Have you ever tried to eat healthier, only to gasp after you proudly pulled your healthy grocery cart up the register and learned what you owed? You’re not alone. It’s easy to grab healthy items to go, but those products can add up and perpetuate the myth that healthful eating has to be more expensive. In reality, that’s just not true.
By building 75 percent of meals around simple plant-based foods, even frozen ones, you could potentially double your nutrient intake and still meet your health goals — while shopping within your budget. Here are seven ways to get started:
1. Conduct a “nutrient needs” inventory.
How much do you want to spend on food each week? What nutrients do you tend to fall short on? What vegetables do you like? These three questions give you an idea of where to splurge and where to save.
If you’re a fan of radishes and beets but aren’t big on asparagus, redefine your weekly food list. For example, if you’re falling short on iron, add leafy greens and vitamin C-rich foods — think strawberries, oranges and red peppers — to your grocery cart and pair these foods together to increase iron absorption throughout the week.
If you’re lacking energy, incorporate fibrous complex carbohydrates — like oats or barley — into your breakfast bowl to provide a stable energy release throughout the day. Leafy greens, which transport oxygen throughout the body efficiently, provide another way to recharge. Their oxygen-toting benefits vanish after 48 hours, so eat them often.
2. Shop the perimeter of the store.
This strategy keeps costs low and nutrient density high since you’re avoiding easy-to-grab options in the prepackaged food sections, which are usually the middle aisles. Prepare at home what you would normally buy in these sections, such as soup, veggie burgers or salad dressing, and you’ll save money and avoid additives like extra sodium, saturated fats and preservatives.
[See: 7 Ways to Hack Your Grocery Trip for Weight Loss.]
For example, if you have a sweet tooth, walk past the frozen food aisle and head straight to the fruit display. You can buy a couple of bananas, freeze them, blend them and top them with berries, cinnamon and a pinch of sliced almonds to make banana “ice cream” at home. Bowl-for-bowl, the price point is comparable, but you’ll swap extra calories, fat and foreign ingredients for potassium, vitamin C and fiber — a mix that helps support healthy immune function, stable blood sugar and low blood pressure.
3. Add frozen fruits and veggies to your menu.
The only reason you should visit the frozen food aisle is to stock up on frozen fruits and vegetables, which you can purchase in bulk. Frozen vegetables also keep longer and are great to have on hand for last-minute dinners. But don’t avoid raw veggies entirely. Instead, just keep an eye out for those 10 for $10 sales and stock up on family-size servings of your favorite vegetables; broccoli, mangoes and peas, are often on my list.
4. Protect your produce.
Buying seasonal produce in bulk saves money — but only if you eat the produce you purchase. There are lots of tricks for extending the shelf life of your favorite produce. For example, store mushrooms in a brown paper bag, not plastic or glass, and keep bananas away from other produce since they emit high levels of a ripening gas that can affect nearby produce.
5. Fill up with fiber.
Purchase grains and beans in bulk, too. These high-fiber foods last for months. As long as you have the space to store them, you can buy a 30-day supply of your favorite varieties like buckwheat pasta, quinoa, millet, amaranth, barley, steel-cut oats, lentils, beans and brown, red or black rice at a fraction of the cost of individual or weekly servings.
[See: Your Plant-Based Diet Needs These 10 Foods.]
Aim for 40 grams of fiber a day. An apple, for example, has five grams of fiber and pairs well with salad greens and beans — which add 10 grams of fiber, depending on the mix. For less than $5 and 500 calories, you can consume a colorful lunch with 15 grams of fiber, more than one-third of the recommendation for one day.
6. Invest in a weekly meal preparation day.
Instead of preparing each meal every time, many people find it easier to reserve a 90-minute period once a week to wash, chop, dice, cook and store ingredients to quickly assemble each day. While this may sound like a large time investment, it will save you the hassle of grabbing a “quick” bite to eat or sporadically stopping by the store when meal preparation falls by the wayside.
7. Eat breakfast like a king and dinner like a pauper.
Eating your biggest meal early and smallest meal last is a science-backed strategy that also helps with cost savings. People who need a metabolic “reset” or who have Type 2 diabetes may do best by retraining their brains to wait until the next morning to fuel up. In a controlled study of 50 adults with Type 2 diabetes, the participants who ate two large meals throughout the day had a lower body weight, better blood sugar control, lower cholesterol and increased insulin sensitivity (a marker of energy use and efficiency) compared to participants who ate six smaller meals with the same amount of calories. That’s likely because meals consumed in the evening correlate with spikes in blood sugar, which send a hunger signal to the brain. This makes it harder to feel satiated with the same portions you eat for lunch and breakfast. If you’ve experienced this phenomenon, it’s not for lack of willpower; it’s biology.
Instead of skipping dinner altogether, try simply preparing a lighter version with fiber-packed foods or establish a “no eating after 8 p.m.” rule to give your body a chance to reset. In addition to a metabolic reboot, you’ll be less likely to grab a second serving and deplete your carefully calculated food supply.
[See: 6 Ways to Train Your Brain for Healthy Eating.]
Our nutrient needs, food preferences and budgets are always changing, but fueling up on simple plant fuel is always a good idea for health. In addition, giving your body more of what it needs — and less of what it doesn’t — saves money today at the register and over the long run in medical bills.
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How to Weigh — and Spend — Less by Eating More originally appeared on usnews.com
