Processed foods may be convenient, but they will not necessarily save you money—especially not if you count the cost of added healthcare expenses down the road when a poor diet starts catching up with you.

In terms of long-term disease-prevention, cooking from scratch using fresh unprocessed ingredients is perhaps your best guarantee.  

Recent research^1, 2 on healthy eating suggests that home cooking tends to result in reduced calorie consumption. People who ate the most home-cooked meals wound up consuming about 130 fewer calories daily, on average.

The authors also noted that: “If a person—or someone in their household—cooks dinner frequently, regardless of whether or not they are trying to lose weight, diet quality improves.”

Contrary to popular belief, healthy unadulterated foods also do not necessarily have to cost you a lot more than processed fare. There are in fact many examples of exceptionally affordable health foods. Following are five examples that are frequently overlooked.

#1: Homemade Bone Broth

Homemade bone broth is a true staple that can go a long way toward improving your diet and health. It’s excellent for speeding healing and recuperation from illness, and it contains many valuable vitamins, minerals, and other nutrients that support your immune function.

These include calcium, magnesium, phosphorus, silicon, sulfur, trace minerals, and compounds like chondroitin sulphates and glucosamine, which are sold as expensive supplements for arthritis and joint pain. Other health benefits of good-old-fashioned bone broth include: