Hi
i have been told by my doctor to exercise more and to start eating healthier. When I asked what she meant she told me not to eat rice or pasta in the evening as it sits on my stomach overnight and becomes fat.

She advised to eat oily fish like carp and trout, , meat such as Venison and duck, along with plenty of fresh vegetables .
So at Tescos on Sunday I went to buy all those things only to find the cost was extortionate. Vegetables werent too expensive but duck and venison was ludicrously priced as were the fish she told me to get.

I thought chicken was healthy - but even that cost £3.50 just for a few small strips of it.

Why does eating healthier food cost such a lot more than the greasy foods such as burgers and sausages? Do supermarkets not want us to be healthy?

Where the hell do you live? Chelsea? I call healthy food vegetables and fruit. Some of the things mentioned there would be seen at restaurants and dinner parties. You can get a full chicken here for about £5, but not a very big one though.

Duck and venison aren't your standard meats. Venison is wild. Unless you have a good source for it then you're not going to get it for the same price as beef, pork or chicken.

A cheaper oily fish would be mackerel. However I would suggest you ask you GP practice to arrange a chat with a dietician and get some sensible advice. Start by looking here http://www.nhs.uk/livewell/healthy-e...thyeating.aspx

Just eat what the hell you want. Don't listen to your doctor. It's his job, he's got to say that. If you like chicken nuggets then eat chicken nuggets.

What gets me is raspberries, a tiny box costs 3 quid!

Any raspberries you get now are imported or grown here in a greenhouse, which is why they are expensive at this time of year.
They're not in season here till the summer, after all.

And also, I'd be most interested to know what sort of a doctor advises anyone to eat duck. One with a duck farm, maybe.

£2 in my local co-op. Got some tonight.

Cooking fresh food is cheap.

My dad has been ill and has to change his diet, he now eats all healthy, I must admitt buying healthy food for him costs a small fortune.these days.

His worth it though.

i find it much cheaper.

And end up having all sorts of health problems. Hmm... Yeah, go on, just stuff your face with all high fatty foods, very high carbohydrate foods, very high sugary foods and drinks regularly throughout the day. That'll keep you in optimum health.....NOT! You don't have to be a health obsessive, but it helps to look after your body. How well would a car run if you filled it with nothing but junk, hmm?

We just leave the over £1.50 (for little things) because they're too expensive.

Do you have a local market? Fruit/veg is a fraction of the price and I can buy 2 medium and a large chicken for a tenner.

Often frozen fruits are cheaper.

Sainsbury's do a "Basics" bag of frozen red berries, including raspberries, strawberries and blackcurrants for around £1.20 for 500g. I find this is a really good value way of getting some of the more "expensive" fruits into my diet.

Cooking from fresh IS cheaper in the long run. People quite often think ready meal = £1, a whole fresh chicken £5 and then choose the ready meal because its cheaper. However, the ready meal only feeds you once whereas the whole chicken can feed you over several meals.

I find whole chickens are better than buying breast fillets and chicken thighs are the best of the lot - cheap, and much tastier than breast.

Just one example of how convenience food is often a false economy, let alone how it might affect your health.

Another good way of getting fresh meat for cheap is to go to the supermarket towards the end of the day. My local Sainsbury's puts ridiculous discounts on the fresh meats just before closing - I got two duck breasts the other day for 40p! I took them straight home and froze them so I can use them another time. Am sure other supermarkets must do similar.

I'd have thought Duck was a bit fatty to be included on a healthy eating plan.

Getting to see the dietician sounds the most useful thing to do.

With regards to oily fish - herring, sardines, pichards and mackeral are all "oily" and quite cheap.

Not sure why your Doc advised duck and venison - maybe its because they tend to be less intensely farmed? I'dve thought free range pork and chicken to be quite sufficient. Though really we eat far too much meat anyway - a couple of meals a week would be a good idea then the cost won't be so great overall.

The meat itself is very lean, as most game is. It's just got a lot of fat on the surface.

Your doctor must be rich, I have been advised many times to eat healthier by various doctors never been told to eat duck and venison as they would know how expensive it is. Chicken is usually the meat they recommend and oily fish (any) never sits well with me as a vegetarian to be told that though LOL

This is a really good tip, I hadn't thought about those bags before. I don't tend to go down that aisle in the freezer department. Also, aren't tinned fruits (in juice) a good way of getting vitamins? I adore tinned peaches for instance. Yum.

I don't eat meat so the whole chicken, venison, duck debate doesn't concern me.

Aldi do bags of frozen tuna and salmon for £3/£4 respectively, Last time I had a bag of tuna steaks there were at least 4. Anchovy fillets are only 69p for 50g, etc etc.

Aldi also have a bag of veg at about 80p where you can make a big pot of soup.

You must eat pretty healthily anyway, being a vegetarian. You can't get much better than a diet of fruit, veg, pulses and so on.

I agree it is rather odd to be told to eat a diet of duck and venison! Also ... carp? There are loads of readily available oily fish, as has been mentioned. I don't think I've ever seen carp for sale in the UK.
Aren't they usually just fished for sport and then released? It's all a bit bizarre.

Those frozen berries are flipping gorgeous, aren't they? I haven't had any for ages so must get some tonight!

You've given some great advice - I confess I haven't checked out my local Sainsburies for cheap meat at the end of the day but will. Along with the berries!

I love frozen berries! Although there are two of us in our household my other half isn't a fruit fan so if I bought fresh berries I'd probably not finish them before they started to go off so would be a bit of a waste! The frozen ones you can portion up. I quite often tip some into a bowl before bed, put them in the fridge and in the morning they're defrosted, and have them with some plain yoghurt for breakfast.

I would imagine most supermarkets will do similar with their fresh, perishable stuff towards the end of the day. I know Sainsbury's also reduces a lot of the fresh fish, which again can be frozen. Plus, they also have a reduced shelf for 'storecupboard' stuff. Ok, the label might be damaged, or the box might be a bit dented or whatever but the reductions can be had, and as far as I'm concerned as long as the contents inside have not been affected then they're fine with me!

A lunchtime sandwich of mackerel or sardines will give you same omega 3 oils as the more expensive fish you mention. Salmon is plentiful and reasonably priced. A whole chicken can be bought for little more than the price you quote for a few strips and would make at least 3 meals; as a dinner with potatoes, veg and gravy, cold with a salad or in a lunchtime sandwich and soup from the remains.

Not every meal needs meat or fish - vegetables are very versatile. Use them in soups, Vegetable casserole, stir fries, veggie chillie etc.

Don't buy fruit out of season - nor do you need to buy it from the supermarket. In season it can be picked at 'Pick Your Own' fruit farms and frozen very successfully - with the exception of strawberries which don't freeze well. However blackberries are excellent for freezing and you can pick them free gratis and for nothing.

All you need is a little imagination to cook healthily and at reasonable cost.

Mackerel is oily fish and is dirt-cheap, easily obtainable and tasty too. Trout and salmon fillets aren't dear and also are available in the supermarket.

A whole chicken (Tesco are doing them half price at the mo) is cheaper than chicken breasts and you can cut the breasts off and freeze them. Use the remaining meat (legs and thighs) for a casserole or curry and boil the carcass up for soup. Five meals for £2.50.

The OP's GP is living on another planet. Much like the one who told my alcoholic sister to do a bit of charity work!