If I had a nickel for every time I heard someone tell me that healthy eating is too expensive… well, you know the rest!
Does healthy food really cost more?
During the coronavirus pandemic especially, public health experts fear that the “Quarantine 15,” on top the recession we are now facing, will worsen the obesity epidemic. Pervasive and cheap (or, seemingly cheap), low-quality ultra-processed food is generally packed with fat, sugar, and calories, and lacking in health-supporting components such as fiber and antioxidants.
Unfortunately, for many folks with shrinking budgets and large families, food quantity becomes more important than food quality. For example, three dollars will buy you a box of 12 Pop Tarts, or it will buy you a head of cauliflower. Clearly the cauliflower is the healthier choice, but the Pop Tarts gives the family 2640 calories, while a typical head of cauliflower has about 100 calories. People who are struggling to feed their family tend to maximize calories per dollar, which is understandable. But healthy eating is not necessarily more expensive. With a few tricks and tradeoffs, you can most certainly eat an optimal diet AND stay within your food budget.
Each of us is different in our goals, preferences, and time constraints. So take the time to evaluate where you food dollar goes, and be honest with yourself. Groceries are important, but don’t forget convenience store runs, your coffee routine, takeout, drive-throughs, dining out, and delivery. Prepared foods, without a doubt, cost more than the sum of their parts. Convenience and labor are super expensive.
Take coffee, for example. A cup of brewed coffee costs about $1.50 plus tax. This doesn’t seem like much, but over the course of a year, you’re looking at nearly $550 (and I’m not counting fancy lattes or a second trip). Compare that to brewing your own, which costs about a dime a cup for average coffee – a savings of over $500 per year. Extreme, yes – eye opening, certainly!
Grocery Hacks
The key to keeping food costs low is to have a plan before you head to the store. Meal plan if you can. Take an inventory, and make a list of what you need. However, keep options open; for example, if you’re shopping for spinach as a side dish and find that kale is on sale, by all means make that smart substitute. The point is to shop with a plan rather than impulsively. Now, what should you look for to minimize spend and maximize health?
Read the ingredient lists, not the label claims. Perhaps one reason so many people think it costs more to eat healthfully is because seemingly “better for you” packaged food items (screaming with claims like “gluten free” or “paleo-friendly” or “no high fructose corn syrup” or what have you) tend to be more expensive, even if the food is not really a healthy choice. Really, cake with no high-fructose corn syrup is still… cake! Fortunately, the healthiest diets are more simple: they are based primarily on whole foods like whole grains, beans, lentils, nuts, and seeds, fruits, and vegetables. And we don’t need a label claim for those!
Skip the cereal. Prices can get outrageous, and most are loaded with sugar and refined grains anyway. Instead, buy plain rolled oats or multigrain porridge. It’s much more economical than cold cereal and better for you.
Compare not only item prices, but unit prices (prices for the same quantity). Most grocery stores list unit prices on their labels. But many don’t, or they display inconsistent units. So the $2 for the 16-oz box of pasta is a better deal than the $1.50 for the 10-oz box.
Keep a running total as you shop. You could bring a calculator (or use your smart phone) to sum-as-you-go, or you can shop online and view your running total as you fill your “cart.”
Never shop hungry. I’m sure you’ve heard this before, but it’s really hard to control impulses on food buys when you arrive at the store famished.
Seek coupons and deals, but only for things you’re planning to buy. Coupons and store deals are great, but they can backfire too. If you have to spend x amount of money to save y dollars, it might not be worth it: if you end up with less in your wallet at the end of the day, was the offer really to your benefit? To find coupons you’ll really use, go to coupon sites beforehand, and look up store coupons online, in the circular, or on the store app as you’re waiting to check out.
In the produce section, choose fresh/whole over the pre-washed bagged stuff. As convenient and tempting as bagged salads and veggies are, they’re almost always more expensive than the whole counterpart. Consider romaine lettuce: one head weighs an average of 1.5 pounds and costs about $1.50, depending on the season and the store. One 10-ounce bag of salad-ready romaine lettuce, on the other hand, costs $3 (even more for organic). The difference is just over 6 cents per ounce versus 30 cents per ounce. The bagged salads cost about FIVE TIMES more than the whole lettuce. So, it makes sense to find a few extra minutes to rinse and chop!
Look for fruits and vegetables in season. In-season fresh produce is almost always cheaper. If the price of strawberries in November gets you down, go for apples and oranges instead. Bonus – in-season produce is more likely to have been farmed locally, so it didn’t have to travel thousands of miles to get to you.
Don’t judge too harshly. Many stores offer slightly “bruised” or “ugly” fruit at deep discount. Buy, wash, freeze, and keep on hand for smoothies. Bruised or aging veggies at a discount are perfect for soups.
Consider frozen. As prices of fresh produce fluctuate almost daily, the cost of frozen fruits and vegetables is more stable. Generally speaking, the nutritional quality of frozen produce is equivalent to or better than their fresh counterparts, particularly if the fresh produce had to travel long distances. Exposure to light, fluctuating temperatures, oxygen, and just time affect the nutrient content (and flavor) of fruits and vegetables. Frozen produce, on the other hand, is often flash-frozen soon after harvesting, locking in the nutrients.
