Want to Eat Healthy Foods? Tack on $380 to Your Grocery Bill

Inexpensive ways to add nutrients such as, potatoes and beans for potassium and dietary fiber to a person's diet is tough, and a recent study published in Health Affairs, only confirms the obvious told on one's pockets.

Eating healthy has gained new traction over the past year.

In the study, it shows that eating healthily may be good for the body but tough on the wallet, MSNBC reports. "Given the times we're in, I think we really need to make our health guidance, in particular the dietary guidelines, more relevant to Americans," Monsivais told MSNBC.

Lead author, Pablo Monsivais, an assistant professor in the Department of Epidemiology and the School of Public Health at the University of Washington, said that just getting the recommended amount of potassium would add $380 to a consumer's food bill.

Although the study found introducing more potassium in a diet is likely to add $380 per year to the average consumer's food costs, said lead researcher Monsivais.

The study, published in the journal Health Affairs, showed that people who spend more on food tend to eat more healthily than those who go a more economical route.

"We know more than ever about the science of nutrition, and yet we have not yet been able to move the needle on healthful eating," Monsivais told reporters.

"The government should provide help for meeting the nutritional guidelines in an affordable way," he added.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture exchanged the iconic Food Pyramid and the short-lived My Pyramid for "My Plate."

My Plate encourages eaters to make fruits and vegetables take up half of their plates. Health officials also suggest that at least half of grains consumed be whole grains.

Hilary Seligman, an assistant professor of medicine at the University of California, San Francisco who was not involved in the study, told MSNBC that the poorer population would make better food choices if they could afford to do so.