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Leading Australian dietitian and nutritionist Susie Burrell examines five popular diets, explaining how to tell if they’re suited to you.

Another day, another diet, or so it seems – Paleo, fasting, low carb, keto… the list goes on.

The issue for many of us is knowing what the difference is between all of these diets and which would be the best option for you, to support both health and weight loss.

So if you are keen to drop a few kilos, here are the key things you need to know about the popular diets of the moment so you can make an informed decision about which one may be right for you

Fasting

What is it?

Dietary programs that encourage followers to either dramatically reduce calorie intake on two non-consecutive days (the 5:2 diet) or fast for an extended number of hours each day (intermittent fasting) to reap a range of metabolic benefits which may include slow but sustainable weight loss.

Pros: The 16:8 diet, or intermittent fasting, can be relatively easy to follow and takes the focus off calorie counting and overall food restriction. The only thing dieters need to focus on is eating all their calories within an eight-hour period.

It can fit in with life well, allowing times for eating more at social events and celebrations, with dieters able to somewhat buffer the effects by not eating for a number of hours afterwards.

Cons: The 5:2, in which followers include two especially low-calorie days each week can be difficult to follow long term.

Best for: Those wanting to reap the health benefits associated with fasting including reducing blood pressure, blood glucose, and cholesterol.

It will support small weight losses of 1-2kg per month in those with relatively small amounts of weight to lose (5-10kg).

Paleo

What is it? A relatively low-carb diet that focuses on proteins, good fats, and some vegetables, based on a hunter-gatherer philosophy that embraces natural, unprocessed foods.

Followers are encouraged to avoid all legumes, grains, and dairy, instead seeking out their fats from nuts, coconut oil, oily fish, and meats.  

Pros: A pure Paleo approach will include very little processed food making it a relatively healthy regime, if you can stick to it.

Cons: Dietary fibre intake is significantly impacted which can cause gut discomfort for some.

Calcium too is virtually non-existent, which has the potential to impact bone health long term. In real life, it is difficult to stick to long-term, especially if you eat out frequently and don’t have a lot of interest in food prep or cooking.

Best for: Those who will benefit from a lower-carb style of eating although there are better dietary approaches that will achieve similar results with a less restrictive approach to diet and weight loss.

Keto

What is it? A very specific low-carb diet that requires at least 70 per cent of calories to come from fat. This shifts the body’s natural state from burning glucose as its primary fuel into ketosis, in which fat stores are broken down to fuel the brain and the body.

Traditionally used to manage some medical conditions, keto can be very effective in achieving relatively quick weight loss, when it is followed properly.

Pros: A keto diet can result in relatively quick weight loss and suits some people who enjoy higher-fat food. Followers report a general feeling of euphoria when in keto and hunger tends to be less of an issue than can be experienced on reduced calorie eating programs.

Cons: It is not easy to achieve ketosis – there are very few foods to work with to achieve a 70 per cent fat diet, which makes adherence and long term sustainability difficult. Keto is also particularly low in dietary fibre and calcium.

Best for: Those with large amounts of weight to lose and individuals who like high-fat foods.

CSIRO diet

What is it? A moderate- to low-carb approach to weight loss with a focus on lean proteins, vegetables, and controlled portions of good-quality carbs to support slow, sustainable fat loss.

Pros: Unlike other low-carb diets, CSIRO is a more moderate approach and still includes all food groups. Weight loss will be slower but also more likely to be maintained.

Cons: Weight loss may be a little slower than more aggressive low-carb diets. It requires some food prep and cooking to prepare nutritionally balanced meals.

Best for: Individuals wanting to lose 5-20kg but who are happy to do it in a slow, sustainable way and prepare a lot of their own food.

VLCD (800cal)

What is it? Very Low-Calorie Diets (VLCD) generally utilise meal replacement products and diet shakes to achieve an extremely low-calorie intake of just 800 calories per day and have been used for many years in clinical settings to achieve weight loss.

Pros: VLCDs are very effective in achieving quick weight loss if they can be followed.

