Eating healthy on a budget is within reach

A lot of folks talk about how eating healthy on a budget is tough, especially during a recession.

It certainly can be tough choosing between lean fish for $7 a pound and hot dogs for $3 a pound. And cooking a nutritious dinner can seem expensive and not worth the effort when tempted by 99-cent specials at the nearest fast-food restaurant.

But last Wednesday I learned during a class given by Amy Fanjoy, the registered dietitian for BestHealth Community Resource Center in Hanes Mall, that eating healthy on a budget is not a hopeless proposition.

Cost-saving strategies

Fanjoy started off with information on finding the best deals through the use of coupons, store promotions and other methods. She mentioned buying oats in bulk instead of single-serving packages for cost savings and potential nutrition benefits, such as a reduction in sugar consumption.

She mentioned air-popped popcorn and unsalted pretzels as less-expensive and healthy snacks. Because lean cuts of meat are often expensive, buy the fattier cuts and trim off the fat. For poultry, buy the whole bird or skin-on cuts and cut them up and remove the skin yourself to save money.

She recommended canned fish when fresh or frozen doesn't fit the budget -- but make the canned fish healthier by rinsing off some of the excess sodium.

Breaded fish fillets or fish sticks often have lots of extra calories and little nutrition in the breading. It can be cheaper and healthier to buy the cheapest white fish, sprinkle the fillets with lemon juice, roll them in corn flakes, bread crumbs or cracker crumbs, spray them with cooking oil and bake.

Avoid frozen dinners and other prepackaged foods, and cook from scratch when possible.

Portion-control payoff

Fanjoy was able to make a batch of homemade tomato-basil sauce for 3 cents less a serving than an inexpensive store brand -- and her creation was healthier because she cut down on the salt.

She also compared home-cooked kidney beans and canned kidney beans. Both are pretty healthy, though the canned beans often have lots of salt. But the cost difference is big: 20 cents a serving for canned beans and only 8 cents a serving for home-cooked beans.

The class got more interesting when Fanjoy started talking about portion sizes. You want an easy way to save money and eat healthier? Eat a ½ cup of ice cream instead of a large portion. Pass on the super-size option in fast-food restaurants. Eat a small handful of potato chips instead of the whole bag. Such choices are healthier simply because you're eating less of something that's not very nutritious.

Here are a couple comparisons that Fanjoy offered:

□ ½ cup ice cream at 48 cents a serving and 2 cups at $1.88.

□ 1 cup of spaghetti and ½ cup sauce at 96 cents; 3 cups spaghetti and 1 cup sauce at $2.31.

□ A 3-inch bagel with 1 tablespoon cream cheese at 34 cents; a 4½-inch bagel with 4 tablespoons of cream cheese at 57 cents.

Fanjoy also did two menu plans, each for one breakfast, lunch and dinner and two snacks. She started with the USDA guidelines of 2,000 calories for an average healthy adult. She used the Food Pyramid to come up with the daily requirement of 6 ounces of grains, 2 cups of vegetables, 2 cups of fruit, 3 cups of milk, 5 ounces of meat and beans and 7 teaspoons (32 grams) of oil.

Then she went shopping at Harris Teeter and Whole Foods Market. She priced all the food to meet the above requirements.

Fanjoy determined that a typical adult can follow the Food Pyramid for just $7.81 a day at Harris Teeter and $8.03 at Whole Foods.

"Some people go out to eat and drop $10 at lunch, which is more than it costs to eat healthy for a whole day," Fanjoy said.

Two things primarily kept the prices down in Fanjoy's experiment. One was the large amount of whole grains, such as whole-wheat bread, brown rice and pasta, which are relatively cheap. The other was the small amount of meat. The next time you're at the grocery store, check how much of your receipt is for meat. You'll see how cutting down on meat can mean real savings.

Most people in this country eat too much meat, which can contribute to heart disease and other problems. The recommended five ounces a day would seem like famine rations to most U.S. meat-eaters.

But the bottom line is that cutting down on meat, increasing other healthy foods and eating the right portions can save a lot of money at the grocery store.

Eat right. Save money. Maybe lose a little weight. What's not to like?

■ Michael Hastings, the Journal's Food editor, can be contacted by phone at 727-7394, e-mail at mhastings@wsjournal.com, or mail at c/o Winston-Salem Journal, P.O. 3159, Winston-Salem, NC 27102. His most recent columns can be read on our Web site at www.journalnow.com.