Looking to save money on your weekly grocery shop? Switching to a vegan diet could be the answer.
However, a US study published today found that swapping from a regular omnivorous diet to a vegan one saved the average person almost 20 per cent at the checkout.
The 30 participants who switched to a vegan diet focused on fruits, vegetables, grains and legumes such as chickpeas and beans. (Getty Images/iStockphoto)In the study published in JAMA today, 30 participants switched to a vegan diet for 16 weeks, while another 32 swapped their regular foods for a Mediterranean diet.
The vegan diet consisted of fruits, vegetables, legumes and grains.
No instructions on food costs were given.
Those on the vegan diet spent 19 per cent less on food than average, while those on the Mediterranean diet spent slightly more – about four per cent – than they had previously.
The Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine researchers noted that the decrease in cost for the vegan diet was mostly due to savings on meat and dairy, with some also saved on added fats.
Aussie city ranked as second most cost-effective in the world
Those on the vegan diet saved $2.90 a day on meat and 50 cents a day on both dairy and added fats, amounting to a total saving of $3.90 a day.
This more than offset the daily extra cost of vegetables (50 cents), meat alternatives (50 cents) and grains (30 cents), with the average participant saving $1.80 a day in total.
“These findings suggest that total food costs decrease significantly in adopting a vegan diet compared both with baseline and with a Mediterranean diet,” the study authors wrote.