Gather
Published May 27, 2008
Swallow hard—your grocery bill is getting more expensive.
According to a U.S. Government report, this April's food prices were 14% higher for bread, 13.5% higher for milk, and 5% higher for food overall compared with last year's prices. Last month's food cost increase was the largest in the past 18 years.
I am motivated, as I am sure you are, to find ways to keep my grocery bill in check. At the same time, I want to make sure I am eating healthy. But healthy foods can be expensive! Is it possible for us to "tighten our belts" in both cost and calories at the same time, and still enjoy eating?
Here are some ways to keep healthy foods in your pantry, and more money in your wallet:
1. Buy no sodas
Sweetened drinks have a major impact on weight and diabetes. Your body can absorb sweeteners easily, with little digestion. This results in a large spike of insulin in your bloodstream. Experts think that when dramatic insulin spikes occur over and over, this can lead to diabetes.
The Nurses' Health Study interviewed and examined 50,000 American women in an eight-year period. Women who drank one or more sodas or sweetened drinks daily were almost twice as likely to develop diabetes compared with women who seldom drank soda. The women who drank sodas regularly also were about 10 pounds heavier on average, but the trend towards diabetes did not appear to be explained by weight gain alone. Drinking water (either straight from the tap or filtered at home) is much cheaper than buying soda.
2. Put a limit on juices
Juices are more natural than sodas, but they pack a lot of sugar and they carry little fiber. They give you calories but they don't fill you up. Juices should be limited, even for kids.
3. Always buy dairy
Milk products are loaded with calcium and are supplemented with vitamin D, both of which are important for bone health. Calcium may also be important for weight loss, although this is an area that needs more study. Keep low-fat or non-fat dairy options on hand all the time. Having basic dairy ingredients and eggs in your refrigerator at all times may enable you to pull together a fairly health and low-cost meal at home instead of eating out.
4. Save on meats
I love meat, but you don't need much of it for a meal. Groceries package meats in large portions, but packaging doesn't have to determine your serving size. For example, I slice pork-chops into half-thickness slices, because they cook more easily and stretch farther. Sometimes I will serve ravioli in broth, instead of serving meat on the side—the carnivore in me is satisfied, even though I haven't eaten a whole serving of meat.
Remember canned fish and clams, which can be lower cost seafood items. Canned tuna is made from "throw-away" tuna fish that are too small to be cut into steaks. Since canned tuna is from younger fish, it has less mercury contamination per serving than you can find in a tuna steak.
5. Introducing legumes!
If you don't regularly cook with beans, lentils, garbanzos, hummus, dal or other legume foods, find a recipe or two that you want to try and bring them into your household. These are a great source of protein and nutrition, and they are cheap.
6. Is it important to buy organic?
Buying "organic" can steeply increase the price you pay for fruits, vegetables, milk and grains. For many people, this is simply not an option. If you can afford organic foods, are they worth their extra cost? It is hard to say for sure.
The most important difference between organic and non-organic foods is the presence of pesticides. Large exposures to pesticides are known to be dangerous, since pesticides can be toxic to nerves. But small exposures (like the small exposure you can get from non-organic foods) don't cause obvious harms.
One study of pre-school children showed that kids who eat an organic foods diet have less organophosphate pesticide measured in their urine, compared with other children. There is no good study that can prove—one way or the other—whether lifelong trace exposure to pesticides can cause human harm. The risk of pesticide exposure might or might not be worth your worry. It is probably not important enough to warrant the extra cost, although it is hard to be sure.
Don't buy organic foods if you need to cut down on the quantity of fruits and vegetables that you buy in order to afford them. Washing, peeling, freezing and cooking fruits and vegetables eliminate a portion of the pesticides that contaminate them, so these are additional good strategies. Animals that are raised for meat have higher pesticide residue in fat, so removing fat and skin from meat also reduces your pesticide exposure.
If you choose to spend extra on organic foods, buy the organic versions of the fruits and vegetables in the "dirty dozen"—these are the foods that have the most pesticide residue: peaches, apples, sweet bell peppers, celery, nectarines, strawberries, cherries, pears, grapes (imported), spinach, lettuce and potatoes. Experts from the Environmental Working Group say at least half of our pesticide exposure from food comes from these items.
7. Is it important to buy the more expensive hormone-free (r-BGH and r-BST free) milk?
Probably not. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has gone to great lengths to reassure the public that hormones used to boost milk production in cows don't present a danger. The FDA is probably correct in taking this stand. These hormones, and the hormone that is associated with them in cows (insulin-like growth factor-1, or IGF-1) would create concern if they were digested in a way that they could enter the human bloodstream in significant levels. However, like other complicated proteins, these hormones deteriorate in our digestive tracts when they are exposed to stomach acid and digestive enzymes. Some studies dispute that the hormones are even present in cows' milk in the first place, after they are injected into the cow. All milk on the grocery shelf—as long as it is pasteurized—is probably safe to buy.
Whatever you do to reduce your grocery bill, don't sacrifice fruits and vegetables. They can be expensive, but cutting down on garden foods in is not a good idea. These foods are just so good for you, that this is not the place to save on your grocery bill. Fresh produce is best, but canned or frozen fruits or vegetables have almost equal nutritional value to fresh foods, and they may be less expensive during certain times of the year. Remember that you can freeze vegetables if you don't eat them right away.
What are your priorities when you shop for groceries, with both health and cost in mind? What tricks do you have to save on healthy foods? What do you leave out of your grocery bag?
Mary Pickett, M.D., is an Associate Professor of Medicine at Oregon Health & Science University where she is a primary care doctor for adults. Her field is Internal Medicine. She is also a Lecturer for Harvard Medical School and a Senior Medical Editor for Harvard Health Publications.
