By Tyne Darke
Sometimes it can be a struggle: should I buy the cheap food, or the more expensive, but healthier, food? But hey, who says you have to make the choice? If you do some digging around, chances are you’ll be able to figure out ways that you can have your cake (or maybe fruit?) and eat it too!
One way my family has done this is by purchasing “Happy Cow” from a farm in Chester, NH, although you can find farms like this one all over the country. The cows are grass-fed, as opposed to cows that are fed things like grain and corn, which their systems are not naturally made to digest, and they’re not given other hormones or “growth-promoting additives.” Since they are eating what their stomachs have been made to handle, there is no need to give them the antibiotics that other cows who have not been grass-fed tend to be given.
So what are the health benefits?
I know, I know. It sounds like a good idea, but before you go out and buy, you want to make sure what you’re spending your money on is the real deal. No worries – I’ve got you covered. When it comes to grass-fed beef versus commercial beef, it’s pretty clear that grass-fed is the winner when it comes to healthiness. Just to go over a few of the benefits:
- Grass-fed meat has less fat. It’s actually comparable to the amount of fat in a skinless chicken breast!
- Which means it has fewer calories too, since there are 9 calories for every gram of fat versus 4 calories for every gram of protein or carbohydrates.
- It also contains more Omega-3s, the “most heart-friendly” of all the fats. Omega-3s have a wide variety of health benefits, such as decreasing the chance of heart attack, Alzheimer’s, or cancer.
And how will this help you with saving money on food?
It’s the simple idea of buying in bulk. The farm that my family purchases our Happy Cow from gives you the option of buying the meat of a whole cow or half a cow. We choose half, and in an extra freezer we store all of the meat, only taking out some when we need it. For half a Happy Cow, the total comes to about $750 for around 250 pounds of meat. So if you break it down:
- Half a Happy Cow averages out to about $3 per pound.
- If you check out retailers likeStop & Shop, it’s $5.69 for a pound of ground beef.
- Therefore, you save over $2 a pound by purchasing you healthy Happy Cow!
Crazy, right? You can actually get better quality food and control your spending at the same time! And I’m sure if you get a little creative, you can find other ways to do this too!
What about you? Do you have any creative ways to both eat healthier and save money?
