Eat for £12 a week?

mama67

thriftlady wrote: »

Skintmama,are they teenage boys? apparently boys between the ages of 15 and 18 have the greatest calorie requirement of all ( 2755 according to The Diet Bible by Judith Wills) I can't wait till mine are that age :eek:

I have one of these and can never keep him full, add into it that he is also a sports fanatic playing football twice a week and refereeing twice a week, plus training.
His younger brother is not far behind.

I have found it is better to give healthy snacks (fruit,yogurt,hm cakes etc with added fruit) inbetween meals and add bread with meals.
He likes to grab and go with stuff between, so I usually have sandwiches or wraps in the fridge for them coming in from school, then they also get fruit and yogurt on top.

thornelius_2

Desperate_Housewife wrote: »

she's probably eaten it!

:rotfl::rotfl:that made me chuckle!! :rotfl::rotfl:

I find the less food in the house the more hungry I am and the kids always want snacks after school. Need the council to hurry up and give me an allotment! I've been waiting 2 years!!!

sharloid

immie wrote: »

or make one big pasta dish on a sunday, with value tinned chopped tomatoes, value cheese, could make one week's worth of dinner/lunch

Sorry to be dim, but can a pasta dish last the whole week in the fridge? Or do you have to freeze some? I've got it into my head that anything I make has to be used within 2 days or it'll be moldy!

Thanks

Lizling

rinabean wrote: »

I've been wanting to follow the plan and been put off for the same reason. However, there's lots of frozen peas, and peas count as a green and are a decent source of protein. It is supposed to be nutritionally complete, perhaps the missing nutrients are the ones added to the enriched oats you're told to use for the porridge along with the calcium it mentions.

Peas may be green, but they're not a green leafy vegetable; they're technically seeds. That means that although they're very good for you and I'm glad they've been included, they've got a different set of nutrients to spinach, kale, broccoli, lettuce, sprouts etc. (or nettles and dandelion leaves if you've got to get them into your diet for free! ) That's why it's important to eat a range of different vegetables. Still not nearly enough of them either.

The oats you're told to use are enriched with various forms of vitamin B, but that's all. Oats are naturally high in vitamin B anyway, so that makes me suspicious that the only reason they're fortified is that the vitamins that should naturally be there have somehow been destroyed during processing, so they're just adding them back in. Good stuff though, oats.

brownsauce

ah here most of britain is malnourished of vitamins and minerals but still manage to be the size of houses.
this is a a fairly decent plan for what it is: people on a budget who want to eat something other than frozen chips and pizza.

I would be a damn sight happier having someone eat that than filling their children up on crisps and jelly beans.

Allegra

Lizling wrote: »

I just had a quick look at that vegan meal plan (cheap family recipes link), and I'm not a dietician but at first glance it looks seriously deficient in green, leafy vegetables. I can only see 1 portion in a month (the saag aloo) when you're meant to eat about one and a half portions a day! :eek::eek: Extremely unhealthy! On a vegan diet, that could mean a vitamin K, vitamin B2 and iodine deficiency, so that's higher cancer rates, osteoporosis, hardened arteries, anaemia and possibly diabetes... not to mention bleeding gums, nose bleeds, bad skin etc.

I'd also think it's too low in good fats from olive oil, avocado, nut butter etc, which is important because vegans miss out on the healthy fats from things like eggs. Possibly low in protein because there's not a single source of complete proteins in there anywhere, but perhaps it's ok when you take protein combining into account.

Would be simple enough to fix from a nutritional point of view. Substitute the breakfasts with porridge made with soya milk, or soya yoghurt with fruit. Then include a small salad with olive oil dressing with each lunch and a portion of something green with each dinner. And add at least 1 portion of fruit per person per day (and not the same one every day). Unfortunately, that totally blows their budget!

Maybe it's not possible to eat a healthy vegan diet for so little after all

I was about (down in the "How Much You've Saved" forum) when the planners were created, and I can assure you that the planner is NOT deficient in any of the basic nutrients, and that the amount of research that went into making sure of this is absolutely unbelievable Reason being, to go that low in terms of cost, you gotta think out of the box and find alternative sources of nutrients to the ones most commonly recommended.

