Tips for Eating Healthy on a Budget

Learning how to eat on a budget is always relevant, but it certainly seems like in the last six to twelve months we've all noticed the rising cost of food, according to Sara Harcourt, registered dietitian. Here are five tips Sara shared about making wise dietary choices on a budget: 1. Use grocery pick-up or delivery: Ordering groceries online removes the temptation to purchase attractively-packaged but potentially unhealthy foods and makes it easier to focus on buying the foods you really need. 2. Choose "nutrient-dense" foods first: Foods which are naturally high in vitamins, minerals, fiber, and protein, and lower in calories, are considered nutrient-dense. An apple is more nutrient-dense than apple-flavored fruit snacks for example, because fruit snacks don't contain the same vitamins, minerals, or fiber of an apple. When shopping, It's important to purchase nutrient-dense foods, like fresh produce, and not leave them on the shelves due to budget constraints or you’ll have less nutrients overall in your diet. 3. Cut unnecessary purchases: The first unnecessary purchase, according to Sara, is liquid calories. When it comes to feeling full, our bodies don't seem to register liquid calories in the same way as solid food calories. When we drink something containing 200 calories versus eat something with the same amount of calories, it's likely we'll feel much fuller after eating the solid food. Cold and hot beverage costs have risen significantly in the last year, too. With younger kids, new guidelines have come out about fluids. Experts now recommend kids drink mostly milk or water and only up to a half-cup of 100 percent juice up to once per day. Dietary supplements are another unnecessary purchase, according to Sara. Many have little to no benefit. If a supplement doesn't have a side effect, it's likely not doing anything positive for you. It's also important to note that out bodies absorb nutrients more easily from food than from supplements. 4. Don't shop hungry: Shopping on an empty stomach almost always leads to buying foods you wouldn't normally buy when you're feeling full. When we're hungry, we tend to crave convenient foods high in calories, which can lead us to select unhealthy foods which are high in fat and sugar and have been highly processed. 5. Don't be too hard on yourself or your circumstances: It's a human instinct to want to eat food. To fight an instinct is very difficult. Eating healthy has less to do with discipline and more to do with moderation. Snacking on healthier foods throughout the day will help you avoid intense cravings for unhealthy foods. Some other tips include buying foods when on sale and checking weekly ads, buying frozen fruits and vegetables, buying in-season produce, cooking at home, and preparing a weekly menu. Eating whole foods really helps us get the correct amount of nutrients we need and that our bodies can actually absorb. As Michael Pollan said, "Eat food, not too much, mostly plants." Listen to Sara's full interview with Mid-Utah Radio here: https://midutahradio.com/news-community-interviews/ . . . #food #healthyeating #healthyfood #BudgetFriendly #Budgeting