Financial stress has become overwhelming for many people out there struggling due to managing bills, debts, living paycheck to paycheck. Unfortunately this has a direct impact on our eating habits and food choices and ultimately results in unhealthy eating habits that negatively impact our health and overall wellbeing. Healthy food tends to be more expensive, while unhealthy food tends to be affordable. Let's dive into how financial stress affects our food choices and what options are available to improve our diet on a budget.
Emotion Eating an Unhealthy Cravings.
Financial stress has triggering effect on our emotions and anxiety levels this results in using food as a our coping mechanism. Common foods we turn to is junk and processed foods. While these choices are temporary, they result on long term effects on our health including weight gain, digestive issues, and chronic conditions.
The Convenience Trap
Today we live in fast paced world many of us are always on the go therefore choose to eat fast food or take-out and snacks because it is quick and convenient which all leads deficiency in nutrients our body needs and leads some of us to gain weight. These meals are typically low in essential nutrients our body needs. I personally fell into this trap by eating easy accessible foods instead of cooking a healthy nutritious meal.
Skipping Meals
Skipping meals to save money was one of my bad habits. I learned my lesson when I got sick and ended up in the hospital, this lead to the realization of this habit was making me sick because of depriving myself of Iron due to the fact I have anemia from childhood. Iron is a nutrient some women are deficient in especially during their period iron levels drop. I will share this story related to a upcoming blog. Skipping meals to save money looks good, however if practiced for a long time it can have a negative impact on our health down the road.
How To Make Healthier Choices On A Budget.
Even with the current cost of living crisis and financial stress there are healthier options available for our budget. One is meal planning this will help to reduce the temptation of eating unhealthy foods such as fast foods, and processed foods. Another is cooking at home in some cases it is cheaper to cook at home especially by adding our secret sauce which is love to enhance the taste of our food. Office Potluck if you work somewhere food is not provided try a potluck once a week with your colleagues this way you get to be sociable and experience different types of foods. Finally adding focus to such foods as fruits, vegetables, legumes, meat, seafood, and whole grains ensure we are getting the nutritional value we need for our health.
In conclusion, financial stress is impactful on our eating habits, often leading us towards making choices which compromise our health in the future. If we take the time and notice simple habits we make in relation to our food such as emotional eating, convenience trap, skipping meals all of these affect our physical, emotional, mental, social, and spiritual well-being. However, through making simple changes we can be self aware of the choices we make for a lifestyle change such exploring budget friendly and nutritious options even through our current cost of living crisis worldwide.
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