For Stic of hip-hop group dead prez, healthy eating is a revolutionary act. That’s why he’s made his lifestyle of good food and plentiful exercise an important facet of his public persona over the past several years. Black communities are besiged by high rates of obesity, high cholesterol, and heart disease and too many lack even basic access to affordable, healthy foods. Recently, the rapper offered up some easy ways to eat well without spending too much money.

"I have run into the following sentiment more than a few times: ‘I want to eat healthier but it’s too expensive!," Stic wrote for plantbasedonabudget.com. "But bottom line always remember, we can pay now or pay later (in suffering and doctor bills etc.) when it comes to our dietary discipline and choices." Here are a few of his tips:

Choose Produce not Packages: People think eating healthy is about buying a lot of expensive boxes and packages of processed foods, but that isn’t the case at all.

Cook Big and Save Some for Later: Cooking meals in large batches and freezing the leftovers for later in the week or month can save you a lot of time and money.

Instead of buying fast food or eating out at restaurants, or even cooking a full meal every time you get hungry, it’s way more cost effective and time saving and healthy for you to pull something out of the freezer and warm it up than it is to wash/chop/slice/boil/bake/wait in line/wait to be served etc. Them big Ziploc bags ain’t just for the D-boys! Lol

Soup Up your Options:  Large vegetable soups over brown rice or whole grain noodles pack in vitamins and nutrients, fill you up and are easy to make and delicious. Also Bean burritos, chili, and bean soup can be easy to prepare, cheap and good for you. Going totally meatless a couple of times a week (or for good) also helps your budget and gives your palate a variety to enjoy. Frozen veggies, which are inexpensive, work great in Soups. Nothing compares to that good and filling, good feeling of a hot and hearty bowl of Soup. Cheap, packed with nutrients, easy to prepare. Its the new "Soup-er" food! Lol!

Read the rest of Stic’s seven tips for eating well on a ‘hood budget at plantbasedonabudget.com.