How to Eat Healthy With Prices Going Up
As part of my coaching, I have weekly coaching calls with each client to discuss where things are at and how best to continue to move toward their goal. On one particular call earlier this week one of my clients had a fantastic and timely question…
“Hey Dan, with gas prices and the cost of everything, including food, going up how do still eat healthy without breaking the bank.”
Why this is such a great question, is not only because of the timing, but also because the cost of “healthier” such as fruits and vegetables can add up quickly as compared to cheaper, processed and less healthy versions.
However, back to the original question though, what foods can still help you hit your nutritional goals without costing you and arm and a leg, or at worst, waste the food that you purchase.
So I decided to put together some helpful tips on how you can avoid overspending or wasting your purchases to still eat healthy, get dense and nutritious foods, and create meals that are satisfying to eat.
1. Audit your groceries and what you are regularly eating. Now, if you are online grocery shopping and food tracking this should be a lot easier as everything should be already recorded and you can get a pretty quick idea of not only what you are eating each day, but also what you are buying each week. If you are someone that ventures into the store (old school grocery shopping ;) then take a few moments to list what you normally eat each week. What does breakfast, lunch and dinner typically look like for you and/or your family. I realize food tastes and meals are different each week, but when you audit your meals, you will begin to find common themes, and common ingredients and that’s the information we are looking for.
2. Identify foods that may have better options. If you are someone who buys sliced or shredded cheese, buying a block of cheese can be cheaper. Whole grain foods such as oats, rice and pastas can be bought in bulk for relatively low cost and have extended shelf life, and more importantly, great nutritional value. Fresh meat and fish can get expensive quick, however you may look for alternative options, such as ground beef, canned tuna, chuck steak, whole or canned chicken or whole turkeys. You may need to look at options that can be bought in bulk for less cost, such as rice, or frozen foods that are usually cheaper, and healthy, but do not have the concern of having to throw it out for not being used in time.
3. Get Creative with your Cooking. As you examine your meals, look for ways that you can get a little more creative with not only how it is cooked but the type and amount of ingredients that are being used. Soups, stews, casseroles, and stir fry’s are great options with healthy, lower cost ingredients. You can begin to stack meals with the less expensive ingredients and possibly split out some of the more expensive meals. For example, if you are still looking to purchase your regular cut of meat and not look for a lower cost option, you can try cutting your portions and saving the remainder for another meal. And as you cut the portion, now you load up with other ingredients, such as beans, rice, broccoli, cauliflower etc that can help fill the void from quantity standpoint without compromising your calories and macros too much.
With it being summer and cooking out, building your own burgers (ground beef, eggs, salt, pepper and some bread crumbs), or going for options such as kebabs with vegetables such as potatoes and broccoli around chunks of chicken or beef can alleviate some cost but still provide a healthy and hearty meal.
Here is an example of a Potato and Leek Tuna Pasta meal that my family enjoys (with plenty of leftovers) for low cost and high nutritional value. We get about 5–6 good hearty servings per recipe. We may add in some substitutions here and there where needed, and can also add more or less of certain ingredients such as the amount of pasta/tuna/beans etc but this is a standard recipe and cost breakdown for the entire cooked meal as well as a nutritional breakdown per serving.
Ingredients
Barilla, Protein Plus, Penne 340g, 1240 calories — $1.94
Canned Tuna, Albacore, Water (x3) 387g, 495 calories — $5.37
Campbells Cream of Potato Soup 620g, 440 calories — $1.72
Leek Soup Mix 10g, 35 calories — $2.52
Green Pepper (x2) 238g, 47.6 calories — $1.44
Canned Garbanzo Beans 150g, 208.5 calories — $1.12
Total Cost for meal: $14.11
What’s great about this example is that not only is it relatively low cost for the entire meal ($14.11) it provides 5–6 servings of around 500 calories, 34g Protein, 72.6 Carbs and 7.3g of Fat, and it uses primarily single ingredient, unprocessed options.
Now, I am not saying that you need to go out and start eating this exact recipe, but it fits our eating style and meets our needs from a lot of areas, including time for preparation (ready to serve in well under 30 mins) as well as calorie and macro requirements. If you are concerned by any of the macro levels, you can certainly play around to fit your needs, whether it be using less pasta or a variation, or substituting the beans or vegetables for other options, but again, this is where you get to be creative.
