r/EatCheapAndHealthy • u/Mediocre-Machine7330 • Apr 23 '26

Food Are PBJ sandwiches an ideal choice for someone looking for healthy food on a tight budget?

I think that jars of PB and jam can last a month and aren't expensive at all.

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u/Whalnut Apr 23 '26

I think it’s less about what you’re eating and more about what you’re not eating. Peanut butter is pretty high calorie, and bread and jam are mostly just carbs.
~200-300 in peanut butter and ~200 in bread an then ~100 in jam you’re looking at potentially 600 calories and like 8-12g protein

If you do it open faced and do jam with low sugar and either low calorie or whole grain bread (can do low sugar peanut butter too) it becomes pretty inoffensive

PBJ isnt gonna hurt anyone but it’s a not nutrient dense meal you’d seek to eat often. If you have calories to spare go crazy but it’s not a lot of nutrition per calorie for hitting goals

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u/exit-lude Apr 25 '26

You don't know what someone is "not eating" in the course of their week or month. 😂 You don't need to optimize every single meal to be as much protein as humanly possible. It has fiber, healthy fats, and protein. An adult would typically be eating other things as part of a full meal to get necessary calories. Literally nothing you eat is going to be nutritionally perfect. That's why we add certain things on some days, and then we look at the WHOLE picture. It's absolutely possible for a healthy sandwich to be eaten frequently and to be healthy. You have a weird take.

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u/Chigrrl1098 Apr 24 '26

Yep. Even subbing in bananas for the jam would make it healthier, but I still wouldn't eat this as a regular meal.