Q&A: How to get more nutrients on a budget
An ASU dietician breaks down the barriers that affect access to food and programs to address food insecurity
Illustration by Sara Montes Delgadillo.
Note: This interview was originally published in Doing Well, a health news outlet from ASU Media Enterprise and ASU Learning Enterprise. Subscribe to Doing Well to get interviews with health experts delivered to your inbox weekly.
By: Mel Moore
The same grocery cart that cost $100 in 2022 now costs around $119. As food costs continue to rise, millions of Americans struggle to get the nutrition they need. In 2024, 1 in every 7 U.S. households experienced food insecurity, meaning they didn’t have enough to eat or know where their next meal would come from.
In the below Q&A, Maureen McCoy — a dietitian and teaching professor at ASU’s College of Health Solutions, as well as the faculty advisor for Pitchfork Pantry, a student-led food pantry at ASU — seeks to help us better understand the levers that affect our access to food by discussing the impact of food insecurity, the importance of programs to address it, and tangible ways you can get more nutrients on a budget.
Short on time? Here’s what to know:
- Your neighborhood, income, education, access to transportation and health care — among many other factors — all affect your access to healthy food. Some people have the ability to store and cook food in their homes; others don’t.
- In some parts of a city, fresh food can easily be found in grocery stores and farmers markets. In other parts, it can be hard to come by, with just a convenience store nearby.
- The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) is the main food assistance program for adults in the U.S. In 2024, 1 in every 8 Americans relied on SNAP — but the program can be difficult to apply for and new restrictions may limit access.
- It can be very difficult to navigate out of the cycle of food insecurity. Eating less in order to save money may increase the risk of chronic disease, which impacts your ability to work and income. High health care costs can also worsen food insecurity.
- To get more nutrition into your diet on a budget, consider brainstorming different combinations of beans, potatoes and vegetables (including canned and frozen vegetables).
Note: This conversation has been edited for length and clarity.
Question: Most people agree that healthy eating is important, but it’s not just a matter of willpower. There are a lot of factors that make it harder for some people to access nutritious food. Can you describe some of those factors?
Answer: The social determinants of health come into play — having a livable wage, being able to afford food, being able to have transportation to get to food, and having the money to pay for the transportation to get to the food. It’s about the knowledge around how to prepare the food in financially friendly ways: Maybe I need to buy bulk, which is also an additional cost, but then I also need to be able to store it and cook it. There’s time, transportation, capacity, other bills that get in the way. It’s not just "let’s budget better" or "let’s eat better." It’s never that easy.
Q: Where you live affects your access to food. Places without a nearby grocery store with fresh produce are often called “food deserts.” Why do food deserts exist?
A: There’s another term called “food apartheid” — that word in itself is a strong word, but the origin of it is that the reason certain areas do not have access is not a random occurrence. A desert is a naturally occurring phenomenon, but the reason why certain areas do not have as many grocery stores is due to policies and the way that we build our neighborhoods — zoning laws, investment in some areas, disinvestment in others, structural inequities. So it’s not random; that built environment plays into how easy it is to get to food.
Q: A lot of the time, calorie-dense, nutrient-poor foods are cheaper and more available. Why is that?
A: That’s a big piece of our food system, and also foods that the neighborhood may be purchasing more of. If we’re finding that this area is purchasing more soda and chips, then maybe that’s where we’re putting our money. We were talking to a corner store in the downtown area, and there was a banana up front of the store that cost like $3 for a single banana. And healthier to-go items were $8, $10. When we talk to the shop owner, it’s like, "Well I’m not selling a lot of those (healthier) items." I’m like, "Well, we’re costing people out of those items."
There’s a lot of (state) restrictions now on SNAP benefits and what types of foods can be bought. But if I live in a (place) that doesn’t have the same access to healthier foods, and I go to my corner market and I can’t buy any of those healthier food items, all I have access to is the less nutrient-dense foods. So we have to modify our food system before we modify the foods that we’re putting restrictions on.
Q: And produce goes bad faster, and so it’s more expensive than producing ultra-processed foods that can sit on the shelf for a long time.
