We’re attending the Food and Nutrition Conference of the American Dietetic Association in Denver this week. Many researchers and companies use the event to showcase their ingenuity. Aside from a large expo hall with tastings of (mostly) new snacks and beverages, the Poster Sessions at the far back end are an interesting place to wonder about.

Since Fooducate focuses on nutrition labeling, we found a presentation on an Affordable Nutrition Index by Washington University’s Prof. Adam Drewnowski quite interesting. In the past few years, Drewnowski  has developed a Nutrient Rich Scoring system which scores foods based on their positive and negative nutrient content. The new system add a twist by dividing the scores by the cost of the product.

So while the old system may have given blueberries a higher score than bananas (both are very good for you), under the new scoring, bananas fare better because they are much more affordable. Low sodium canned soup came out quite well too, and Campbell’s soup company was quick to jump on that bandwagon by adding its products to the index and publishing a press release.

The study shows that even on a lower budget, people can find healthier items that are also affordable. Which is good, because the propensity for obesity and its related health problems are directly linked to lower socio-economic status.

What to do at the supermarket:

Some of the easiest ways to save money in the supermarket while still eating healthfully are to buy produce in season, or frozen/canned, cut soft drinks out of your diet, limit the number of snacks you buy, and come prepared with a shopping list. More suggestions here.

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Over the weekend, USA Today published a great piece about the cost of healthy eating. The bottom line is that for most people eating healthfully means paying more, but it doesn’t have to be that way.

The article comes at a time when more Americans are stretched for dollars, stressed out from the recession, and resorting more and more to comfort foods that are not always nutritious. As luck (?) would have it the cheapest most comforting foods are the ones that are the worst for our waistlines.

It’s a hard fact: Eating healthier can cost more. When you’re hungry, you go for what’s most filling, meaning calorie-dense foods with lots of added fat and sugar.

Dr. Adam Drewnowski, who directs the University of Washington Center for Public Health Nutrition has been researching the nutrition profiles of various foods for several years. He created algorithms to calculate the nutrient density of foods by examining each product’s nutrients to encourage (protein, fiber, vitamins, minerals) and nutrients to limit (saturated fats, sodium, added sugars). Running the calculations on database of thousands of foods showed unequivocally that nutrient dense foods tend to be more expensive.

However, there is hope.

Knowing how to eat well is based on “knowledge, money and time,” Drewnowski says. “If you’re trying to save money, you need to invest your knowledge and time into learning how to cook and finding the right foods.”

Here is a simple example – French fries are not a healthy choice, but the potato they come from is. Instead of getting fries at McDonald’s (saves time), why not bake potatoes (invest time in learning and cooking).

What you need to know:

Convenience is the key word here.

The entire fast food industry was born so that Americans could get food more conveniently an save time. TV Dinners were a great convenience to moms who joined the work force in the 1950’s and 60’s and no longer had time to cook at home. The tradition of convenience continues today with deli counters at the supermarket, precut salads, and ready made pasts sauces, soups, and whatnot.

These conveniences cost money. And if they are labeled as healthy conveniences, they’ll cost even more.

Granted, we need this convenience because we barely have enough hours in a day to survive, let alone spend them in the kitchen cooking.

But if we look at statistics, Americans are spending 2-4 hours a day in front of a screen, whether TV, Computer, or video game.

What if we took just 10% of that time and spent it on acquiring basic food preparation skills and employing them in our kitchen?

A trick that works for busy parents is to set aside a block of 3-5 hours on the weekend to cook for the entire upcoming week. Thank goodness for large freezers.

An important investment is teaching your kids to prepare foods. It can start with washing vegetables and drying them (preschool), continue with cutting (4th grade and up), and work on up to sautéing (junior high). Heck, by the time the kids are in highschool, not only are they helping you cook, they’re probably slimmer and healthier than their couch potato peers.  Not to mention the quality time spent together creating dishes.

Now let’s look at what ingredients you should to buy…

What to do at the supermarket:

As a rule, the less processed a food, the cheaper it is. Which means you should buy more fruits and veggies (even frozen or canned), bulk grains such as rice, and lean unprepared meats. Basic unsweetened dairy products such as yogurts are cheaper than the fruit flavored sugar laden kind. Adding a teaspoon of honey or a few chopped strawberries and spoonful of sugar is still going to be cheaper, not to mention healthier.

Most of what you’ll need is the in the perimeter of the store.

Here are some more suggestions in Fooducate’s Top Ten Tips for Nutritious Shopping in a Recession.

Good luck and bon apetit.

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A thoughtful piece circulated by Reuters today discusses the nutritionally saddening effect of the economic recession. People are cutting back on expensive foods. Makes sense.

Unfortunately the expensive foods are fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and other healthy items.

“People … are going to economize and as they save money on food they will be eating more empty calories or foods high in sugar, saturated fats and refined grains, which are cheaper,” said Adam Drewnowski, the director of the Nutrition Sciences Program at the University of Washington in Seattle.

“Things are going to get worse,” he told Reuters in a telephone interview. “Obesity is a toxic result of a failing economic environment.”

He added that studies in California suggested that a 10 percent rise in poverty translates into about a 6 percent increase in obesity among adults.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, over one third of U.S. adults — more than 72 million people — and 16 percent of U.S. children are obese.

The unfolding recession could inflate U.S. waistlines further as more and more people fall onto hard times and seek cheaper food.

Read the entire article…

What you need to know:

Healthy and nutritious food does not have to be expensive. There is a cost though – time. If you want to eat healthfully, you need to invest time in preparing your meals. If you can cook a meal, then you can buy unprocessed foods at the supermarket and save the premium you would have paid for a frozen dinner or prepared dish.

True, in the winter it is a bit more difficult to find fresh fruits and vegetables that are cheap, but usually frozen versions are available at reasonable prices.

Some items are low cost but superfluous. Soda pop is a perfect example. Cheap sugary water. But over the course of a year, these empty calories set back an average family of 4 over $500!

More Ideas here: Top ten Tips for Nutritious Shopping in a Recession

Do you have any more suggestions?

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The Nutrient Rich Foods Coalition, an organization that wants to help people make healthier food choices was featured in a recent Washington Post article:

Given a choice between a Pop-Tart and a pear, we all know which is the more nutritious, right? (Hint: It begins with p!) But what if the choice is between a pear and a grapefruit?

If you are like me, you would put the pear ahead of both the Pop-Tart and the canned pears, but you might be at a loss when comparing it with a grapefruit. Now along comes a group developing a food-scoring system that would quantify the nutritional differences between those fresh fruits and — surprise! — perhaps even place canned pears on par with, or even higher than, fresh pears.

Read the article…

What you need to know:

Nutrient dense foods are the opposite of empty calorie foods. It’s not just the quantity of calories we consume daily that affects our health, but also the quality. Several new initiatives are attempting to create a simple scoring method that will help consumers choose the most nutrient dense foods in the supermarket.

What to do at the supermarket:

Dietitians and the Nutrition Rich Foods Coalition recommend buying more products from the supermarket perimeter (as opposed to the inner aisles). In the perimeter you can find fresh produce, milk and dairy, meats and whole grain products. They usually have a short ingredient list, are minimally processed, and are more nutrient dense.