Cons: VLCDs are difficult to follow long-term and weight loss is often regained as soon as normal eating resumes.

Best for: Those who need to lose weight quickly, for those who do not find it difficult to follow strict diets or for those who often do not eat a lot during the day and find the structure of meal replacement programs easy to follow.

This advice is general in nature and shouldn’t be treated as specific advice. For health advice tailored to your needs and goals, visit a doctor or health professional.

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Christmas often brings financial stress, with the pressure of gift-giving and hosting large family gatherings.

But, with thoughtful planning and preparation, it’s possible to navigate this period of time with more financial ease than you might expect.

9Honey Coach chatted with Gabrielle Newman, nutritionist and recipe developer for The Fast 800 for her best tips for a healthy – and budget-friendly – Christmas.

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Make a plan: First of all, when it comes to preparing a Christmas spread, start by planning it out. Write a list of every ingredient that you need, and do a little search to see if there is a cheaper way of buying some of those ingredients.

For example, is there a local farmer’s market that offers a fair price, or a cheaper supermarket not too far from you?

Utilise ingredients across a few dishes: Rather than buying completely different ingredients for every dish, utilise some of them across multiple dishes.

For example, if you are using cauliflower in a low-carb stuffing, utilise the leftover cauliflower in a side dish to avoid wastage. Use the same nuts (like walnuts) across multiple dishes to add crunch. 

Buy in season: In-season ingredients are often cheaper as they are easier to source and don’t need to be imported into the country. Therefore, mapping your recipes around them is key.

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In Australia, stone fruits such as plums and cherries, and berries are in season in summer, so utilising them in your dishes will be cheaper than finding something that is out of season and likely imported. 

Buy closer to its use by date: You will often see prices slashed on meat and seafood as they near their use by date, so if Christmas lunch happens to be before that date, make the most of the sale.

Even if it expires a few days before Christmas, freeze it straight away and defrost when the big day comes. Keep an eye out for discounts on non-perishables as these can be purchased months in advance. 

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Get your guests to bring a dish: Ask everyone to bring a plate. This makes the day much more affordable and usually guests are happy to contribute. Extra tip – give some guidance on what to bring so you don’t end up with five starters and no dessert!

Use your ingredients well rather than filling each dish with lots of ingredients: Sometimes simple is better. If you have a good dish, you don’t need to throw 20+ ingredients into it. That can be overkill and it can get expensive. Instead keep it simple, use nice tasty ingredients, and utilise the spices you have in the cupboard, lemon or lime to give it more depth of flavour.

Make it homemade: Instead of buying pre-packaged or pre-made dishes, try to make items from scratch – homemade meals are often healthier and more affordable. If you’re not sure what to make, check out The Fast 800 for some simple, yet tasty festive recipes.

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Who doesn’t love a snack?!

With multiple aisles in the supermarket dedicated to snack food, it is safe to say we are always on the lookout for something to munch on in between meals.

While there are many snack foods, and some of can even be found in the health food section of supermarkets, not all snacks are a good option nutritionally, with plenty of ultra-processed foods masquerading as ‘healthy’ options.

These are the ones to be careful of. 

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Rice snacks

It does not matter if it is a chip, a bar, a cracker or popped into a cake, if the base of a snack food is refined white rice, it is not the best choice nutritionally.

White rice is processed, and has a very high glycaemic index, meaning it sends glucose levels skyrocketing without much dietary fibre or protein to keep you full.

Plus, you are consuming a whole lot of energy in a very small volume of food. If you love rice snacks, at a minimum, seek out options with a wholegrain brown rice base. But don’t assume all rice-based snacks, especially flavoured options are healthy. 

Dip

Along with the growing number of pre-portioned cheese and cracker snacks, there is a growing number of cracker and dip options, and while veggie-based dips look exceptionally healthy, with an oil or cheese base they can contain up to 40 per cent fat.

The biggest issue with dip, in addition to its high fat and calorie load, is that it is extremely easy to overeat. Leave the dip for an occasional platter and seek out whole foods such as nuts, cheese and fruits as your go-to snacks. 

