Spending for Health at the Grocery Store

Purchasing healthy food at your local grocery store can pay off in fresh, flavor filled meals and a heathy eating style. This edition of SoundCPA Insights for Individuals categorizes grocery spending into the 5 food groups. Splitting the grocery budget makes it easy to focus spending on buying the foods we need to create and maintain a healthy eating style. Spend 3,2,1 Low aims to build our awareness of healthy vs. less healthy spending choices. Apply with flexibility, as a guide to increase the proportion of vegetables, create a balance of fruit, grains and protein, include dairy for calcium and consciously lower the proportion of less healthy foods.

3	is for allocating 30% of spending to Veggies
2	20% each Fruit, Grains and Protein
1	10% Dairy
Low	sodium, saturated fats and added sugars

Spend 3,2,1 Low is meant to be easy to remember and manage, making it sustainable. Because cost per pound varies, spending 30% of an overall food budget on veggies and only 20% for protein foods can seem challenging. The result could easily work out to 10 or 15 lbs. of vegetables and only 1 or 2 lbs. of protein foods if buying fresh wild caught salmon or a high quality steak.

Balance and variety are key.

Protein can still play the star of the plate by breaking fish into chunks, slicing eggs, carving meat into strips, etc. Fruit satisfies our sweet tooth while boosting hydration and electrolytes. Whole grains add bulk and fiber to leave us satisfyingly full. Include dairy for calcium or substitute other calcium rich foods.

SoundCPA Insights Spending for Health at the Grocery Store uses guidance from USDA DIETARY GUIDELINES FOR AMERICANS 2015-2020 EIGHTH EDITION and Start Simple with MyPlate.