A family of four spends about $5,300 a year on groceries, according to the Department of Labor. But even though the prices of fresh fruits and vegetables have increased 40 percent, there are ways you can still buy healthy foods without busting your budget. It took a vicious case of Lyme disease to convince Keith Schorsch to change his diet — and his family's. The 44-year-old Seattle resident credits his recovery to nutritional improvements, and ever since then he has insisted on organic, unprocessed, and low-sugar everything. He cut back on carbs, beefed up his protein intake, and lost 50 pounds in the process. His two young sons evince a genuine fondness for yogurt and broccoli. "Eating well and exercising properly changed my life," says Schorsch. "I can now run five to seven miles, whereas before I could run only one to two miles comfortably. And now I bike for two to four hours at a high heart rate; before I was more comfortable in the one-hour range."
The only problem is that Schorsch, CEO of the health networking site Trusera.com, and his wife, a marketing executive, would rather spend time with their kids than drive around town looking for organic tomatoes. And they can't just zip through the supermarket, throwing frozen dinners into the cart. "Ninety percent of the food in the store is stuff you don't want to eat," he says. "It takes a lot of time to learn how to stock up on food that's good for you." Plus, healthy food simply costs more. "It's definitely an extra expense," he says. A family of four spends about $5,300 a year on groceries, according to the Department of Labor.
Schorsch has developed a strategy for maximizing nutrition while minimizing time in the produce aisle. He goes online to order nonperishables such as nutrition bars and organic beef jerky, and every two months or so, he hits Costco to stock up on healthy staples such as brown rice and cheese. He and his wife keep a template shopping list for their regular stores, so when they run out of something, they just mark it on the appropriate list; it makes shopping faster and easier. To ensure the family enjoys a good dinner every evening, they've been paying a cook to come in and prepare five meals in advance every two weeks. "It actually costs less than takeout," he says.
The deck is stacked against a busy guy trying to feed his family healthful food. The Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy found that over a 15-year period the cost of fresh fruits and vegetables rose 40 percent, while prices on sweets and soda dropped. Adam Drewnowski, PhD, director of the University of Washington Center for Obesity Research, found that a dollar buys 1,200 calories worth of potato chips and cookies but just 250 carrot calories. The government's agriculture policy actually encourages low prices for corn and soybeans, leading the food industry to produce cheap snacks full of corn syrup and soybean oil.
If you're willing to look beyond the grocer, however, here are sixways to improve your diet while saving cash and time.