Low Cost Balanced Diet

Diet can be planned in several ways depending on the quality of life a person leads. Not every person can buy all the things available in the market, but he can always use things available at home and make a delicious lunch or dinner.
Here are few tips:
1. Replace a single cereal with mixed cereal. Mix rice with ragi, jowar, bajra etc.
2. Include 50g of green leafy vegetables to improve intake of Vitamin A, Iron, Folic Acid. Grow greens in the kitchen garden like coriander leaves, fenugreek (methi) leaves, drumstick leaves curry leaves and use them everyday in your diet.
3. Inclusion of inexpensive yellow fruits like papaya and guava to increase Vitamin A and C.
4. Inclusion of atleast 150ml milk improves intakes of riboflavin, calcium besides improving protein quality of the diet. It can be in the form of coffee, tea, curds, buttermilk or plain milk.
5. Another extra 10g of oil increases energy and essential fatty acid intake.
6. Low priced snack like puffed rice, roasted chana can be used as evening snack.
7. Jaggery can be used instead of sugar which in turn is rich in iron and Vitamin K.
8. Pulses like horsegram can be used which is less economical to increase the protein intake.
9. Steamed foods are less expensive than the fried foods and try to have homemade food which is cheaper, nutritious and economical.
10. Use leaves of cauliflower, raddish, carrots, beet which are very nutritious. Most of them do not know the nutritious value of these and throw them, instead use them in curries,chutneys etc.
11. Use Germinated green gram, bengal gram, horse gram.

I feel these tips will surely help you before you plan your diet the next time.