Top Four Foods For Staying Healthy On A Budget

Main Category: Nutrition / Diet
Article Date: 01 Oct 2008 - 3:00 PDT

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If you spend any time at all in the grocery store, chances are you'll spend a lot of money. The price of food has jumped 7.5% in the last year alone, more than twice the rate of medical costs.*

Even though food costs more, you don't have to sacrifice nutrition. Experts say there are plenty of low-cost highly nutritious foods, and a few you should put on your next grocery list. Like most of us Kelly Urse has felt the bite of her budget when it comes to fixing food for her family, which means she and her daughters have to plan their meals more carefully than ever before.

"We shop the ads, we look for those flyers that come every week in the neighborhood newspaper, and we're certainly looking for coupons," says Kelly.

Experts say in an effort to save a little money, many of us often buy cheaper, more processed foods, which can be unhealthy. So scientists and dietitians from Ohio State University Medical Center have identified some of the top foods for staying healthy on a budget. It all starts with the tomato.

"Always cheap, no matter what time of year it is. You can buy tomatoes already canned with a lot of extra herbs and spices in them," says Shirley Kindrick, PhD at Ohio State University Medical Center.

Researchers at Ohio State have found that cooking tomatoes concentrates their power to fight diseases like cancer. So registered dietician Shirley Kindrick says, tomato soups, pastes, or spaghetti sauces are a cheap healthy idea, and if you want to cut down on the price of meats... "One of the first things that comes to mind is beans. Beans are an excellent source of protein and what's our highest-cost item in the grocery store? It's our meats," says Kindrick.

Next, an inexpensive item you may not have considered, but Kindrick says cooking steel oats in a crock pot is a great meal anytime.

"We often overlook the importance of oatmeal, but that's a whole grain. One that we know will lower our cholesterol," says Kindrick.

And lastly, buy cheap, dry pastas, even macaroni and cheese, to make the most of leftovers. "So throw in that broccoli, maybe you have some leftover meat, throw that in there and you've got a great meal for not very much and it didn't take you very long," says Kindrick.

Experts at Ohio State also say this is a great time to think about portion control. Putting less food on your plate not only stretches your grocery budget further, it also has fewer calories.

Kindrick says when it comes to eating meat, make your portions the size of a deck of cards and fill up on other healthy inexpensive foods, like cooked carrots or potatoes.

*Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers (CPI-U): U.S. city average, by expenditure category and commodity and service group, Bureau of Labor Statistics, August 2008, retrieved September 2008 from http://www.bls.gov/cpi

Ohio State University

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