Fruits and Veggies Aren't as Expensive as You Think
CHETRY: Skyscrapers in New York City right now. It's 66 degrees. A little bit later, though, it's going up to a high of 80 degrees and it will be mostly sunny.</s>VELSHI: Terrific weekend here.</s>CHETRY: Yes. It was a little chilly, actually.</s>VELSHI: It was actually a little cool.</s>CHETRY: But come Wednesday, we're looking at 90 -- above 90s.</s>ROMANS: Really? Whoa, summer is here.</s>CHETRY: So it's going to be sweltering -- yes.</s>ROMANS: Summer is here.</s>VELSHI: Well, we've been talking about the government ditching the food pyramid for a plate.</s>CHETRY: That's right. It's supposed to encourage folks to load up on their fruits and vegetables.</s>ROMANS: And one thing I've heard more and more about this, wait, half of our food is supposed to be fruits and vegetables, that could be a lot more expensive. Well, if you're worried about that, that eating healthy won't be able to fit into your family budget, think again. Turns out, eating healthy doesn't always have to cost a lot of money.</s>ROMANS (voice-over): It's a message from the very top.</s>MICHELLE OBAMA, FIRST LADY OF THE UNITED STATES: Fruits. We're going to do some fruits here, we're going to do some berries.</s>ROMANS: A call to arms from the first lady. Her Let's Move Campaign to combat high rates of childhood obesity and promote healthy eating and exercise.</s>OBAMA: We're all here today because we care deeply about the health and well-being --</s>ROMANS: But many people think eating healthier equals spending more money. Not so, says Deputy Secretary of Agriculture Kathleen Merrigan.</s>KATHLEEN MERRIGAN, DEPUTY SECRETARY OF AGRICULTURE: I've been on a campaign, crusade, if you will, a myth-busting exercise, trying to say that actually you can afford to eat fruits and vegetables much more than people think.</s>ROMANS: The USDA calculates --</s>MERRIGAN: A little bit less for vegetables, a little bit more for fruit. But if you boil it all down, it's 50 cents a cup. So that means for a 2,000 calorie a day diet, you would spend between $2.18 and $2.50 to meet that half a plate recommendation.</s>ROMANS: It's not always easy, but you can actually save money.</s>MERRIGAN: We know that in this country, on average, a family of four is spending about $185 a week on groceries. If you follow a healthy diet plan, as we propose, you can bring that cost down to $175.</s>ROMANS: Buy fruits and vegetables while they're in season. Frozen and canned are also OK. And have a plan when you hit the supermarket. And of course, there's always your own backyard. (on camera): It's so interesting to see little first graders with their shovels talking about composting and running a household where you're healthy. You pack lunches, you try to pack sustainable lunches where there's no waste. Tell me about that? A no waste lunch.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It gets a little dicey sometimes. At 7:35, you're trying to make all the snacks and all the lunches for the day. But I find the kids are watching over our shoulders going, oh, you want to make sure, don't put that in a wrapper, put it in a container that we can bring home and wash again. And it means the food that you're backing is better, too.</s>ROMANS: Now, here's the hard part. So if you're shopping for your family, you can make up the difference with slightly more expensive fruits and vegetables by staying out of the processed lines, the middle of the grocery store. When you're shopping, go around the edges, you stay away from the more expensive processed foods in the middle. But you guys make a very good point. If you are struggling, the 99 cent menu is still a very attractive -- and that's something that --</s>CHETRY: And also, if you're working two jobs and you're doing all this stuff to keep your family afloat, it's harder to prepare fresh foods.</s>ROMANS: But that's why there's this big campaign to get everyone kind of on the same page, to start thinking about this. From school lunches, to how is our family that we're viewing food, to make sure our kids are eating that half a plate -- that we're eating that half a plate of fruits and vegetables.</s>VELSHI: Well, it's -- I think the issue is the myth is that it's not doable.</s>ROMANS: That's right.</s>VELSHI: It's doable, but it take a little more work. And once you get those fruits and vegetables, as oppose to these 99 cent menus, there's preparation involved, there's getting good at it, there's the fact that we constantly talk about the fact that kids constantly push back against vegetables. So it's a whole re-education campaign and it starts with this new message.</s>ROMANS: And it also starts with the kids. I mean, that's something we found -- that kids are the ones who were sort of learning this at school and pushing it back at their house.</s>VELSHI: Right.</s>ROMANS: For more information about budgeting your money, we've got more about all of those sort of subjects in my book, "Smart is the New Rich."</s>CHETRY: My five-year-old said, "Is butter at the top or the bottom of the food pyramid?" I said, you don't have to worry about that anymore Our top stories are coming up after the break.