Super Foods on a Budget: Top 4 for Less than $5

When you look at some of the produce in your store, the price can be the deciding factor of whether you put it in your cart. The same goes for supplements capturing the essential ingredients of specific foods.

If you’re trying to live a more health conscious lifestyle, you may be feeling overwhelmed by how much it seems to cost. Is there any hope? Of course.

Let’s take a look at four of the most powerful super foods, all of which cost less than $5. (Some are less than a dollar!)

WHAT IS A SUPER FOOD?

First up, let’s talk about what makes a food super. When you hear people referring to a super food, they are talking about a natural food that has more nutrients than your average piece of produce.

What’s more, and most importantly, super foods usually will be said to help alleviate some type of ailment. Not cure, just alleviate.

THE TOP 4 BUDGET FRIENDLY SUPER FOODS

Some super foods can definitely break your bank but others are powerful and extremely cost effective. Let’s run down four super foods that can improve your health while leaving your wallet padded.

1. Garlic

A signature ingredient in so many of your favorite dishes, garlic is a potent herb. If you want to reap all the benefits of garlic, you need to take it raw. You don’t need to chew it up though! It’s perfectly okay to chop it up and swallow the pieces.

Benefits include:

• Reduces the risk for a number of cardiovascular diseases
• Acts as an anti-tumor treatment
• Contains anti-microbial effects (1)

Average price:

• $0.50 to $0.80 for a bulb of garlic

2. Honey

Definitely the most delicious super food on the list, honey is one of the oldest and most powerful foods on the planet. Used for thousands of years as an alternative treatment, honey contains glucose along with vitamins, minerals, and enzymes. 

Benefits include:

• Treats inflammation and infection (can be used as a bandage)
• Used as an anti-bacterial
• Boosts the immune system (2)

Average price:

• $4.00 to $5.00 for half a pound of honey

3. Ginger

It’s put in beverages, candy, and natural health aids. Ginger is more than a flavorful ingredient; it’s also a super food worth stocking up on. The subject of study for years, ginger has been shown to provide a number of benefits.

Benefits include:

• Famously used as an anti-nausea treatment
• Promotes digestion
• Used as an anti-inflammatory (3)

Average price:

• $0.50 to $5.00 (Depending of the size of the piece of ginger you buy - $5.00 is a HUGE piece of ginger that will last awhile)

4. Turmeric

Another popular spice, especially in Indian cuisine, turmeric is a beautifully colored super food that contains the potent compound called curcumin. Although it is most sought after as a supplement right now, it may be more cost effective to purchase it outright as a spice.

Benefits include:

• Used as a natural treatment for cancer prevention and therapy
• Alleviates symptoms of a number of other diseases including Irritable Bowel Syndrome and Inflammatory Bowel Disease
• Reduces the symptoms of DOMS (delayed onset muscle soreness) post-workout (4)

Average price:

• $1.00 to $5.00 (Like ginger, it depends on how big of a piece you buy – Again, a $5.00 piece is quite large)

TELL US WHAT YOU THINK!

Do you use any of these super foods on a daily basis?

How has your health improved by using them?
Do you have other super foods you’d recommend?

Tell us about them in the comments section!

Leyla Bayan, Peir Hossain Koulivand, and Ali Gorji. Garlic: a review of potential therapeutic effects. Avicenna J Phytomed. 2014 Jan-Feb; 4(1): 1–14.

Manisha Deb Mandal and Shyamapada Mandal. Honey: its medicinal property and antibacterial activity. Asian Pac J Trop Biomed. 2011 Apr; 1(2): 154–160.

Bode AM, Dong Z. The Amazing and Mighty Ginger. In: Benzie IFF, Wachtel-Galor S, editors. Herbal Medicine: Biomolecular and Clinical Aspects. 2nd edition. Boca Raton (FL): CRC Press/Taylor & Francis; 2011. Chapter 7.

Subash C. Gupta, Sridevi Patchva, and Bharat B. Aggarwal. Therapeutic Roles of Curcumin: Lessons Learned from Clinical Trials. AAPS J. 2013 Jan; 15(1): 195–218.