this post was submitted on 23 Jun 2023
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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)
  • lentils
(page 2) 50 comments
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[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago

parsley in the form of tabbouleh salad: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tabbouleh https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parsley

check out the vitamins and minerals in parsley, it's one of the super foods.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I heard that tacos are actually quite good for you, and I assume they could be if you get proper ones with lots of veg and natural ingredients rather than going to Taco Bell or some other fast food place and getting processed defrosted junk.

Source: Dr Karan on Youtube (yes, Youtube doctor, but he's British, so I trust him)

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[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Are we talking about only the plain substance, not allowing for spices? Because I feel like every food isn't delicious unless you season it in some way, or at least use an oil in cooking. If we're just talking about baking everything then I'd say everything is "bland" Lol

For me it's all about how you prepare the food. I eat chicken, canned beans, and mushrooms pretty much all the time because I try to buy cheap as much as I can, but just those few main items can be made so many different delicious ways with other "smaller/lesser" ingredients.

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[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Roasted brussel sprouts with butter and parmesan cheese

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[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Mushrooms!!

The thing with mushrooms is that they can get pretty expensive in stores, especially if you're looking for a specific kind of mushroom. They can also be very easy to forage though, which does make them free! This is different from growing them in a private garden (which is something you can do with most produce, and requires time and resources). DELICIOUS AND HEALTHY OH YEAH BABY!!

Fruit is definitely the best answer though.

Also, beans!

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[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago

Carters' peanuts :)

Nutritious is very relative to industrialized food production. The most nutritious natural products are perceived as wild and are not objects of agriculture. Basically the objects of agriculture were selected on the ease of reproduction, not their nutritious value, or their cost. It just so happened that those that were easy to plant and grow were the leanest in quantity and complexity of nutrients. Many of the most nutritious seeds, fruits, and vegetables are becoming extinct with the elimination of natural forests. Planted forests would take thousands of years to stabilize as ecosystems (if ever) and be concidered sustainable food sources.

Cheap means the industry hasn't been able to monopolize, but labor is very exploitable (see bannana republics, tea and coffee plantations). It also means the quantities produced have saturated the markets and the product is in abundance (wheat, corn, soy,..).

Delicious ... only N.Europeans (and their N.Am. Oceania descendants) would consider eating a single element alone and judge it by taste. The rest of the world eat what they can get, spice it up, mix it, and make taste a final product of a mixture of things with a labor intensive process of preparing it. The dairy industry (waste of nutritients and exponentially waste of land use) and the sugar industry (it should have been banned under substance abuse addictive product that is a health hazzard as well) have blurred what "delicious" really means. Take as an example banana split ice cream, there is little nutritious value, if not harmful as a whole, made of three industrial products that maximize labor exploitation. If it wasn't for capitalism nobody in their right mind would have come up with this one. It only exists because of capitalism.

Nutrition has been a dead end disaster since its early days of being industrialized.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago (7 children)

I have a related one - I'm kinda continously on the lookout for a refreshing (evening) drink especially during hot weather.

So far, I haven't found one that doesn't contain at least one of:

  • (added) sugar
  • caffeine
  • alcohol

Or a combination of those.

On the other end of that scale, I do quite like White Russians. The Dude says hi.

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[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago

Rice with lentils is a good option, add salt and pepper and salad of choice

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Rice, tuna from a packet, and soy sauce - cheap, delicious, healthy, and easy. You wanna get fancy, you can add some sesame oil, furikake, chop up some green onions, whatever you got kicking around.

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[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago (2 children)
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[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Another one is curry, which is actually real easy to make. I bought a bag of curry powder for a few bucks years ago and it's still just fine. You can get cans of paste too but honestly I can go either way, both are great, and I love that the curry powder is so absurdly cheap per serving.

