— Base meals on items from the grocery store perimeter. The perimeter is where you find most healthy foods: fresh fruits and vegetables, fish, meats, poultry and dairy products. Then shop the aisles containing 100 percent whole grain breads and pastas and whole grains such as oatmeal, barley and quinoa.

— Compare the prices of similar items. Is it better to buy skinless, boneless chicken breasts at $5.49 a pound or a whole chicken at $1.28 per pound? The chicken breasts will feed two to three people while the whole chicken is more than three pounds and will feed four, as well as make homemade chicken stock and soup.

— Buy in bulk the foods you eat often. Steel-cut oats bought from the bulk bin are 89 cents a pound, while a tin runs $3.35 a pound.

— Buy seasonally. Seasonal produce offers more than just freshness — it can also save money. Cucumbers in season are bargains, but out of season, they can cost several dollars a pound.

— Read the Nutrition Facts labels and ingredients lists. Nutrition Facts labels list the amount of calories, calories from fat, total and saturated fat, trans fat, protein, carbohydrates, fiber, sugar, cholesterol, sodium, vitamins A and C, calcium and iron per serving. In addition, all products are required to list the ingredients that are used to make that product.

— Store brands can be just as good as brand names. They can also cost up to 25 percent less than brand names. The difference in price is usually not from differences in what goes into the food but rather the marketing and promotion costs that go along with building a brand into a household favorite.

— Weigh the cost of convenience foods. Whole broccoli typically runs $1.69 a pound, while a bag of precut broccoli florets comes in at $3.36 a pound.

— Cooking Light.

Q and A

Q: How can I tell how much of the sugar in yogurt is from fruit and milk, and how much is from added sugar?

A: The product label itself doesn't allow you to distinguish among the different sources of sugar. However, you can compare the sugar content listed on flavored yogurt to the sugar in a similar type of plain (unflavored) yogurt, since the difference between them will reflect added sugar content. When you do, you'll see that 8 ounces of most regular fruit-flavored yogurt contains about 2 teaspoons to 2 tablespoons of added sugar. (There are about 4 grams of sugar in 1 teaspoon.) Eight ounces of most regular fruit-flavored yogurt contains 26 to 39 grams of sugar, whereas the same amount of plain regular yogurt contains 16 to 17 grams of the sugar naturally found in milk. That means that the sweetened fruit yogurts contain 10 to 27 grams of sugar from fruit and added sugar.

We might like to believe that's mostly from fruit, but a quick check of the nutritional content shows that it's not. For example, strawberry yogurt contains 0 percent to 2 percent of the Daily Value for vitamin C; if the yogurt contained even a tablespoon of strawberries, it would have about 10 percent.

When doing this comparison, be sure to compare similar serving sizes and types of yogurt. Nutritionally, 8 ounces is considered a serving of yogurt, but a 6-ounce container must list nutritional values for 6 ounces. And Greek yogurt starts with lower sugar content because of the whey that is drained off. But 8 ounces of fruit-flavored Greek yogurt, too, contains 2 to 4 teaspoons of added sugar. The take-home message if you don't want to do the label comparisons is that you can get much less added sugar, fewer calories and much more nutrition if you buy plain yogurt and add your own fruit. — American Institute for Cancer Research

RECIPE:

Chicken tenders can be healthy if you prepare them according to this recipe from Eating Well magazine.

Parmesan-Crusted Chicken Tenders:

Canola or olive oil cooking spray

1/4 cup all-purpose flour

2 large eggs

1/2 cup finely shredded Parmesan cheese

1 cup coarse dry breadcrumbs, preferably whole-wheat

1 pound chicken tenders

1 tablespoon Italian seasoning

1 teaspoon garlic powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 cup marinara sauce, heated

Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Place a large wire rack on a baking sheet and coat with cooking spray. Place flour in a shallow dish. Lightly beat eggs in another shallow dish. Combine Parmesan and breadcrumbs in a third shallow dish. Toss tenders with Italian seasoning, garlic powder and salt in a medium bowl. Coat each tender in flour, shaking off excess. Dip in egg and let any excess drip off. Then roll in the breadcrumb mixture. Place the tenders on the prepared rack. Generously coat the top of each tender with cooking spray. Bake for 10 minutes. Turn each tender over and coat with cooking spray. Continue baking until the outside is crisp and the tenders are cooked through, about 10 minutes more. Serve the tenders with marinara sauce for dipping. Serves 4.

Per serving: 293 calories, 31 g protein, 22 g carbohydrate, 8 g fat, 140 mg cholesterol, 3 g fiber, 603 mg sodium.

Charlyn Fargo is a registered dietitian from Springfield, Ill. For comments or questions, contact her at charfarg@aol.com. To find out more about Charlyn Fargo and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com