What I have learned is how hard it is to live this way, with the additional restriction of diabetes.
I think we might be causing type II diabetes in our poor by giving so little sustenance that they end up relying on cheap carbs to get the energy needed to get through the day.
Then we blame them.
Instead of providing food we end up providing care, it may be substandard, emergency care but the cost to our society for that care is much greater than the cost of food.
If you care to make a difference in the lives of others to fund the education program I work with donations can be sent via this link. http://www.gofundme.com/1tpp4s
Today I begin with 4.84.
To start I had to taste my liver and ended up making half of that slow cooked, still pink the middle delicious liver my breakfast.
On Ak Mak crackers...amazing.
I took the remainder of the liver and put it in the food processor with an onion. Wow...so fresh tasting and creamy. I pushed the cost up to .55 for my next serving but it will be an enjoyable serving.
Breakfast
Ak Mak Crackers (5) .34
Chicken liver .45
Pomegranate .50
Coffee .10
Total 1.39
41 grams of carb
My A, B12 and Iron just shot through the roof.
This is the entrance to the Fairway at 125th. Now there are some fruits and vegetables out front, but as you enter the main store you are confronted with a wall of carbs. This photo was taken by Dr. Rhonda Trousdale when we went shopping and marveled at the massive amounts of carbohydrate on display.
My lunch was 47 grams of carb, I went out and got a few more mushrooms. I had that half a can of plain tomato sauce to be used and all I could think of, dream of, imagine was pasta. Of course I carefully weighed my scant portion but past like rice elevates my mood.
Sauce .12
Mushrooms .18
Pasta .12
Cheese from a can .15
Iced tea .03
Total .60
Carbs 47 grams
My careful portion was certainly in line. I've photos on the pig tail day if you want to see just how precious little pasta it is. Nonetheless I am satisfied.
After the gym and shopping (I bought one apple, the Fine Fair has both the regular and the organic for 1.99 so I walked down to 116th to get an organic apple, it cost one dollar), I got home hungry.
I made my dinner as planned, Bibimbap. It is a Korean rice bowl, mine was scant on rice as I had the second 1/2 cup but the results were amazingly delicious. A meal I would repeat on any budget.
Normally this would contain Kimchee, but I didn't have time to ferment any cabbage so I just gave it a big dose of hot sauce next to the raw egg.
Egg .21
Hen 1.00
Green beans .35
Rice .08
Total 1.64
Carbs 36
Day Total 3.63
Yesterday I felt satisfied with every meal,and I had good energy but when you look at the calories I was pretty low, but most of the nutrition is pretty high.
How much of our energy comes from nutrition?
I think we might be causing type II diabetes in our poor by giving so little sustenance that they end up relying on cheap carbs to get the energy needed to get through the day.
Then we blame them.
Instead of providing food we end up providing care, it may be substandard, emergency care but the cost to our society for that care is much greater than the cost of food.
If you care to make a difference in the lives of others to fund the education program I work with donations can be sent via this link. http://www.gofundme.com/1tpp4s
Today I begin with 4.84.
To start I had to taste my liver and ended up making half of that slow cooked, still pink the middle delicious liver my breakfast.
On Ak Mak crackers...amazing.
I took the remainder of the liver and put it in the food processor with an onion. Wow...so fresh tasting and creamy. I pushed the cost up to .55 for my next serving but it will be an enjoyable serving.
Breakfast
Ak Mak Crackers (5) .34
Chicken liver .45
Pomegranate .50
Coffee .10
Total 1.39
41 grams of carb
My A, B12 and Iron just shot through the roof.
My lunch was 47 grams of carb, I went out and got a few more mushrooms. I had that half a can of plain tomato sauce to be used and all I could think of, dream of, imagine was pasta. Of course I carefully weighed my scant portion but past like rice elevates my mood.
Sauce .12
Mushrooms .18
Pasta .12
Cheese from a can .15
Iced tea .03
Total .60
Carbs 47 grams
My careful portion was certainly in line. I've photos on the pig tail day if you want to see just how precious little pasta it is. Nonetheless I am satisfied.
