Eating healthy doesn't have to cost a bundle. Joy Bauer, author of Joy Bauer's Food Cures: Easy 4-Step Nutrition Programs for Improving Your Body, talks with Jean about eating properly and staying within a budget.
As a nutritionist, Joy says she has heard people say time and time again that eating healthy is too expensive. "A lot of people are overwhelmed with figuring out how to budget their money while they eat healthy," Joy says. Joy shares strategies you can follow while grocery shopping that will help your pocketbook and your waistline:
Look for specials in the produce aisle. "Only buy…what you are going to eat in the next couple days," Joy says. "Every day that it sits in your refrigerator, it is going to diminish in vitamin and mineral content."
Buy frozen and canned produce. "The truth is frozen and canned produce a lot of the time has just as much nutrition—and sometimes has more nutrition—than the fresh stuff," Joy says.
Stick with store-brand frozen fruits and vegetables. "You don't have to buy familiar brand-name items—a lot times they are made at the exact same place [as store-brand items]," Joy says.
Don't by frozen vegetables with sauce or extra salt or frozen fruit with added sugar. "Plain is always better and a lot of the time it is cheaper as well."
Start eating more legumes, such as beans and lentils. "They are so incredibly reasonable and you can make big vats of soups and large voluminous dinners with these items."
Cook ahead of time and freeze meals. "When it comes to soups and casseroles, I'll freeze them in those two-cup [plastic] containers," Joy says. "I write on them exactly what it is and then you just pull them out as you need them."
