Where to get healthy food for less

Which supermarket comes up trumps with healthy food at affordable prices? Read on to find out...

It looks like the crunch is affecting people's health, as well as their wallets.

In a recent poll commissioned by debt charity Christians Against Poverty, one in three of those questioned said they were now eating less healthily because of rising food prices and a squeeze on finances.

And it seems that supermarkets are partly to blame for this. When the National Consumer Council did a spot check on the top eight leading British supermarkets last year, they found that an alarming 54% of all new promotional offers were on foods high in fat and sugar.

Just one in eight special deals related to fruit and veg - despite the government's recent 'five a day' health push.

So - if you want to get healthy food for less, which supermarket comes up trumps?

Our super healthy shopping basket

Here's a shopping list of eight so-called 'superfoods'. It's not a definitive guide (there are plenty of healthy foods I don't have room to include here).

However, these foods are all considered to have a particularly high nutritional value, and make a significant contribution to a healthy lifestyle.

How the supermarkets measure up

To give you a general idea of the prices that supermarkets will charge, I've compared the price of our eight 'superfoods' at four big supermarkets: Tesco, Sainsbury's, Asda and Ocado (Waitrose online).

Of course, you don't have to get your superfoods from one of these four giants. Somerfield, Morrisons, Lidl and Aldi are all worth a look, and may well be cheaper as they offer deep discounts. Unfortunately, because you can't shop with them online, I couldn't compare them here but I heartily recommend you check them out - and use the info I've included here as a comparison guide.

As far as possible, I've tried to compare like-with-like, and I've highlighted in italics the cheapest item in each category.

Here's what I found:

Prices rounded to the nearest penny

And the winner is...?

It's Asda that pips the rest to the post, coming up with the lowest or joint lowest price for six of the eight foods tested.

And of the four supermarket giants, it was the only one to be running any special discounts on any of the items listed.

The total price of Asda's 'superfood' basket was £2.26 lower than its nearest rival, Tesco, and a whopping £8.61 cheaper than Ocado's offering.

However, the higher price of Ocado's goods should be put into context: For example, its turkey is free range, and although you're paying more for the broccoli, you're also getting a lot more floret and a lot less stalk for your money.

For me, the biggest disappointment was actually Sainsbury's. Even leaving aside its ridiculously expensive blueberries, its prices often didn't match those of Tesco or Asda.

With Jamie 'healthy school meals' Oliver fronting its ad campaign, perhaps it needs to raise its game?

Other options

Do remember to compare the prices at Somerfield, Morrisons, Lidl and Aldi against this table - they may well cheaper.

Aldi, in particular, seems to have cottoned on to the importance of healthy food at affordable prices. Every month it runs a new Super 6 offer, selling six types of fruit and veg at extra-low prices.

Farmers' markets are another great source of fresh, locally-produced food at affordable prices.

And what about getting green-fingered? My colleague Harvey Jones recently had a go at growing his own superfoods - as he explains here.

More: Eight ways to slash your food bills! | Fight back against rising food prices!