After the gym and shopping (I bought one apple, the Fine Fair has both the regular and the organic for 1.99 so I walked down to 116th to get an organic apple, it cost one dollar), I got home hungry.
I made my dinner as planned, Bibimbap. It is a Korean rice bowl, mine was scant on rice as I had the second 1/2 cup but the results were amazingly delicious. A meal I would repeat on any budget.
Egg .21
Hen 1.00
Green beans .35
Rice .08
Total 1.64
Carbs 36
Day Total 3.63
Yesterday I felt satisfied with every meal,and I had good energy but when you look at the calories I was pretty low, but most of the nutrition is pretty high.
How much of our energy comes from nutrition?
4 comments:
You should try some shirataki noodles for a treat. I use the tofu kind. They aren't the same as wheat pasta, but if you drain and then rinse the daylights out of them, and then stir fry them before you use them (to dry them off), they taste pretty good. I use them in soup and oriental foods. They aren't cheap. $1.59/7oz bag that contains liquid, but 1/2 bag will make my lunch with some soup or veggies or bits of meat. And they have lots of fiber which is hard to come by on a budget diabetic diet. 1g per serving. 2g per bag. They are made from some kind of yam. Do not use them straight from the bag. They taste and smell very fishy without the washing and drying process.
I have tried them and would not consider them so much a treat as a punishment.
Firstly I would avoid any product made with unfermented Tofu, there are a lot of questions about how damaging it can be to your body.
Secondly I did not like them and they have very few calories. I can't spend that much money on a no calorie food. I need the calories right now.
Baby,
How much weight have you lost?
Seriously I would have more pasta and more rice just to keep from wasting away.
I know you want to eat healthy but no one can when they are on assistance.
It is difficult on SNAP to eat healthy… bottom line. You really need to do a ton of work and really know your dietary needs and have a willingness to be open minded about what you eat. It also helps if you know how to prepare many of the meals from scratch and are ABLE to put the time into shopping for deals, using coupons etc. Karl, you added diabetes to the mix. Imagine having to feed a child too? One reader posted the other day that she had her Mother and daughter she also cared for. Suppose that mother has a cardiac condition that requires a low fat diet? There goes a large portion of the calories you have been getting from things such as pork pieces and bits of cheese.
What about the single mother who works every day, picks her children up from day care? She stops to shop on the way home. Has just enough time to make a quick inexpensive dinner that her children are willing to eat before they do homework, take baths, and get off to bed just to do it all the next day. She is exhausted and does the best she can, perhaps she makes just a little too much ($5.00?) to get SNAP, and still has the cost of daycare rent and utilities to cover. Her food budget is far less than what it would be if she were able to get SNAP. She fills their bellies with a $1 box of pasta and a $1 jar of sauce probably four nights out of a week. Other nights it is chicken nuggets, fish sticks, hotdogs, boxed mac and cheese and maybe just maybe there will be some canned corn, or green beans in there, but that is on the odd night and usually just pushed around the plate. She packs their lunch in the morning as the kids sit at the table eating a bowl of boxed sugar coated cereal that was on sale. Into the lunch boxes go a sandwich made on $1 white bread full of preservatives and light as air and a slice of orange processed “cheese food product” she peels from some folded plastic wrapper. There is a juice box that contains corn syrup, and if the child is lucky, a pudding cup that has a three year shelf life and a packet of fruit shaped gummy candy that fools you into thinking they could be healthy because they “Contain Vitamin C!”.
Her children are never hungry. In fact, due to the lack of exercise and high carb/ high fat diets they are chubby little cherubs. She is feeding her children the best she knows how and the best she can afford to do on her limited budget and with what little time she has in a day. She is doing the best she can with what she has and what she knows. This is normal for many people. I know women who live this life.
We have children diagnosed with Diabetes younger and younger and our children are fatter than ever. They get full bellies but their bodies are starving. They are vitamin deficient. They miss school more often. They get diagnosed with ADD and put on medication when their diets are high in sugar and low in nourishment making it hard for them to pay attention in the classrooms.
We are making our children sick with what we can afford to feed them. It is sad that people become sick because they cannot get a healthy diet. It is even sadder that children have to live this sort of life.
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