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Meat and cracker packs

An increased interest in all things protein is likely the reason for the emergence of a growing range of processed meat snacks – meat and cracker packs or dried meat options that are heavily marketed as school lunchbox fillers.

What needs to be made very clear is there is nothing overly healthy about processed meat, even if it does contain some protein.

Preserving meat results in the production of compounds that are damaging to the digestive tract, so introducing these snacks into children’s diets makes no sense nutritionally, especially when they are teamed with high-fat crackers that contain added MSG.

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Legume chips

They sound as if they are a healthier alternative to regular high-fat chips, but a closer look at ingredient lists will reveal that most legume chips as just as high in fat as regular chips.

They also can contain a long list of ultra-processed ingredients including flavour enhancers like MSG that can drive the desire for more of these rich flavours. Chips are chips and no matter what type, they should be consumed occasionally.

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Low sugar treats

There is a growing range of low-sugar cakes, biscuits, bars, and chocolate – while they may not contain a lot of added sugar, a quick scan of the ingredient list will reveal a highly processed food made with a myriad of ingredients, most of which you will not recognise.

Enjoy real treats occasionally, and leave the processed versions of treats on the shelves. They are basically only adding a range of processed ingredients into your diet, without the natural whole foods we need to support an optimal nutrient intake. Plus, these snacks are not actually filling and satisfying. 

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It may have been several years since you heard the acronym MSG used.

A food additive that received much attention in the 1980s, usually in the context of Chinese food, MSG, monosodium glutamate or food additive 621, is a flavour enhancer.

It’s added to a range of savoury foods to create the richness required when emulating cheese, chicken, and bacon flavours in foods that don’t often come from these ingredients.

MSG is found naturally in some foods including soy, tomatoes, and cheese in a slightly different chemical form, but it is the food additive MSG that is worth paying more attention to as a food ingredient, especially if you are buying snack foods for kids.

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MSG is technically safe for consumption. While some individuals may feel that they are sensitive to MSG, and report a range of side effects including itchy skin, disturbed sleep and headaches, larger-scale scientific studies have not confirmed these as universally experienced side effects of MSG consumption.

As such, food companies routinely argue that there is nothing wrong with adding flavour enhancers to food. 

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What is less frequently discussed is the impact that flavour enhancers, including MSG, have on food consumption patterns, especially when they are added to ultra-processed foods.

The role of a flavour enhancer when it is added to a chip, cracker or snack food is to give it a flavour that does not naturally exist. As such, when the brain is exposed to such intense flavours, it drives the desire for more of this type of food, in the same way that artificial sweeteners, being up to 200x sweeter than natural sugar, drive the desire for intensely sweet flavours.

If flavour enhancers were encouraging us to eat more fresh, whole, unprocessed foods this would pose no issue, but rather flavour enhancers drive the desire for more processed snack food that offers little nutritionally.

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And specifically in the case of children, is likely driving the desire for more tasty and processed snacks – why would you want a slice of cheese when you can eat a nacho cheese cracker?

For this reason, while flavour enhancers may be deemed ‘safe’, it does not mean that they are a good idea for children or adults, especially if you are wanting to control cravings and minimise your intake of food additives in general. 

The foods where you will find added MSG:

Shapes

As a general rule of thumb, if you see a food with a meat or chicken flavour, it is highly likely to have a flavour enhancer added to create this flavour in a food that is likely to contain very little chicken, bacon or beef.

While not all Shapes flavours contain food additive 621, you can find it in the popular Chicken Crimpy and Nacho Cheese flavours.

2-minute noodles

When it comes to 2-minute noodles, it is not the noodles themselves with added flavour, rather the tiny sachet used to create the flavour of chicken or beef.

Not only do these sachets contain almost your entire daily recommended intake of salt, but in most varieties a hit of MSG as well.

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Twisties

Both cheese and chicken Twisties contain added MSG because, as you would imagine, there is not much chicken in an extruded cheese snack.

