You definitely could be right about an unhealthy diet making you feel rubbish. Even if it doesn't help you feel better, eating more healthily will certainly make you less likely to get sick in the future, help you improve your cholesterol levels and make you generally healthier overall, which certainly can't be a bad thing.

Fortunately, it's very possible to eat healthy on a budget. The best thing to do is to find basic foods that you can eat in a variety of ways, so that you can buy them in bulk and still eat a different meal every night. Here's some ideas:

• Pasta. It comes in a million and one different sorts (though wholemeal is generally the healthiest) and it's so easy to cook it's a joke. You can cook huge pans of it and save them in the fridge to warm up another day, so you don't even have to cook every day. What to eat with it? If you learn how to make a basic low-fat white sauce, which is very quick, then you can put basically anything in it: cheese, tomato, herbs, whatever. You can also throw chopped veg into your pasta dishes and also chopped fish and meat. In fact, you can add in pretty much anything, and if you can't be bothered to make a sauce, then there's plenty of tinned ones you can buy that are fairly healthy or you can just eat it plain.
  
• Rice. Pretty similar: you can throw in whatever  you like and reheat it as much as you want. It's also really filling and quite cheap.
  
• Tortilla wraps. Buy some tortillas at the supermarket (they're not expensive) and then fill them with whatever you like. I tend to use things like lentils and chickpeas, though you can put in whatever you like: I'm sure you can come up with plenty of ideas!
  
• Quiche. Make yourself some low-fat pastry and then fill the quiche with whatever you like (mix it with beaten egg before you put it in). Stick it in the oven and get it out when it's cooked. Not quite as low-fat as some of the other options, but it's really nice and a little showier than some other things without being too expensive.

Don't forget that you also need to make sure that you're eating a balanced diet which includes all the different food groups. Check out this page.

Also, because life is nothing without a little sweetness, here's a page on healthy desserts.

Hope that helped!

-Fern

Posted at 8:10 am on May 17, 2008

Try switching to wholemeal bread and go for wholemeal options such as wholewheat pasta and brown rice rather than the white alternative as these have a higher fibre content and provide longer lasting releases of sugar meaning that you feel satisfied for longer.

Try not to snack in between meals, but if you are hungry, grab some fruit or a low fat yogurt rather than a cake or a biscuit.

You can also buy low fat and low cholesterol alternative products such as low cholesterol margarine which may help lower your cholesterol.

Often your diet can affect your mood and the way you feel significantly so this could possibly be the reason why you are feeling unwell. However, I would go and get checked out by a doctor to make sure that everything is okay.

Posted at 8:11 am on May 16, 2008