomized trials, some people receive a therapy while others do not.

The observational studies showed a potential benefit from vitamin D. For example, vitamin D was associated with a 58 percent reduced risk of cardiovascular events, a 38 percent decreased risk of diabetes and a 34 percent decreased risk of colon cancer in these studies.

But, when the researchers looked to the randomized clinical trials that used vitamin D as a treatment, they failed to find any effect on disease occurrence or severity from raising vitamin D levels.

However, vitamin D did reduce the risk of dying from any cause in older people taking 800 international units a day, according to the review.

Dr. Shaun Jayakar, an internal medicine and geriatric specialist from St. John Hospital and Medical Center in Detroit, said the findings in elderly people "are likely due to a reduction in falls and fractures. Supplementing with vitamin D would lead to stronger bones, which would reduce falls and factures."

Because the majority of interventional trials failed to find any benefit from vitamin D, the reviews authors conclude that low vitamin D levels dont lead to ill health, rather theyre caused by ill health.

They theorize that inflammation that occurs in many illnesses may be what depletes vitamin D levels.

Dr. Robert Graham, an internist from Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City, said, "This comprehensive review did a really good job at trying to tease out the effects of different study designs, and the findings will be controversial."

He said there are currently five, large ongoing interventional trials that will help to better define vitamin Ds role in disease. However, the results of those studies wont be available for a number of years. Until then, he recommended, "Try to achieve homeostasis [equilibrium]. You dont want to get to a low level of vitamin D."

The Institute of Medicine recommends 600 international units of vitamin D for adults, and 800 international units for people over 70.

Both Graham and Jayakar agreed that those are reasonable supplement levels. Jayakar said that for most people, vitamin D supplements are harmless, but added that "its a pocketbook issue. Almost 50 percent of the population is taking vitamin D supplements. Thats a lot of money for something that likely has no benefit," he said.

Jayakar added that this reviews findings suggest that low vitamin D levels could be used as a marker -- a sign -- of disease in younger people. "If someone isnt feeling well and they have low vitamin D, maybe we should use that to start searching to see if something else is going wrong," he said.