Smith’s chips

While some major potato chip brands including Red Rock Deli and Kettle have taken added MSG out of their products, there are still several Smith’s flavours including Cheese and Onion, Chicken, BBQ, and Meatball that contain flavour enhancers. 

Pringles – Sour Cream 

The marketing slogan, ‘once you pop, you can’t stop’ certainly holds true for flavoured Pringles, where food additive 621 gives the thinly-cut crisps their intense flavour. 

Mission chips

The flavours associated with any Mexican cheesy chip or corn chips, such as nacho cheese or cheese supreme, are more likely to use these additives to create a stronger flavour profile than you find in regular cheese or corn.

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CC’s and Doritos

While plain corn chips are generally MSG-free, cheesy flavours tend to contain both MSG and another flavour enhancers, 635.

In a Biskit

The chicken flavour gives it away, but several of the ‘In a Biskit’ flavours contain flavour enhancers.

Delites Rice Snacks

While many of the rice cracker brands have taken out added MSG as an ingredient, in the Delites rice snack range there is added MSG in all the flavoured options. 

Harvest Snaps

Marketed as a healthy snack, and with some varieties clocking in a 5 Health Star Rating, what is not as front of pack is the added MSG in flavoured varieties. 

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‘Tis the season to eat and drink – a lot – and while there’s nothing wrong with indulging in the foods of the season, when it comes to keeping our health and calorie intake from blowing out at this time of year, there are some things to keep in mind.

The key is to be able to differentiate foods that are worth spending your calories on, and being aware of the foods that may not be that great nutritionally.

One of those foods is pastry. I’m not talking about homemade pastry, but rather the ultra-processed commercial pastry products that are extremely common on canape platters. As a dietitian, these are the reasons why I am not a fan.

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Pastry is one of the less satisfying foods

When foods are rated for their filling factor, pastry-based foods are some of the least satisfying foods. With little to no dietary fibre and a base of white flour, not only can you demolish several hundred calories worth in a few mouthfuls of pastry, but your brain barely registers you have had it, so you keep on eating.

This is why you can down multiple mini quiches, spring rolls, and party pies at an event and not remember eating anything at all.

Pastry often contains trans fat

If you make your own pastry the traditional way with butter, while it has a high fat content, the fat comes from natural sources. On the other hand, commercial pastry is often made using margarine as a base ingredient and the processing can result in the production of trans fat, a type of fat that is especially damaging to the body.

If you see the words margarine or shortening on any ingredient list, it is likely the product contains some trans fat. In general most pies, sausage rolls, spring rolls, and quiches are a source of these types of fat in the diet

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Pastry is often made using the worst oils

Whether it is described as vegetable oil, palm oil, margarine, or even butter, ultimately the type of added fat used to make pastry is not great for us nutritionally.

The 5-10g of fat per individual pastry-based canape is the worst type we can consume. A high intake of refined vegetable oil shifts our overall fat balance into one that is pro-inflammatory, while saturated fat is needed in our diets in very small amounts in general.

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Pastry offers little nutritionally

While a fresh pastry enjoyed in Paris is a special food experience, most of the pastry we consume, as a soggy pie at the football or from a mediocre canape tray, is certainly not nourishing your body.

Offering little other than fat and processed ingredients, you will be a million times better to seeking out a different, protein-based, canape and skipping the deep-fried food completely.

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Pastry is a calorie bomb

A single sheet of puff pastry contains more than 500 calories and 25 grams of fat, more than half of which is saturated.

This is why it is so easy to overconsume calories via pastry-based foods, with a single party pie containing more than 100 calories. This means after just four pastry-based canapes you have consumed as many calories as an entire meal, along with 20-30g of fat.

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We now have an answer for the age-old question of whether red wine or white wine is better for us.

Speaking with USA Today, Debbie Petitpain, a registered dietitian and spokesperson for the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, said dry white wine was the healthiest choice.

Petitpain explained that like any wine cultivated in cooler climates, it contains less sugar and alcohol.

The fermentation process means wines can contain leftover natural sugars from grapes, while dessert-type varieties have additional sugar content.

