Eating Healthy on a Budget
Money Saving Ideas for the Hallelujah Diet

Eating healthy on a budget is not only possible, but it can be fun and easy!

You can reap the many blessings of health and healing on the Hallelujah Diet without killing your food budget.

There are many money-saving ideas and tips to help you stay Hallelujah-true on a shoestring budget.

But first, let's look at the real cost of food- healthy and unhealthy...

Is Healthy Eating Really That Expensive?

If you read the mainstream press, you would believe that eating healthy on a budget is impossible.

Reported by ABC News in 2007:

"A new study published in the journal of the American Dietetic Association finds that a low-income family would have to devote 43 to 70 percent of its food budget to fruits and vegetables to meet the 2005 Dietary Guidelines, which recommends five to nine servings of fruits and vegetables a day…Currently, researchers say that American families spend 15 to 18 percent of their budget on fruits and vegetables."

Reported in Time Magazine in 2007:

"A study in the November 2007 issue of the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition found that a dollar could buy 1,200 calories of potato chips, or 875 calories of soda, but just 250 calories of vegetables or 170 calories of fresh fruit."

At first glance, when you read this, you think, "Wow, eating healthy costs a lot! Can I afford to feed my family healthy food? There's no way we can be eating healthy on a budget!"

But, let's analyze these findings. First, we see that $1 bought:

1,200 calories of potato chips

That's 9.2 servings of potato chips at 130 cal each. (Where did they buy 9.2 servings of potato chips for a buck?!) Nutrient value = 0

I am not sure what food group potato chips fall under. Most SAD-eating Americans and even dietitians put it in the vegetable group. I know it doesn't belong on the Hallelujah diet.

875 calories of soda

That's the number of calories in a 2 liter bottle of soda, about 8 servings. Nutrient value = 0

Now, I am not sure what food group soda belongs in, either. It definitely doesn't belong on the Hallelujah diet.

250 calories of vegetables

The current USDA daily recommendations for vegetables is 2.5 cups or 5 servings. No specific recommendation is made as to whether that's fresh or cooked vegetables.

But, because we are interested in the healthy raw foods of the Hallelujah diet, let's look at just how many servings of raw vegetables are in 250 calories, the amount of 'vegetable calories' $1 bought.

To keep things interesting, let's see if we can make a salad with 250 calories of fresh vegetables:

• 1 cup broccoli = 30 calories
• 2 cups romaine = 16 calories
• 1 cup sliced tomatoes = 32 calories
• 1 cup raw grated carrots = 45 calories
• 1 cup sliced, peeled cucumber = 14 calories
• 1 cup raw cauliflower pieces = 25 calories
• 1 cup sliced green peppers = 18 calories
• 1 oz raw red onion = 10 calories
• 0.25 cup cubed avocado = 60 calories

Wow! Our salad looks delicious! And it contains just over 8 cups, close to 2 times the USDA recommended amount. This is a great salad for $1 worth of vegetable calories. Nutritional value = Priceless!

Seems like eating healthy on a budget is not only possible, but it is delicious!

But, wait, there's more.

According to the study, $1 will buy 170 calories of fruit. Can we get the USDA recommended amount of fruit, 4 servings, in our buck's worth of 170 calories?

Let's look at 170 calories of fresh fruit. USDA recommendation is 4 servings of fruit. Can we get 4 servings of fruit in 170 calories?

• 1 cup fresh watermelon 46 calories
• 1 medium apple 80 calories
• One-half cup fresh grapes 52 calories

Well, we're just slightly over at 178 calories. So, with these fruit choices, we can't get exactly 170 calories of fruit nutrition for a dollar.

BUT...Let's see what we can do using our dollar to buy bananas, America's most popular fruit.

One medium banana has about 105 calories.

3-4 medium size bananas in 1 pound, at an average cost of 50 cents per pound.

For $1, you can get about 735 fruit calories! Nutrient value = priceless!

How's that for eating healthy on a budget?!

Is Price a Barrier to Fruit and Vegetable Consumption?

The purpose of the study reported by American Journal of Clinical Nutrition was to determine if price is a barrier to fruit and vegetable consumption for low-income families.

The study compared the average cost of a market basket of fruits and vegetables from the Thrifty Food Plan to the 2005 Dietary Guidelines for Americans.

The Thrifty Food Plan is the USDA recommendation of food purchases by an average family of four on maximum food stamp allotments.

The average monthly cost of the food purchases for a family of 4 on the Thrifty Food Plan was about $540 in December 2009.

So, according to the American Dietetic Association, low-income families would have to spend $232 to $378 of the $540 monthly food stamp allotment on fruits and vegetables.

Frankly, I don't see a problem with that. After all, look how much nutrient value that will buy!

In fact, a greater percentage of the food dollar could be spent on fresh fruit and vegetables. More on that later.

Is Eating Healthy on a Budget Possible?

I think both of these studies combined are evidence that eating healthy on a budget is very possible!

And, actually the USDA's Economic Research Service confirmed this in 2004:

The weighted-average price per serving for all fresh fruits was 18 cents per serving. So, 4 servings of fruit a day would cost 72 cents.

And, the weighted-average price for all fresh vegetables was 12 cents per serving. Thus, the USDA recommendation of 5 servings of vegetables (preferred fresh in our case), cost 60 cents per day.

"According to the Consumer Expenditure Survey, in 1999 Americans spent an average of $5.50 per person per day on food.

So consumers trying to follow the Food Guide Pyramid can meet their daily recommendations for two out of the five major food groups for only 12 percent of their daily food expenditures. That leaves 88 percent of their food dollar left for the other three food groups.

Even consumers from households whose income is less than 130 percent of the poverty line, and spend $4.07 per person per day on food, have 84 percent of their food dollar left."

I'm So Confused!

So, why do we have such conflicting information when it comes to the affordability of healthy fruits and vegetables?

I think that the first 2 studies we looked at were distorted by mainstream media because it makes 'good copy' and sells well! And the reason I say this is because of this quote by the authors of the study:

I think the authors of this report assume that consumers, you and I, aren't going to change the way we eat. They assume our priority is to spend the majority of our food dollar on the more expensive meat, diary, and junk food, leaving us unable to afford the fruits and vegetables.

But, as we follow the Hallelujah diet, and shift our grocery spending from meat, diary, and junk food to fresh fruit, vegetables, nuts and seeds, we find that eating healthy on a budget is totally possible!