Save When Shopping for Healthy Food

Eating at Home Cheaply is Easy -- Coupons, Nuts, Fruit, Costco

Nov 25, 2008 Grace Lichtenstein

Learn to feed a family during the recession on less than $23 per person weekly with frugal tips and without filling up on fats.

Families that skip starchy fast food and soda pop can eat healthy meals three times a day on a budget.

The Ohio State University Extension Service in Lucas County challenged people in the Toledo region to stretch food dollars as if they were using food stamps, which amounts to $23 per person, according to a Toledo Blade article this week. Reporters and nutritionists said that while it was not easy, families could choose such items as fresh fruits and vegetables, nuts, fish and yogurt.

Bloggers worldwide have shared tips. For instance: buy whole raw oats such as those in a box of Quaker oats. Raw oats, like nuts and lentils, can be bought in bulk and are major sources of protein that families can substitute for costly meat.

Healthy Food Choices Using New Food Pyramid

The US Department of Agriculture offers choices on its MyPyramid,gov site, which publicizes the concept of healthy eating via a “rainbow” of choices. It notes that:

Foods made from meat, poultry, fish, dry beans or peas, eggs, nuts, and seeds are in the meat group.
Grains include any food made from wheat, rice, oats, cornmeal, barley or another cereal grain. That means bread, pasta, oatmeal, breakfast cereals, tortillas, and grits. It recommends aiming for whole grains rather than refined gains.
Many items in its milk group -- such as milk itself, yogurt, and cheese – can be found partly skimmed rather than whole. This saves calories while still retaining nutrients.
Make vegetables more appealing and easier to include in quick meals by microwaving them, especially white or sweet potatoes. “Try crunchy vegetables, served raw or lightly steamed, such as carrots, celery sticks and snap beans, says the USDA
Keep a bowl of whole fruit in the kitchen to encourage family members to eat them. Out of season fruits can be bought frozen or canned, but watch out for extra sugar in syrup.

Here is one list of the healthiest foods per dollar spent from Brie Cadman, a staff writer at the Divine Caroline website, who has degrees in biochemistry and epidemiology.

Oats
Eggs
Dark Green Kale
Potatoes
Nuts from bulk food bins in supermarkets
Bananas
Garbanzo beans
Broccoli
Watermelon (in summer)

Frugal Shopping Tips

Toledo Blade writers pointed out it was easier to stick to the food stamps budget by driving to stores with the cheapest prices. But how to save on gas as well as food? Here are tips culled from magazines and Websites:

Buy in bulk
Go to Costco, Trader Joe or Wal Mart for canned goods, bread and other staples.
Freeze leftovers or buy bulk and freeze such items as milk and fish for another day.
Become a coupon clipper – one blog commentator said “in-store coupons plus manufacturers coupons saved during a 3 week period “have truly cut my grocery bill in half.”
Buy frozen or canned vegetables can be cheaper when not in season.
Swap fatty hamburger meat for lean London broil cut.
Don’t throw away overripe fruit – blend it into a smoothie instead.
Forget Starbucks or even Dunkin Donuts – buy an inexpensive plastic filter and mug for brewing your own coffee at work or home.

The copyright of the article Save When Shopping for Healthy Food in Nutrition is owned by Grace Lichtenstein. Permission to republish Save When Shopping for Healthy Food in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.

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