10 Best Foods For Your Buck

Plan your menus around healthy, nutrient-packed staples that won’t give you sticker shock at the checkout.

Make the most of your grocery budget by stocking up on these versatile natural foods that are good for your health and wallet.

Peanut butter

Why it’s a 10 best:This popular pantry item offers protein and heart-healthy unsaturated fats.

 Use it it: Snacks, sandwiches, sauces, and baking goods. 

 Cost: About 20¢ for 2 tablespoons

Eggs

Why they’re a 10 best: Eggs are a good source of lean protein, and also contain vitamin B12, riboflavin and phosphorus.

Use them in: Omelets, frittatas and salads

Cost: About 13¢ per large egg

Oats

Why they’re a 20 best: This grain helps lower LDL (bad) cholesterol.

Use them in:  Baked goods, breakfast and to stretch ground-meat dishes

Cost: About 17¢ per ½ cup for quick-cooking oats

Apples

Why they’re a 10 best: This fruit is a good source of vitamin C and is full of both soluble and insoluble fiber.

Use them in: Salads and baked goods; as a snack

Cost: About 60¢ each, depending on variety and season

Spinach

Why it’s a 10 best: This leafy green is loaded with vitamins (A, C, K and folic acid) and manganese.

Use it in: Salads, pasta dishes, casseroles, soups and stews

Cost: About $1 for 5 ounces of fresh spinach

Beans

Why they’re a 10 best: This tasty staple provides lean protein that’s full of fiber, calcium, folic acid and iron and other minerals.

Use them in: Salad and stews

Cost:  About 35¢ per ½-cup serving (canned)

Frozen vegetables

Why they’re a 10 best: They provide fiber and an array of nutrients, depending on which veggies you buy.

Use them in: Sides and casseroles

Cost: About 40¢ per serving

Sweet potatoes

Why they’re a 10 best: These spuds are very filling (because they contain fiber) and a source of vitamins A and B6.

Use them in: Main and side dishes

Cost: About $1 each

Brown rice

Why it’s a 10 best: Brown rice is a whole grain and a source of vitamin B6, magnesium, copper, zinc and manganese.

Use it in: Soups, salads and side dishes

Cost: About 37¢ per ½ cup (cooked)

Canned tuna fish

Why it’s a 10 Best: This fish is a healthful lean protein and contains omega-3 fatty acids.

Use it in: Sandwiches, casseroles and salads

Cost: About 75¢ for 3 ounces

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5 Foods that Boost Your Mood

As anyone who has sought solace in a pint of Häagen-Dazs knows, food can be a source of comfort and pleasureas well as nutrients. While overdoing it on ice cream and candy is likely to cause more stress when you regret all those empty calories, consistently munching the right bites can actually help change your outlook from bummed to bright! Even better news: Since what’s good for your brain is also a boon for your body, incorporating these fivemood boosters into your diet may improve not only your outlook, but also your energy and your figure. Eat up and lighten up!

COLD CEREAL
Eat it for your brain: A handful of MultiGrain Cheerios or Kashi Heart to Heart offers folic acid, which can help fend off the blues. Those with low levels of the nutrient experience more symptoms of depression, a study in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health suggests, and a folic acid deficiency may prevent your antidepressants from working. 

Eat it for your body: A quick bowl of whole-grain cereal brims with iron and vitamins, and gets your metabolism humming—and it sure beats skipping breakfast altogether, since that can lead to all sorts of problems later in the day. People who skipped breakfast only once every three months were 34 percent more likely to be obese than those who didn’t, according to a study from the University of Massachusetts Medical School in Worcester. So even if your body doesn’t want it when you first wake up, find a breakfast you can live with, and eat up.

FISH
Eat it for your brain: Those with the highest levels of omega-3 fatty acids, found in several kinds of fish, were happier than those with lower levels, a study from the University of Pittsburgh reveals. Omega-3 fatty acids enhance areas of the brain that affect disposition. Certain fish also pack B12, a known mood booster, which wards off the doldrums by stimulating the brain’s production of serotonin, helping you relax. Aim to eat two servings of low-mercury fish (like catfish, cod, crab, flounder and halibut) weekly for more smiles! 

Eat it for your body: Wild salmon, trout, herring and other cold-water fish are filled with vitamin D, which helps curb appetite, as well as omega 3′s, which lower the risk for heart disease. Research also shows that eating fish regularly improves insulin insensitivity, which helps build muscle and decrease belly fat. 

EGG YOLKS
Eat them for your brain: Feel sunnier by adding a bit of yellow. Egg yolks contain choline, a mood enhancer.Being low on this nutrient could lead to feeling anxious. 

Eat them for your body: Yolks act as a multivitamin, delivering vitamins A and D, as well as folate and calcium. 

CHOCOLATE
Eat it for your brain: Sweeten your mood by indulging your chocolate urges. Half of depressed people reported craving chocolate, and most of them felt soothed after indulging, according to a survey in The British Journal of Psychiatry. Since chomping too much chocolate sends you into a sugar coma, munch just 1 ounce and savor every bite! 

Eat it for your body: Eating a couple ounces of dark chocolate a week (about one Ghirardelli square a day) may cut your risk for heart disease by 33 percent, according to a study in The Journal of Nutrition. Plus, it has more disease-fighting antioxidants than green tea, red wine or blueberries. Perhaps Willy Wonka was on to something!

FRUITS & VEGGIES
Eat them for your brain: Want a buzz booster? Frequent the produce aisle! People who ate the most fruits and veggies were least likely to feel depressed, a study by the University College London found. 

Eat them for your body: Munching the recommended 2 cups of fruit and 2 1/2 cups of veggies a day reduces your calorie intake and bolsters your immunity. The darker and more colorful, the better! The shades in fruits and vegetables come from phytonutrients, which protect different organs. For example, lutein in greens protects your eyes, while lycopene-packed red tomatoes shield your heart. Color yourself healthy!

For more natural mood boosters go to Self.com.

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The Basics of a Diet Built for Size

by Tim Henriques

If you want to gain weight, and mainly muscle, be sure to eat a lot of the following foods: whole milk, whole eggs, potatoes, and nuts. Everybody already knows about lean meats, so I don’t think I need to slap you with a ribeye to refresh your memory.

Drink whole milk… not skim or 1%. You need the fat for additional calories, and remember that fat helps create hormones, like Testosterone. Low fat diets (less than 20% of daily calories) promote lower Testosterone levels, and that’s not what anyone wants.

The same is true for whole eggs. The yolk is where you find about half of the protein, all of the vitamins and minerals, and all of the fat. Some of the fat in the yolk, especially in free-range, high-quality eggs, is the healthy stuff. Keep in mind, most studies show that the cholesterol in eggs doesn’t raise your blood cholesterol.

Potatoes, along with sweet potatoes, are an easy, cheap, and damn tasty source of quality carbs. I know they have a high glycemic index (GI), but I don’t care. They always give me long-lasting energy in the gym, and when combined with other proteins and fats, their GI is lower. As for nuts, these little packages of nature’s goodness are very dense in calories and nutrients. I try to eat one can of nuts a week when I want to gain weight.

If you stock up on all of those basic foods and watch the scale (it needs to be going up), you should be able to gain weight.

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