Eating Vegan on the Cheap

I try to eat vegan as much as I possibly can (in this day and age its so hard to commit every moment of every day when im on the go and at other peoples homes) and the main thing I struggle with is people tend to say "it costs too much to eat healthy" or "its so boring to eat vegan how do you survive". Those are both valid concerns and it takes a strong person to make the choice to eat vegan. Its standing up against the norm and against the cruel treatment of animals, its realizing that we are all in this together on this planet and we have to respect every living thing as if it were a part of us (because it is). Below are some tips and tricks to help with eating vegan. And even if you still choose to eat dairy and meat, try to find products that are certified organic or buy local so you know exactly what the animals were eating and weren't treated horribly. Huge meat factories don't give one shit about the animals they are slaughtering and feed them the lowest quality of food on the market because its the cheapest which is usually full of GMO corn or soy. The animals there are kept in tiny cages or packed inside huge rooms with hundreds of thousands of animals living on top of one another in their own feces, forced to spend their days without sunlight and freedom. If that doesn't make your heart sad then maybe this will. Milk comes from mother cows who had just given birth to calves and they are taken from their mother so the cow can be attached to a machine to pump her milk. The cows can usually be heard crying for their babies as their being taken away.

Im only trying to help you realize the lies in our food industry. And this is only the tip of the iceburg and only a few reason why I personally chose to be vegan. Im hoping you will do some of your own research into the industry and make your own choice as to your health and wellbeing. We all live on this planet, we are all equal and all one. Not one living this is better than another and I believe as humans we are coming to realize that fact.

As I coach people on becoming vegan, one common refrain I hear is that it’s too expensive. When funds are low, the cheap burger or basket of chicken can appear to be the best value — the most calories for the lowest price. We’ve been aggressively peddled the idea that a healthy diet is an expensive diet, something only for rich folks. And our experience seems to bear that out.

I understand the frustration. It doesn’t seem right that meat should be so cheap and fresh vegetables, especially organic ones, relatively expensive. But once you look into it, the true cost of eating animal protein is higher than you can imagine. And being veganish in your approach to food is not only healthier by every measure, but it can actually be considerably cheaper as well. In fact, many staples of a vegan diet cost very little and can be found in any grocery store — not just in specialty markets. Whole grains like quinoa or barley or brown rice, legumes like chickpeas or soybeans, and other beans like black-eyed peas and black beans are very inexpensive — certainly cheaper than processed and packaged foods. Bought in bulk whole grains and beans can cost just pennies per meal. And because they are full of fiber they make you feel full and satisfied (put them into soups, stews, salads, burritos, etc.), without the dangerous saturated fat of animal protein. Fresh vegetables and fruits can be found at supermarkets and farmers’ markets for very reasonable prices. Organic and specialty stores are great, but it’s certainly not necessary to empty your wallet in order to eat healthfully.

Beans, grains, veggies — these are the staples of populations around the world. Think of Mexico and South America, where inexpensive rice and beans coupled with corn tortillas and avocados are part of every diet; or rural China, where tofu with vegetables and rice, and maybe a very small bit of meat, is the norm; or India where people eat lentils or chickpeas and vegetables every day. Not only are these populations by no means wealthy, they also don’t have the diseases of wealthy countries. The general populations who eat these simple diets may get waterborne illnesses and lung infections from bad environmental conditions, but they don’t have anywhere near the rates of cancer, heart disease, and diabetes that we have — until they are exposed to our Western diet, that is.

And that’s something to think about. Not only is a healthful plant-based diet less expensive at the grocery store (unless you go crazy for packaged convenience foods, of course), it saves you personally and saves us societally in health care and many other direct and indirect costs. If you think these don’t affect you so much, think again. On the individual level alone, consider that your health insurance never pays for everything: even the best of plans charge deductibles and disallow certain medications. Being sick is expensive. More than that, a huge part of our country’s annual budget is given over to health-care costs, paid for by your tax dollars. And indirect health-care costs due to lost productivity adversely affect you in the form of higher taxes, too.

On the health-care front, when you consider that meat and dairy foods clog our bodies with saturated fat, growth hormones, and antibiotics, things that have been conclusively linked to cancer, heart disease, and obesity, as well as a general “blah” feeling, it’s certainly a lot less expensive — and less painful — to prevent debilitating diseases through our food choices than it is to treat them later (through bypass surgery or angioplasty, for example, which can run up tens of thousands of dollars in medical bills).

source: www.huffingtonpost.com/kathy-freston/eat-vegan-cheap_b_840191.html

I will add more into this thread as I do more research and find different articles that pertain to this topic <3