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Choosing wines with lower levels of sugar and alcohol ultimately makes them healthier, as the beverage doesn’t contain many nutrients aside from its alcohol content and sugar additive calories.

Australia’s Alcohol and Drug Foundation recommends “no more than 10 standard drinks per week and no more than 4 standard drinks on any one day” to reduce the risk of “alcohol-related disease or injury for healthy men and women”.

Any standard drink contains 10 grams of pure alcohol, which translates to 100 mL of wine at a 13 per cent alcohol volume (ABV). According to Petitpain, dry white wine falls far under this standard at 9-11 per cent.

This means if you drink wines made in cooler climates, you can have your standard 100mL with fewer calories. Alternatively “you can enjoy a slightly larger pour without overdoing the recommended daily servings,” she told the publication.

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The exprt even suggested an option to maximise the healthiness of wine, by turning it into a spritzer.

“Adding a club soda or even a sparkling flavoured water to dilute your wine somewhat, that can actually give you a larger serving size without adding more alcohol or calories to your drink,” Petitpain continued.

The ongoing debate on the health benefits of drinking wine and other alcohol includes myriad research.

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It is claimed light to moderate alcohol consumption can lower the risk of heart disease. This is a result of alcohol lowering the brain’s stress activity over extended periods.

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It’s long been claimed one glass of red wine a day offers the ability to prevent diseases and is an anti-inflammatory, though registered dietitian Alex Aldebrough says it’s not that simple.

“You would have to drink a lot of red wine to get those beneficial effects for your health, so (the recommended) one glass of red wine a day isn’t going to provide enough,” she told USA TODAY.

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It is well and truly party season, which means it is also platter season!

While a beautifully laid out platter can look amazing, the reality is a lot of our go-to platter fillings – including dips, crackers, cheese and processed meat – are far from good choices, nutritionally speaking.

The good news is there are plenty of healthier platter fillers. Here are my top options to make any platter tasty and appealing, but also a lot healthier.

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Seafood

Forget processed meats like salami and cabanossi that have traditionally filled party platters. A simple swap to any kind of seafood will increase the nutritional profile of any platter instantly and does not have to be expensive.

If the budget does stretch, you cannot go past any kind of shellfish – oysters, prawns, mussels and sashimi, which are all nutrient-rich proteins that also offer a hit of Omega-3 fat for very few calories.

Or, if you do need to keep things a little tighter cost-wise, you can make your own sushi or wraps with smoked salmon. You could even add tinned seafood options such as smoked oysters and mussels, which offer a lot nutritionally at a much lower price point.

The right dips

A colourful platter is not complete without some brightly-coloured dips to serve with crackers and vegetables. However, there are only a handful of ‘healthy’ dips that are based on vegetables as opposed to cream, cheese or vegetable oil.

Seek out beetroot, tzatziki, or vegetable-based options in which vegetables are clearly listed as the first ingredients. In the case of hummus, look for options that list chickpeas as the first ingredient, and where possible, extra virgin olive oil as the added fat.

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Vegetables

People will eat what you serve. In the case of vegetables such as carrots, capsicum, celery, tomatoes and cucumber, you will be surprised how much people eat when you simply cut them up and make them easy to enjoy with cheese or different dips.

Negligible in calories, a rich natural source of vitamins, antioxidants and dietary fibre, we could all do with eating a lot more vegetables at this time of year.

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Seeded crackers

Unfortunately, there are still many crackers that have a base of white flour and vegetable oil, which means that they are far from a healthy type of carbohydrate.

The growing range of seeded crackers, on the other hand, are a much better option nutritionally, offering good fats and protein. They are also much more filling than the average cracker or chips you commonly find in supermarkets.

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Dark chocolate nuts

Healthy does not need to feel boring, and to add a little festive spirit to your platters, options like dark chocolate-coated nuts are still tasty treats that can be enjoyed in moderation, and offer some positive nutritional properties.

White cheese

With the exception of haloumi, white cheeses such as feta and ricotta have slightly less fat than rich French and cheddar options.

