When you go shopping, you start out with a certain amount of cash in your wallet (or ATM account!). Your goal? Get as much as you can for as little cash as possible. You’re hunting for bargains.

When it comes to making food choices, you should be a “bargain” shopper, too. No, we are not talking about a grocery cart full of 99-cent Ramen noodles. The bargains we mean are “caloric bargains.”

Think of your daily calorie allotment as the same as the money in your wallet. Each day, you only have a certain amount of calories you can “spend” on food and beverages. So you want to spend your calories wisely on low-calorie, nutritious foods. What are “caloric bargain” foods?  Generally, foods that are minimally processed and rich in fiber or have a lot of water. For example:

•    Fruits - fresh, frozen, and canned without added sugar or syrup
•    Vegetables – especially high water content vegetables such as tomatoes, greens, squash
•    Whole grain pastas, rice, cereals (ready-to-eat and cooked) and breads
•    Very lean meat, poultry and fish
•    Nonfat dairy products
•    Broth-based soups

Remember, not all low-calorie foods are nutritious. Take jelly beans for example. Ten jelly beans have only 103 calories. But other than a simple carbohydrate, sugar, the jelly beans don’t provide any nutrients.

Not all high-nutrition foods are low in calories either. The avocado, for example, is a wonderfully nutritious fruit (yes, fruit!) packed with healthy oils, vitamins, and minerals. But a medium avocado packs 306 calories.  We’re not saying you should never eat avocados, just in moderation. Spend most of your daily calories on the “caloric bargains” described previously.  

What are “caloric bargain” foods that you like? Use the comments section below to add your ideas.