You Are What You Eat: Healthy Eating Tips That Save Money

Find out ways to eat healthy at a minimal cost

A healthy diet helps to keep you well and reduces the risk of serious illnesses such as cancer and heart disease. The good news is that there are lots of ways of introducing beneficial foods into your diet without making big, unpalatable changes, and at minimal cost.

Healthy diet, healthy wallet

Although choosing the healthier alternative can save you money, a few foods that offer the best nutritional value can be expensive, but you need only use them sparingly.

Go easy on meat Make meat go further by cooking it in casseroles or stir-fries bulked out with cheaper ingredients such as beans, pulses or seasonal vegetables.

Cheap, healthy ingredients Basing meals on starchy foods such as rice, pasta and bread is not only good for a balanced diet but offers excellent value for money.

Five a day for less

Doctors agree that we should all eat five portions of fruit and vegetables each day. Here are the best-value ways of ensuring those five portions are a part of your daily diet.

Canned and frozen count too Your daily intake can include fresh, frozen, chilled, dried and canned foods, the health properties of some (like tomatoes) are even better in a canned form, as well as often being cheaper. Save more by buying the supermarket's own brand - it's just as nutritious.

Just juice One - but only one - of your portions of fresh fruit can be taken in the form of juice.

Keep the goodness in

Don't squander your money by making the effort to buy fresh fruit and vegetables and then carelessly destroying their nutritional benefits.

Fresh is best Eat fresh fruit and veg as soon as possible rather than storing - or use frozen.

Minimal cooking Don't cook vegetables for too long as you will overcook them. Cover to keep in steam.

Don't dilute vitamins Boil vegetables in as little water as possible without boiling them dry, then use the water as a nutritious stock for making soup.

Clever storage Cover and chill cut fruit and veg and don't soak or vitamins and minerals can dissolve away.

Grow your own

Even if you don't have a vegetable plot, you can make savings by growing fruit and vegetables in your garden.

Be selective Don't grow vegetables you can buy cheaply in the shops, go for those that are sold at a premium, take up little space, yet are simple to grow. French beans, mangetout, sugar snap peas and cut-and-come-again (or 'loose leaf') salad, such as 'Salad Bowl', will net you the biggest savings, especially if you grow them from seed.

Pot-sized plot If you have a courtyard or very small garden, you can still grow some fruit and vegetables in pots. In a 23cm-25cm (9in-10in) pot you can grow one aubergine, pepper or tomato plant, four climbing French or runner bean plants; 32 carrots; or three strawberry plants.

Save on herbs Grow the herbs you use most frequently in a window box, pot or a garden bed by the kitchen door so you can harvest them as and when they are needed. Many have nutritional and therapeutic benefits.

Get your essential fats for less

The omega-3 essential fatty acids are beneficial fats that can reduce the risk of a heart attack or stroke. You can increase the amount in your diet at minimal extra cost.

Swap meat for fish Replace at least one meat meal a week with oily fish. You don't have to go for expensive fish such as tuna or salmon; mackerel, sardines or herring are just as good, and canned sardines have the bonus of being high in calcium, too, as the bones are edible.

Vegetarian option Top up your omega-3 oils by scattering a handful of pumpkin seeds on a salad or eating a few walnuts. Or eat 1-2 tablespoons of ground flax seeds a day: buy the seeds and mill or grind them yourself rather than taking expensive flax oil or ground flax seed supplements.

Drink Water

Aim to drink up to 2 litres a day - and the more of it that is water the better as this ensures good circulation and digestion and prevents dehydration and the fatigue and mental fuzziness that usually accompany it.

Top tips best buys

To make sure you don't end up paying more for your healthier diet; you may have to make a few modifications to the way you shop.

● Bargains at food market Although supermarkets often offer value for money, traditional food markets can be cheaper for healthy alternatives. Some products can be found at half the price compared to the price in the supermarket.

● Buy dried not canned Pulses such as kidney beans, chickpeas and lentils work out about 50% cheaper if you buy them dried rather than canned. But you do need to remember to soak them before cooking.

● Buy fruit not fizz A can of a fizzy drink may contain up to 8 teaspoons of sugar, which encourages weight gain and is bad for your teeth. For a healthy alternative that contains valuable vitamins, mix 500ml of unsweetened fruit juice (orange or apple), with 500ml of water, chill and serve. It will cost just a quarter of the price of a canned fizzy drink.