A diet fueled by food stamps is making South Texans obese but leaving them hungry

[magical thyme]

61. Insufficient nutrition. Canned veggies are lacking in nutrients and heavy in salt.

And filling up on beans and rice gives too many carbs and not enough nutrients. People often feel cravings or hunger when their bodies really are lacking in specific nutrients that are not found in protein rich foods, or in beans or grains.

Fresh or frozen veggies should be the center of the meal. Carrots are cheap. Supplement those with more expensive veggies, such as kale, spinach, beets, broccoli, green and red leaf lettuce. The best white veggies are onions and some garlic. At least 3 servings of different fruits/day. Again, deeply colored such as berries are better because they are nutrient-rich. Tomatoes are actually fruits, as are eggplants. Roasted eggplant is delicious, filling and the dark purple/black skin is high in phytochemicals. Same with roasted acorn squash -- filling, deep orange center and black skin are highly nutritious.

From there, expand outward with a cup or so of beans and 1/2 cup of rice and a couple tablespoons of nuts. Although nuts are expensive, they should be eaten in tiny portions -- literally a 2-3 tablespoons/day -- which keeps the cost down while adding important nutrients.

You can make an extremely healthy, highly nutritious and delicious meal for less than $1.00/serving.

And it can be done pretty conveniently too, when work schedule doesn't leave time for fancy. I make veggie stew for roughly $1.25/lb by boiling a pound each of chopped potatoes and carrots ($.50/pound each), and then mixing in a pound of broccoli cuts ($1.39/pound), a pound of chopped spinach ($1.39/lb), 1/2 pound of frozen corn ($1.00/pound), 1/2 pound of frozen peas ($1.00/pound), 1 pound of sauteed mushrooms and onions (mostly onions, about $3.00 total), and a 1 pound can of lentil soup ($2.00). That's 7 pounds of nutritious and filling veggies for ~$9.00.