Frozen berries, melons, pineapple, and others are fabulous in recipes such as smoothies, hot cereals, and muffins. And you don’t have to worry about spoilage! In winter, a 1-pound bag of frozen blueberries costs $4 (25 cents per ounce); for the same money you could buy a 4.4-oz container of fresh blues (68 cents per ounce), costing well over twice the amount of frozen.
Frozen vegetables are also a fantastic choice. My local market sells five different frozen leafy greens, even kale, sometimes on sale for less than $1 per box. Frozen veggies are an easy and nutritious addition to soups, stews, grain/bean dishes, pizza, chilis, casseroles, dips, and sauces.
Store brands are OK. Most store brands are just as healthful as their brand name counterparts. Many store brands offer affordable organic choices too.
Buy in Bulk. Flours, whole grains, nuts, seeds, dried fruits, dry beans, and mixes are almost always cheaper in bulk. And you can buy only what you need.
Skip the beverage aisle altogether. Especially avoid soda, which offers nothing nutritionally and has either empty calories or fake sugar. And it’s more expensive than many people think, especially if they don’t mind paying $1 for a soda but would object to spending $1 on an apple! Bottled water is healthy, but used daily will cost hundreds every year. Invest in a good water filter and drink tap water for a fraction of the price. Or use a seltzer maker if you like bubbles. Then you can splurge occasionally on a fancy tea or a bottle of wine, and still be ahead of the game.
Use the salad bar wisely. Since stores charge one price for all salad bar items, it is not cost-effective to load up on heavy cucumbers, celery, marinated veggies, and big chunks of tomato. Splurge on the occasional salad bar meal, but if you’re buying from the salad bar to take home, grab the lighter things: baby spinach, lettuce, broccoli, and bell peppers. Doing this may actually be cheaper than buying the same stuff from the produce section (particularly the greens), so if your grocery store has a salad bar, just compare the per-pound price of salad bar items to the same items in the produce section.
Bypass the mixes. Boxed rice mix is little more than a rice and a seasoning packet. For a quarter of the price, you can buy brown rice or quinoa in bulk and add your own seasonings.
Go with the grains. And beans. Here’s where you can really make a dent in your grocery bill. Consider dry beans and lentils: For less than $1, you get 6 cups of cooked food: that's about $0.08 per 1/2 cup serving. On a cost basis per gram of protein, beans beat turkey by half, and beat chicken breast even more. Canned beans (make sure to rinse off the salty liquid) are also an economical, healthful choice.
Snack smartly. If you love popcorn, buy the kernels and pop them in a paper bag in the microwave, or in an air popper. You’ll avoid the extra fat and salt and save money too. Skip the chips, crackers, and bakery goods like cookies. These snacky/processed foods can be more expensive than a healthier alternative. A typical 10-ounce bag of potato chips costs about $3 and may seem like a cheap source of calories, but you could buy four pounds (16 servings) of raw potatoes or three pounds (12 servings) of carrots for the same price.
Save from spoilage. Throwing away food is throwing away cash. So buy only those perishables you can use before they spoil, or freeze before they need to be tossed. Check your produce bin daily for signs of aging.
Why not Warehouse? Most people think that warehouse clubs are big money savers. But are they? Well, any savings (over regular store prices) over the course of a year would need to offset the annual fee. And perishables can get you in trouble -- they have to be consumed super-fast or else they’ll go to waste (not an issue for huge families or those who buy for others). But one of the biggest problems is that huge amounts of food in the home encourage overeating. And according to a Wall Street Journal article, many people spend more in the end by frequenting warehouse stores. Perhaps they feel like they’re getting such great bargains, that they buy extra things they would not have purchased otherwise. If you do shop at warehouse clubs, be as mindful as you can about what you actually need.
BONUS: A few kitchen reminders:
Be creative with leftovers. Last night’s dinner can become today’s sandwich filling or tonight’s soup.
A slow cooker (Crock Pot), is a great way to save time and money while boosting your nutrition. You can put the ingredients in it in the morning, and have a hot dinner ready in the evening.
One-pot meals like stews, soups, chilis, beans-and-rice, and casseroles not only save money but also time. They can be made on the stove, in the oven, in a pressure cooker, or in a slow cooker. A simple stew of root vegetables, greens, beans, and barley costs pennies a serving and is very nutritious.
Try a morning smoothie made of frozen peeled bananas and other fruit with milk or water in a blender. Add some peanut butter for extra nutrition.
Make more plant-forward meals. Bean burritos, eggplant lasagna, stuffed squash, and lentil chili are easy to make and delicious. You can find easy, economical, and tasty recipes at meatlessmonday.com and on countless veggie food blogs and recipe sites.
Finally, for the ultimate money saver: if you have shared (or your own) outdoor space, look into growing vegetables and herbs.
An unhealthful diet, regardless of its price, comes at the highest cost of all. A recent study found that unhealthy eating habits costs the American health care system about $50 billion per year! But if that statistic is difficult to relate to on a personal level, consider the immeasurable cost of a heart attack, or bariatric surgery, or decades of medications for diabetes, high cholesterol, hypertension, etc. The true cost of our food must take into account the cost over years of eating a poor diet. Optimal health not only adds years to life, but life to years. And that… is priceless.
