How to Eat Well for Less

So, the next question is from Gretchen and Gretchen is a PhD student and she says, How can I really deal with eating well when I'm so busy in school and I don't have a ton of extra money because I'm a student? How do I actually eat healthy and support my family and do all those things? Gretchen, that's a great question and I actually had to live that because I was a medical student, you're a PhD student and when you don't have a lot of money and you don't have a lot of time, how do you eat well? When I was in medical school, I basically got up at 7, went to school, came home at 5, had dinner and studied till 11. That's pretty much my life. I didn't have a lot of time, but I actually learned how to do simple cooking that's healthy and delicious and doesn't take a lot of time. I write about my books, I've learned how to eat well for less, I've learned how to eat in 30 minutes, cooking in one day for three meals, five minutes for breakfast, 10 minutes for lunch, and maybe 15 minutes for dinner. take that long. I'm a good chopper and washer and cleaner, but it really doesn't take that long if you know what you're doing. I just eat simply. So it's very possible to do that. I've written a blog about eating well for less, how to grocery shop in 20 minutes, and really know what's going on. But I really encourage people to realize that it's a myth that you can't eat well on a budget and that you can't eat well because it takes too much time. This is what the food industry has driven us to believe. One, that cooking is hard. Two, that it takes too much time. And three, that it's too expensive to eat healthy. None of those are true and they're just designed to help you buy processed junk food. So we did this, I did this with a family in South Carolina. They lived five people in a trailer on disability and food stamps. They didn't know how to cook and I showed them how to eat real food on a budget and actually chop an onion and cut a vegetable. they never eat any vegetable except canned green beans and iceberg lettuce. That's it. And with salad dressing that they bought was just full of processed stuff. You don't have to actually spend a lot of money to eat well. You can get simple, cheap food. In fact, I'm on the board of the Environmental Working Group and there's a guide called Good Food on a Tight Budget, which is how to eat well for less, food that's good for you, good for the planet, and good for your budget. So I really think that when people understand how to cook simply, do a little bit of planning, it's actually quite easy. For example, in the morning I'll have a shake, which takes me five minutes to put together. I'll put in either protein powder, nuts and seeds. I've got lots of recipes in my book. For lunch, I call it my fat salad. I basically put arugula, which is my favorite vegetable, because it's really a very dense phytonutrient-rich plant that's related to the broccoli family. I throw in some avocado, which is extra fat. I throw in some maybe pumpkin seeds. I'll throw in maybe a can of wild salmon. tomatoes, and basically I cook really simply. And that to throw that all in, I get pre-washed, you know, arugula lettuce. I throw in some cherry tomatoes, wash them quickly, and a little bit of olive oil, vinegar, salt and pepper. You got a salad in 10 minutes or less. And then dinner, I'll make a simple piece of protein, maybe a piece of chicken, lamb, a stir fry some vegetables. I'll put, you know, just some really simple food together. And, and, and it doesn't take a lot. And I have a lot of these recipes in my cookbook. There's a lot of great ideas in there. There's ideas about eat well for less, how to cook in less time. But I don't think we should be bamboozled by the food industry. that's telling us to leave the cooking to them, right? You deserve a break today. That's just nonsense. So I think it's possible once you learn to cook simply that you can eat well on a budget.