Nutrition Experts: How to Eat Healthy Amid Rising Grocery Costs

Finding the time and energy to cook a healthy meal for his family of four can be overwhelming at the end of a workday for Rushdee Omar.

Omar, who has worked at Duke for seven years, said it can be tempting to stop by Arby’s or McDonald’s for takeout rather than cooking his favorite dish, salmon, at home for his wife and two daughters, ages 3 and 7.

“It’s easier to get off the healthy train,” said Omar, head of administration at DCRI.

With questions about staying on a healthy path, Omar turned to LIVE FOR LIFE, Duke’s employee wellness program, for live webinars on the topic. He learned he wasn’t the only person looking for strategies to make smart grocery choices while saving money on grocery bills.

With food prices rising 10 percent since last May — the largest annual rise in 41 years, according to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics — grocery dollars have had to give way, especially in prioritizing healthy options.

“When people start eating healthy foods on a regular basis throughout the day, they just feel like they have more energy to get things done in their day,” said Esther Granville, nutrition program manager at LIVE FOR LIFE, Duke’s associate wellness program. “It just makes them feel better.”

Here are some strategies for eating healthy while staying on a tighter budget.

Find the best offers

A proven way to cut costs is to find deals and use coupons.

When Granville hosted a gathering of colleagues at her home this summer, she wanted to grill chicken, which cost $2.79 a pound at her usual store. She researched deals online and found another grocery store selling chicken for 99 cents a pound.

Most grocery stores offer prices and digital coupons on their websites, but there are also mobile apps that make it easier to find deals.

For coupons, there’s Flip, a website and app that serves hundreds of ads and coupons based on zip codes. Flip allows users to search for deals based on specific items. Another app, Basket, lets you create a grocery list and instantly see a real-time price comparison between grocery stores.

“You can go to other stores for that better price,” said Granville, who uses the Basket app.

Make a simple plan

To stay on track at a grocery store, Granville recommends sticking to a weekly meal plan. The practice of making a list based on recipes will help you stick to a healthy selection of items and prevent you from overspending.

Additionally, the Mealime mobile app provides meal plans based on dietary needs and a grocery list based on the number of people you feed.

“One of the big things that nutritionists will talk about is the idea of ​​planning ahead,” Granville said. “One way to really reduce food waste is to simply plan what you’re actually going to cook and eat that week.”

Marsha Perry, a Duke Law School librarian, recently began using a strategy to help her save money on groceries. She goes through recipes with her husband and makes a list in the Notes app on her phone, then orders groceries online. That way, she doesn’t make off-list purchases in the store.

“I don’t usually do my impulse purchases by sitting down and placing an order,” Perry said.

Granville also suggests focusing on the basic ingredients on a plate, like beans, fruits, grains, and veggies, which make for colorful meals. This approach can reduce the need for meat, one of the most expensive foods.

Choose canned or frozen foods

Using canned and frozen foods can save time and money without compromising nutrition.

These items, like frozen broccoli, canned beans, and frozen fruit, are staples in Granville’s home. Beans, in particular, are a versatile protein that can star in many types of dishes, reheated and flavored for wraps, soups, vegetable bowls and more.

When it comes to frozen foods, Granville suggests picking a small selection of fruits and vegetables that can be quickly used for a meal.

“If you’re in a hurry, you might not have planned as well as you normally would, things like frozen mixed vegetables you can pull out of the freezer and have on your plate in two to three minutes,” Granville said. “It’s just a really great thing to keep that plate really healthy.”

For Omar, canned chicken comes in handy for chicken salad during the workweek. Instead of cooking the meat, he can use the canned chicken to prepare lunches for the week.

“Canned chicken, some mayonnaise, some celery, pepper and we’re done,” he said. “You can make a sandwich out of this or just throw it on your plate.”

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