FF- Nutrition & Frugality

Have you ever met someone who knows the "price of everything and the value of nothing"? This can be the cheapy-pants person who buys cheap food regardless of the fact that it has zero nutritional content. They're not really getting a good deal. In fact, they are actually wasting their money!

Recently I stumbled upon the website My Fitness Pal. It was made for dieters, but there are some great tracking tools available even to those like me who aren't really "calorie counters". Specifically, you can see the nutritional content of your diet.

I was surprised at how little nutrition I was really getting from my food (at least according to their guidelines). One thing I noticed was the virtual non-existence of vitamin C. Immediately I thought of a popular cure- oranges! I would eat more oranges! One navel orange, according to the site, would get you 163% of your recommended vitamin C.

However, I found a better alternative. Check out these stats:

Navel Orange:  163% vitamin C; 14 grams sugar; 81 calories
Green Pepper: 159% vitamin C; 3 grams sugar; 24 calories

For my purposes, a green pepper did a much better job than an orange. I simply added 1/4-1/3 cup to my fried eggs each morning.

This one change brought my vitamin C levels above and beyond what I had expected. Yay!

It's important, when trying to be "frugal", to know the value of something and not just the price. Value doesn't have to be monetary, and sometimes the 'price' (i.e. grams of sugar!) is disproportionate to the value (i.e. vitamin C content).

Have a happy and healthy Friday!!