I just julienne an onion and red pepper, saute for a bit, add a few teaspoons of curry powder, throw in some garlic and ginger, then add a can of chicken broth, and a few drops of fish sauce. I simmer for a while to let it reduce, then add a can of sweetened coconut milk at the end. Also at the end I add a ton of basil. Maybe some other stuff in there too that I'm forgetting, you really can't go wrong with this either.

For protein you can obviously do chicken or something, but if you want to go ultra cheap and healthy, just throw in a cup of lentils to that curry you got going. Give it 20 minute or so and you're in flavor city. I'm always blown away at how insanely tasty it is, like it's just impossibly good. You can add literally whatever spices and flavorings you want and it just gets better.

There's an asian grocery store near me with all these ingredients for super cheap so I can make that curry sauce for literally like $5-10. It's delicious, cheap, super easy, and healthy, if not a bit calorie dense from the coconut milk.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago

If you buy local, and go with the seasons, I'd argue it is rather hard to not have all three (cheap, delicious, healthy) at the same time.

You won't have to rely on produce which is optimized for long transports but can tap into fresh, original flavors. Ripe fruits and vegetables from the fields, harvested just this morning. And because they all ripen now, quality maximizes when prize minimizes.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago

Thanks for this prompt. Reading this thread was the first time I felt like I was on reddit since I've joined this instance. I laughed and learned.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago (11 children)

The one thing missing from the trinity is "effort". For instance, you could make any Dal, which would fit the trinity, but takes a lot of time. There are books with hundreds of Dal recipes that all taste different and work, too. And this is just one example. Less than a dollar a meal if made in bulk with rice.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

I cook Jamie Oliver's "basic tarka dhal" all the time. It doesn't take that much time in my experience, and being a basic recipe it lends itself to lots of variations. Highly recommend.

https://www.jamieoliver.com/features/lentils-and-basic-tarka-dhal-recipe/

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[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago

Honestly, I think most food can be found pretty cheap, except for proteins. The best bet I think is chicken drumsticks, but even those will add up. Beans are a cheap protein, but it's about just as carby as it is proteiny.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago (7 children)

I eat tofu like four days a week and it is the best thing ever.

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[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago (7 children)

This will be controversial. I'm going with Costco rotisserie chicken. $5. They taste good fresh but bad reheated. I don't eat the skin

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[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago (2 children)

I was looking at similar requirements for my daily lunch during the workday. I live in London so you're paying between £5 and £10 per day even for just a sandwich-based lunch. I needed a packed lunch that was cheap, tasty, healthy and additionally: filling, easy/quick to prepare and low carb. So that's a big ask.

I settled on a kind of custom Greek salad. One cucumber, some red onion, pickled beetroot all diced up, olive oil (or cold-pressed rapeseed oil) and some feta cheese. Sometimes I add chickpeas and coriander.

It's perfect, I've been eating it for years now.

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[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago (6 children)

🥑
I think a ripe avocado can be a good meal by itself, it has healthy fat, vitamins & fiber.
One avocado as a meal is cheaper than alot of other options.

https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/nutritionsource/avocados/

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[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago (3 children)

Tinned tuna. Inexpensive, high in protein and fish oils, low in fat and calories.

Probably not great in huge quantities because of iodine, but generally very healthy

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[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Chana masala is pretty delicious and I'm pretty sure it's healthy. I think it's mostly chickpeas and vegetables which are both pretty good for you.

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[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago
[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

I like pickling things. Pickled Red Onions are delicious and easy, and Pickled Green Beans are probably my favorite. Fresh Green Beans can be had by the big bag for about two bucks. Throw in a couple Habanero peppers for spice, maybe $.50 worth of seasoning, $.50 worth of vinegar if you buy it by the gallon, and you have some delicious cheap snacks that are also relatively healthy. The worst ingredients would be salt and sugar, but you can minimize its use to taste when you make them yourself. I guess it's all relative, but to me a few bucks for a quart jar of quality homemade pickles checks all the boxes when it comes to cheap, healthy, and delicious. It does take a bit of prep work though so it's definitely better if you enjoy that type of thing.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)
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