May 1, 2008 11:13 pm US/Central
Dietician Shares Grocery Saving Tips
Cutting Grocery Bills Means Cutting Out The Fat
DENVER (CBS) ―
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Good Question, a regular part of CBS4 News at 10 p.m., is an opportunity for Alan Gionet to drill past the basic facts of a story and give it some depth & perspective. See more Good Question reports.
With rising food prices, it's time to cut out the things you don't need like potato chips. But, dieticians say you might turn to potatoes as a staple food to replace more expensive options like corn and wheat.
Dietician Bonnie Jortberg believes there are ways to shop smarter, both for nutritional value and for budget.
"Do some meal planning ahead of time," Jortberg said. "Plan out your menus, plan what you want to eat for the week and come up with a grocery list. If you know what you need to buy when you go to the grocery store you don't have a tendency to buy a lot of extraneous things that might be more costly. And don't go grocery shopping when you're hungry."
Beware of kid-centric marketing. Stores know where to put the costly items when it comes to your shopping alone or with your children.
"Go down the aisles that are more adult oriented then you can see the more expensive items more at eye level. Then you go down the kid aisle then most of the sugary kids' cereals are lower down where it's more eye level for the kids. So there's some very, very clever marketing going on."
Jortberg advises shoppers to stay away from pre-packaged meals for nutritional and economic reasons.
"It costs you in terms of how much money you spend and it can cost you in terms of your nutrition. Pre-packaged food has added fat, sodium -- they add a lot of preservatives," she said.
Jortberg also advises shoppers to go generic. In blindfold tests, she says many people can't tell the difference from the name brand.
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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