A: The storage piece is massive. You hear all the time, "Just meal prep." It’s not that easy: "I don’t have the room to buy in bulk, the capacity or time, the containers, the knowledge to meal prep."
Q: What programs are available to low-income households to make it easier to eat well?
A: For adults, the biggest one is the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). If you get an emergency food bag from the food bank, that’s part of the Emergency Food Assistance Program (TEFAP). For preschool to 12th grade, the National School Lunch Program.
SNAP is undergoing a lot of changes right now. They are different state by state — states are trying to put restrictions on what can be bought with SNAP benefits — certain level of sugar items, soda, chips. When research has been done in the past, regardless of whether someone is on SNAP or not, people buy the same types of foods. There’s not a difference. So it’s not like if I was on SNAP, I’m suddenly going to start buying less nutrient-dense food.
Q: Using food assistance can be stigmatized and people can be afraid to apply. What does the public get wrong about those programs?
A: The application process can be very arduous and confusing, and sometimes you only are getting covered for a few months, and then you have to do it again. So that can be really overwhelming. Again, time, capacity, the stress involved with all of that. When we have students apply for SNAP, we have people that are specially trained to walk them through the process — because halfway through, you’re like, "Is it worth it to do this? I guess I’ll try to get by with what I have; I’ll cut back on meals." It can be frustrating, and a lot of people are getting denied, because there’s lots of restrictions.
Q: What happens to people when they don’t have access to nutritious food? Does that impact chronic disease risk?
A: It’s this negative cycle. In that cycle of food insecurity, maybe my income is being affected, so I am skipping a few meals here and there, but then my stress levels are also up. We’re not putting as many nutrients into our body, so then chronic disease risk goes up, and I can’t go to work and afford food.
You can see how we’re on this little (negative hamster) wheel, and we’re seeing the outcomes: Obesity, heart disease, cancer, (type 2) diabetes — all of these issues are consistently going up. We haven’t made much of a dent in that for a very long time. A lot of it comes back to the social determinants of health.
Q: Are there ways that people can ensure they’re getting enough nutrition on a budget?
A: There are creative ways to do it. There is a big knowledge gap. Sometimes in our emergency food bags, we have a big bag of dried beans. The students are like, "I don’t have capacity, time, ability, knowledge to do anything with dried beans." That in itself could feed you for several weeks and (provide) fiber, protein and great nutrients. So trying to work on food literacy, and getting people’s knowledge switched on about different ways to add fruits and vegetables.
I always think about it in terms of the food groups, and trying to get all of them in some capacity every day — whatever that looks like. Vegetables and fruits can be canned; they can be frozen. But it does take time to get it ready. So trying to give those quick-and-easy grabs that you can get during the day that still have a little bit of protein, have fiber to keep you filled up for longer. Fiber is a really important piece to feel fuller for longer.
What’s the biggest bang for my buck in terms of a nutrient profile? Beans are fantastic, and potatoes are not our enemy. We did a baked potato run where we had a big potato, but let’s put frozen broccoli on it, and let’s put some beans on it, and then let’s add canned salsa with some shredded cheese — there’s a meal in itself that maybe cost $1.50 when we divide it all out. So trying to think of creative ways to take a less expensive base item, and then add some nutrients on top of that.
Food insecurity resources
Q: That’s really helpful. If someone wants to improve access to nutritious food in their communities, what steps can they take?
A: Being aware of the political landscape is helpful, so definitely stay educated as to what’s going on. Talk to your local representatives and make your voice heard.
Volunteering at your local food bank really can make a difference. I work with HonorHealth Desert Mission, which has a food bank, and their traffic has probably gone up four times from what it was last spring. If you have another skillset that you could offer — maybe you’re good at marketing, social media, or even nutrition, and you want to help with some recipes and things like that — all of that is useful to your local community. Think about the stigmatization behind using these resources — anything that you can do to change even the way that you talk about it, educating yourself and modifying that language, can make a really big difference.
When we think about policy changes, I’d love to see making SNAP easier to apply for. If you’re a tech expert, help someone work through those steps. Do your own food drive. We have a lot of groups that do that for the food pantry that I oversee, and it makes a big difference. We even started an Amazon wishlist, and people were purchasing items for us — that was really helpful.