Feeding your family has become more expensive over the years and surviving on sale items and coupons seems like a better idea every day. However, when was the last time you looked at most of the cheapest foods that are on sale or less expensive with a coupon? Usually they’re pre-packed food with little nutritional value that may be cheaper, but won’t provide your family with the kinds of foods they need to help them grow and develop healthily.

You also might be surprised to hear that whole foods and veggies are also fairly inexpensive, even without sales and coupons, and if you make these foods staples in your household, you will find that your entire family will benefit health wise. 

A little while ago, three moms were concerned about their children’s diet as well as their own. They found themselves stocking foods like chips, cookies, and other processed foods that were cheap, but ultimately fattening and unnecessary. They decided to make whole foods and veggie-heavy dishes the only option in their homes and found that not only did their children love the new diet, they also had more energy and stopped craving processed surgery and salty foods.

For as little as $125 a week, you can feed a family of four on an all organic diet. If you don’t want to go that extreme, you can also use the same amount of fix veggie-heavy dishes and use more whole foods. A typical meal for one of the families looked a little like this:

• Breakfast: Oatmeal with honey, cinnamon, and raisins
• Lunch: Egg salad on whole wheat with apples and grapes
• Dinner: Quesadillas with chopped vegetables, cheese, and cilantro

Along with the obvious health benefits, a diet free of additives and dyes has been proven to help children concentrate better in school and improve their cognitive development. For one of the families, the diet change was due a history of heart disease and obesity in the family and the mom wanted to protect her children from anything they might have received due to heredity.

Some of the families have chosen to go vegan or vegetarian, but you don’t have to. Your meals can include meat, but to follow the diet it should be portion controlled and as lean as possible. Organic beef is a good option because it’s usually grass fed, which means you’re getting omega 3 fatty acids in addition to the necessary protein your body needs. Commercial beef is usually grain fed, which makes it fatty and most importantly it doesn’t contain those important omega acids.

Source: Manning, Joy. "Give Your Family the Nutrition It Needs." Prevention. Nov 2011. Web. 23 Nov 2013.