4. Set the Menu for the week. If you are already prepping your meals, awesome, the focus would be just looking for variations, however, if you are not, go ahead and set your menu for the week so you can grocery shop and then eat accordingly. If you are concerned about food waste, look for meal options where you may use your fresh meat and produce earlier in the week rather than further away from the purchase. You may look for similar food options, especially for breakfast and lunch, so it minimize the need to buy multiple food options, and you can often times prepare leftovers. When you set your menu, you can also establish the ingredients and know how much you will need when you make your purchases, to prevent any waste of ingredients you never use, or over purchasing items that you may not use that week.
5. Cook for Leftovers. Whether you use the leftovers the next day or two, or freeze them for later use, leftovers are a great way to still hit your nutritional goals (as you have already prepared it accordingly) but they are also very convenient. With the example that I showed earlier, this is a meal that we ALWAYS have leftovers, to be used as our next lunch or even dinner option the following day. The carryover effect of leftovers can really help the budget if you are able to prepare bulky food options for low to moderate cost. Even if you go with a little more expensive option but you can get 2–3 meals out of it, great, you are still getting slight ahead financially! Examples such as soups and stews, roasts, or rice/pasta meals are great for leftovers with or without a focus on the budget. Learn to expand your cooking and preparation levels to maximize what you have available.
6. Canned and Frozen Foods. Canned and frozen foods can be a great way to get good quality foods for lower cost. Canned tuna, chicken, vegetables and beans can be awesome ingredients to a lot of meal options at great value. The nutrient difference between fresh and canned is not as big as perceived. It is often a misconception that nutrients are lost in the processing of canned or frozen foods, however in many cases it may be higher due to how quickly the food moves from harvest to canned/frozen. These products also have extended shelf lives so they don’t need to be used in a hurry. If you decide to use canned foods, be sure to include all contents into your meal, including the fluid as this may contain much of the nutrients of the particular food.
*A small caveat about canned foods. Be careful with some of these products as manufacturers may add additional preservatives in there to support shelf life or taste. Look for options that haven’t had an abundance of sugars, salts or other preservatives added.
7. Look for Sales. A BSL nutrition client recently shared how they will call ahead to a grocery store and ask when the fresh meat delivery arrives each week. The client would then visit the store the day before the expected delivery to look for sales on the less fresh versions. Genius! Particularly if they are planning to eat that selection that evening or the next day!
Seasonal foods can also be very pricey, so you may look for alternatives that are more cost friendly but still healthier, such as frozen or canned products or less expensive fresh options.
You may even look to buy in bulk, especially non-perishable foods that you will use repeatedly. Sam’s Club and Costco are always great resources bulk purchase. Just about most products can be found at these stores. Be cautious with buying fruits and vegetables in bulk as though they can be a lot cheaper, you may not use all before they begin to go bad. Remember, however, you can always freeze items if needed. As an example, Sam’s Club and Costco offer large quantities of ground beef, often over 3–4lbs. Well, unless you are having a large family gathering, using all of that is unreasonable in the short term. However, you can choose to break it into smaller 0.5–1lb portion sized quantities to freeze and use later. It’s a very cost and meal effective approach. It takes a little work on the front end, but if this is a regular food option for you, why not take a little time to do this and save yourself some time and money each week.
Lastly, you should also reach out to a local farmers to see if you can subscribe to purchasing their produce or meat sources in bulk. A half cow can feed a family of four for close to a year at an average of $3/lb. That can be quite a difference in cost to most grocery stores, particularly when you have the option to break it into many different cuts of meat (steaks, ground beef, roasts etc). And again, freezing helps to provide long term sustainability.
Unfortunately, it doesn’t look like costs for many goods and services are going down in the near future, but hopefully these tips today can give you a little insight on still getting very high quality meals that also help your strive for health improvement while also saving you some money.
How much money can you save? Well that depends on how you approach it, but when we are talking about the fact that we eat 3–5 times a day (maybe more) each week, small adjustments may not make you wealthier, but more significantly, it may give you a little more breathing room when other non-controllable costs come into play.
If you want to share any of your own hacks with me, I’d love to hear from you, just reach out to me. I will also follow up with sharing some of these stories and hacks in the future!
Dr. Dan Dodd is an Exercise Science professional and Coach for BSL Nutrition. Dan is an avid writer on nutrition, exercise, metabolism and body composition. If you’d like to receive more stories, subscribe to his weekly emails.