Plus they spread easily on crackers, which means you tend to eat a lot less compared to when you slice a chunk of Brie or Camembert from a round served on a platter.

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For fans of rugby, F45 ambassador Ritchie McCaw needs no introduction. The legendary All Blacks captain has won two Rugby World Cups and cemented himself in sports history forever.

Since retirement, he hasn’t slowed down. McCaw has completed Godzone four times, a challenge that sees one dropped out in the bush and given five days to run through the forest to the finish line, the ultimate mental challenge.

Fresh off a bike-racing adventure, McCaw is now heading into F45’s Trials Week: seven days of performance-based workouts, allowing members to log and monitor their results and compare them to the rest of the community.

The sports legend sat down with 9Honey Coach to reveal exactly what he eats to fuel his active lifestyle for our Day on a Plate series.

READ MORE: This summer, ditch fads and embrace holistic health

Breakfast

I usually eat eggs on toast, maybe cereal as well to make up my breakfast.

Lunch

I like sushi or usually a sandwich or wrap.

Dinner

I grew up on a diet of meat and three veg, living on a farm. I still have a little bit of veg still but my wife likes to cook chicken or lamb salads.

Not too out there, but that would probably be the normal daily diet.

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https://www.instagram.com/p/Czh9eNPy1nb/

Snacks

When training, I have smoothies in between or after training, or for snacks, my wife makes bliss balls.

For smoothies, I usually add banana, cacao powder, natural yoghurt, peanut butter, and protein powder and I usually go for almond milk and some ice to keep it nice and cool. Every now and then I mix it up with berries.

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Is there anything in particular you have before/after a F45 session for fuel or recovery?

If it’s early I’ll have a banana, make sure to have plenty of fluids. If it’s mid-morning, I’ll have cereal and toast and some eggs afterwards.

What’s your number one favourite food when you want a treat?

I’ve got a soft spot for chocolate, when training hard I usually allow myself a little bit of chocolate before or after dinner. That’s what I enjoy the most.

As a team sports player at heart, what’s the benefit of healthy competition like what F45’s Trials Week offers?

When you’re training with others, you end up doing things you wouldn’t normally do, because you have that extra motivation just to do that extra one or two reps.

When you have people egging you along or see others doing it, you can get a bit more out of yourself.

When I used to train in the team, you want to keep up with everyone else and egg each other along which I enjoyed. When training with other people, the social side and the connection, which is an important thing for us as humans, it gives you a bit of extra energy I reckon.

F45 Trials Week runs from November 27- December 3.

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As a dietitian, I’m in supermarkets a lot – for research, to pick up cooking supplies or to scour the aisles for new and exciting products.

So much time spent in a supermarket means that I also have a pretty good idea of what food products are best to buy at which supermarket, from both a price and quality perspective.

As a general rule of thumb, I try not to pay more for food staples – milk, bread, flour, frozen vegetables – than I have to, simply as the exact same products are significantly cheaper when non-branded, or found at Aldi.

There are also a handful of key items I routinely go to Aldi for, based on their positive nutritional profiles and price points.

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Dark Chocolate

First of all, the chocolate at Aldi is of extremely good quality,

I frequently recommend these varieties of dark chocolate for my clients, because they are packaged into individual portions within each block.

As you know, when you open a block of chocolate, who can really stop after a single row or two? Nutritionally speaking, the higher the percentage of cocoa per block, the better the chocolate is for you.

Low-sugar yoghurt

It is extremely challenging to find yoghurts for children that contain no added sugar and that are also portion-controlled and child-friendly.

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For some time Aldi has stocked this range for children at a low price point. There are also a number of high protein, low sugar Greek yoghurt for adults in both individual serves and larger tubs.

Protein Bread

Another popular product that can be tricky to track down in supermarkets, Aldi has stocked high protein, low carb loaves for some time.

The supermarket also now stocks a range of high-protein bread rolls which is handy for anyone looking to lower their carbohydrate intake, whilst still enjoying bread as part of their daily diet.