Of course, there really is no need for anyone who can afford the usual suspects to follow the plan in its entirety - but for those who have pared everything else down to the bone, yet still find themselves short, it's an absolute lifesaver to have a planner available that will feed their families on what they can afford, yet won't cost an arm and a leg through causing nutritional deficiencies

Lizling

Allegra wrote: »

I was about (down in the "How Much You've Saved" forum) when the planners were created, and I can assure you that the planner is NOT deficient in any of the basic nutrients, and that the amount of research that went into making sure of this is absolutely unbelievable Reason being, to go that low in terms of cost, you gotta think out of the box and find alternative sources of nutrients to the ones most commonly recommended.

Fair enough and I don't disbelieve you, but I'm afraid that being of a sceptical nature I won't change my point of view until you can back that up with some checkable facts. Could you let me know what the alternative sources of potassium and iodine are and how much of them following the meal plan would provide per day?

Sami_Bee

Lizling wrote: »

I just had a quick look at that vegan meal plan (cheap family recipes link), and I'm not a dietician but at first glance it looks seriously deficient in green, leafy vegetables. I can only see 1 portion in a month (the saag aloo) when you're meant to eat about one and a half portions a day! :eek::eek: Extremely unhealthy! On a vegan diet, that could mean a vitamin K, vitamin B2 and iodine deficiency, so that's higher cancer rates, osteoporosis, hardened arteries, anaemia and possibly diabetes... not to mention bleeding gums, nose bleeds, bad skin etc.

I'd also think it's too low in good fats from olive oil, avocado, nut butter etc, which is important because vegans miss out on the healthy fats from things like eggs. Possibly low in protein because there's not a single source of complete proteins in there anywhere, but perhaps it's ok when you take protein combining into account.

Would be simple enough to fix from a nutritional point of view. Substitute the breakfasts with porridge made with soya milk, or soya yoghurt with fruit. Then include a small salad with olive oil dressing with each lunch and a portion of something green with each dinner. And add at least 1 portion of fruit per person per day (and not the same one every day). Unfortunately, that totally blows their budget!

Maybe it's not possible to eat a healthy vegan diet for so little after all

I think you're being rather pessimistic and possibly dramatic there, the planner has come about from MASSES of hard work and has been thoroughly thought out from a nutrition point of view (using official nutrition guidelines) as well as price and taste.
There is a seed spread which contains nuts and seeds.
What are the specific fats you are thinking of from olive oil?
Even if you don't follow the planner to the letter and add milk substitutes or what ever the end cost would still be very low.
No one is saying you have to follow the plan to the letter, I have been using recipes from the site regularly and have saved a significant amount by doing so and my health is great.

the planner provides more than the recommended "five a day", as well as meeting your recommended daily amounts (RDAs) of vitamins and minerals.

weezl74

iodine: I make it 18906 mcg (at least, as I stopped adding when I found enough for my own purposes.) out of a required 18600 (for 31 days for a family of 4. Sources including: the bread flour and self raising flour, totalling 1800, the potatoes, at 6000, the tomatoes at 1700, and a large amount also comes from the tapwater used in the cooking (a litre and a half in every batch of bread for example.)

I have to go out now, but I can post the potassium in the same amount of detail later. People using the site are welcome to email with queries, or contact via facebook, as few of us are on MSE very often.

Weezl

Allegra

Lizling wrote: »

Fair enough and I don't disbelieve you, but I'm afraid that being of a sceptical nature I won't change my point of view until you can back that up with some checkable facts. Could you let me know what the alternative sources of potassium and iodine are and how much of them following the meal plan would provide per day?

Oh, I am by no means an expert, but I expect that someone who has contributed to the research for the website will be along sooner or later, as most of them post on MSE

However, just a glance at the vegan planner shows large amounts of "potassium superfoods" - potatoes, white beans (as in baked) and raisins - all of which are richer in potassium than green leafies. That's quite enough to reassure me, although anyone with a sceptical bent might wanna sit down with a calculator and compare and contrast

As for iodine, my understanding has always been that the only source of this for vegans (barring supplements or iodine enriched salt) was through vegetables that were grown in iodine rich soil ? Which would mean that, sadly, no planner can guarantee the amounts of iodine provided, but also that the type of vegetable is of no importance in this particular matter.