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Pre-made salads

All supermarkets stock pre-made salad bowls and bags, but the range at Aldi is exceptionally wide, and at $1-2 cheaper per serve, it means you can get a lunch salad bowl for just $5.50 or a pack of chopped vegetables for just $4.

This makes healthy cooking and meal prep significantly cheaper over the course of a week.

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Dumplings

If you can find them, stock up. Not only are Aldi dumpling packs extremely affordable, but nutritionally they are some of the best dumplings available with a high percentage of meat base, and no added MSG.

Frozen Meals

There are a wide range of extremely cost-effective frozen meals at Aldi.

For me, their high protein FIT range of meals that retail for just $6.50 stand out nutritionally thanks to their high protein content.

READ MORE: Budget-friendly supermarket buys on dietitian’s weekly list

Deli Fresh Dips Range

With party season upon us, platters are where it is at, and what is a platter without dip?

The issue is that the majority of commercial dips are made with a base of cheese or vegetable oil, making them far from a healthy option.

The Aldi Deli Fresh range, and in particular the Mediterranean Vegetable variety, has a 70 per cent vegetable base, making it one of the best dips you can find nutritionally, plus it is about $1 cheaper at Aldi.

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If you are the family member who routinely does the grocery shopping, you know just how big the total is coming to lately, since literally every single grocery item has increased in price.

For the household budget, it takes a huge hit, and requires significant meal planning and scanning of the weekly specials to help save as much as you can – without compromising the family’s nutritional intake.

While fresh foods, including vegetables and lean meat, are relatively pricey, there are a handful of meal staples that remain cost-effective options, as either a quick and easy meal, or a base of a healthy meal that can create a family-friendly meal for $20 or less.

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Here are the supermarket foods I routinely stock up with each week. The good news is that it is not just soup and lentils.

Dumplings

Team dumplings with frozen edamame and green veggies for a quick and easy family meal. When you can find large bags that cost as little as 25c per dumpling, it means you can feed a family of four for less than $20.

This is at least half of what it would cost to pick up the equivalent amount of take-away food, and steamed dumplings are low in fat and calories.

Just don’t forget to add in the extra greens to balance out this meal, and go easy on the soy sauce, which adds truckloads of salt to any Asian meal.

Lasagne

If you consider the cost of making a lasagne from scratch, you would be looking at $20 at least, if not closer to $30, without even considering the time it takes to make it.

In supermarkets, there are a handful of premade lasagnes that contain a decent amount of meat (>20 per cent), including the Coles Own Brand Lasagne tray.

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And at a cost of as little as $14 for 1kg, it’s a budget-friendly and time-efficient meal for families, and one that will also offer extra serves of leftovers for lunch. 

Lean mince

It does not matter if you opt for turkey, lean pork, chicken or lean beef mince, for as little as $6 per 500g you can create a delicious meal base to serve at least four people.

If you then add extra veggies (think grated carrot, zucchini, mushrooms) as well as lentils or kidney beans, you could have a spaghetti bolognese base, Chow Mein, or San Choy Bow dinner for far less than $20.

Plus, lean cuts of mince are rich sources of protein, zinc and iron.

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Canned fish

Fresh seafood of any kind is a good option nutritionally and a food Aussies need to eat a lot more of in general.

But when the budget does not stretch that far, don’t discount canned seafood such as tuna or salmon as a nutrient and protein-rich meal base for pasta dishes, bakes, fritters and pies.

With a large 720g can of tuna or salmon costing under $10, you can create a family-friendly, Omega3-rich meal that is quick, easy and budget-friendly.

BBQ chicken

The cost of a supermarket chicken has increased in recent years but with a cooked chook costing $12-$14, it’s still a cheap option.

You can add a salad bag, some potatoes or sweet potato chips, or some frozen vegetables and create a tasty, nutritionally balanced meal that the whole family likes for just $20.

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While the skin on the chicken does add some fat, in general, BBQ chicken is a good option nutritionally and you may even have some leftovers to use on sandwiches the next day.

Or, if you have a little more time, you can find frozen whole chickens for less than $10, and then cook it yourself with vegetables for a tasty homemade roast – again for less than $20. 

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