Grocery Costs by Diet Type

The average American household spends 7.9% of their income on groceries – and those with the lowest incomes spend almost a third of their disposable income on food. But how much more does it cost if you have a restricted diet – either by choice or necessity?

CouponBirds found the average price of a basket of common groceries (spanning everything from fresh produce to canned goods and condiments) in three of the most popular supermarket chains in the U.S.: Walmart, Kroger, and Target. We then created these same baskets but for six common dietary requirements: vegetarian, vegan, pescatarian, lactose-free, gluten-free, and halal.

Key findings:

• Following a vegetarian diet will save you $130.36 per month – the most affordable dietary type in the study ($798.32 compared to a $928.68 unrestricted diet)

• Going gluten-free will increase your grocery prices by $111.20 extra a month – the most expensive dietary type in the study ($1,039.88 compared to a $928.68 unrestricted diet)

• Compared to an unrestricted diet, being vegetarian (-$130.36), pescatarian (-$55), or vegan (-$34.24) decreased monthly grocery spending

• Compared to an unrestricted diet, being lactose-free (+$46.72), gluten-free (+$111.20), or halal (+$37.44) increased monthly grocery spending

How the costs of diets in the U.S. compare

For a basket of 45 common grocery goods, the average cost for a weekly household shop using data from Walmart, Kroger, and Target is $232.17. But what are the gross costs per diet and what percentage of the population follows these dietary types of restrictions?

The cost of a vegan, vegetarian diet, or pescatarian diet

For most, choosing a vegan, vegetarian, or pescatarian diet is a personal decision rather than a physical restriction. Vegetarianism is increasing in developed countries like the U.S., and not only has benefits for the planet (like reducing the levels of CO2 in the atmosphere) but also may reduce the risk of medical issues like heart disease, diabetes, and some cancers.

Vegetarian diet

Being vegetarian (not eating meat products) can either be a personal choice or a common practice in certain religions – like Hinduism or Buddhism. Overall, 4% of the American population is estimated to be vegetarians. Vegetarians saved $32.59 per weekly shop – the greatest saving in the study. To cater to vegetarians, meat options were replaced with plant-based alternatives and seafood was replaced with suggested popular alternatives from recipes online.

A total of 12 substitutions were made to cater to a vegetarian diet. These included plant-based meat alternatives, but also popular substitutions for seafood dishes – like chickpeas for tuna. And it's these seafood substitutions that save vegetarian buyers money. For example, crab legs ($14.18) can be substituted for oyster mushrooms ($5.11) or salmon ($10.54) for carrots ($2.90).

Pescatarian diet

The only meat pescatarians eat is seafood, otherwise, their diet is vegetarian. Roughly 5% of the U.S. population are pescatarian. The pescatarian diet was found to be the second most affordable in the study, but where do these savings come from?

Pescatarians knocked off an average of $13.75 per week by substituting meat. In total, seven substitutions were made. All of the plant-based meat substitutions in the grocery list were cheaper on average than the original meat options.

Vegan diet

According to the vegan society, veganism (not consuming any animal products, like meat, dairy, and eggs) has been practiced as long as 2,000 years ago. Today, roughly 1% of the U.S. population are vegan. To cater to the vegan diet, plant-based meat alternatives were found, seafood was omitted, and vegan alternatives for dairy products, breads and pastries, and snack foods were found.

Finding alternatives to dairy and other animal products means that veganism is more expensive than vegetarian or pescatarian diets. This diet also required the most substitutions, as just over half (23 in 45) of the original grocery list was substituted in this diet. Although cheaper than an unrestricted diet ($223.61 compared to $232.17), choosing vegan options increased the cost for 10 of the 45 items.

The cost of a gluten-free or lactose-free diet

There are many common food hypersensitivities, but the most common triggers in the U.S. are milk sugar (lactose), fruit sugar (fructose), gluten, and histamine. Food intolerances are commonly diagnosed via elimination diets, where foods are gradually removed from a diet and slowly re-introduced to see what symptoms occur.

Ingesting lactose or gluten when you have an allergy or insensitivities can result in symptoms like abdominal pain, vomiting, and diarrhea. But unlike the vegetarian, vegan, and pescatarian diets which were all cheaper than unrestricted diets, both gluten-free and lactose-free diets cost consumers more.

Gluten-free diet

Although only 4% of Americans are estimated to have medical reasons to avoid gluten, 31% of Americans restrict gluten from their diet, making this the most common diet restriction in the study. But this is also the most expensive restriction, as going gluten-free will increase your grocery prices by 12% ($111.20 extra a month per household).

To cater to a gluten-free diet, substitutes were found for items including gluten-free replacements for breads and pastries, breakfast foods, and condiments.

There were a total of 16 substitutions for gluten-free shoppers, and 13 of these were more expensive than their gluten equivalents.

Lactose-free diet

Despite the fact that 36% of Americans are lactose intolerant and approximately 65% of the human population has lactose intolerance – cutting out lactose is another diet that will add dollars to your grocery bill. To cater to a lactose-free diet, the most common substitutes for goods like pastries or dairy products besides specific lactose-free milk were vegan.

But despite dairy goods being the category you may expect to see an increased spend on, alternatives for milk and other dairy products aren't much more expensive (at just $1.18 more per shop).

The category that did see the greatest price hike is breads and pastries. It's cheaper to find gluten-free alternatives than lactose-free alternatives for pastries like croissants and Danish pastries. In total, 10 products were substituted in this shopping basket, and three of these items were less expensive and the rest more.

The cost of a halal diet

Islam is the world's second-largest religion, and by 2040 it could be America's second-largest religion too. The vast majority of Muslims (83%) say they only purchase products that are halal-certified. Foods and substances that aren't halal (which translates from Arabic to "lawful") include alcohol/drugs, pork, and meat that isn't slaughtered according to Islamic standards. Halal substitutions were found for all meat-inclusive products.

There is a small difference of $9.36 between the original grocery list and the halal grocery list – with one household grocery shop coming to $241.53 per week. In total, seven items were substituted in the original grocery list.

Methodology

Data were collected in December 2024 and January 2025. We focused on the top three grocery stores–Walmart, Kroger, and Target–for data collection. Costco was excluded from the analysis as it is primarily a wholesale retailer. We consulted an ESM article on the U.S. supermarket retail chains with the highest reported turnover: Filters were applied to products based on dietary requirements, particularly for halal, vegan, gluten-free, and other categories where applicable. A kosher diet was also initially included in the study, but the results were too limited to provide conclusive findings.

We then scraped data for a wide range of products across different categories in each grocery store. These products are representative of an average household grocery shop and are taken from a 2024 report by Drive Research.

This ensured comprehensive coverage and allowed for representative averages.

For each dietary filter, we averaged prices within product categories to avoid bias from outliers or variations.

The same process was repeated for all three grocery stores to maintain consistency in data collection and categorization.

Data from the three grocery stores were then averaged together to provide an overall comparison of prices and availability for dietary-specific products.

Substitutions were chosen that most closely compare to the original item, e.g. turkey slices were replaced with vegan turkey slices. To find vegetarian and vegan alternatives for seafood the following recipes/ information was consulted:

• Crab legs: https://theveganrhino.com/vegan-crab-cakes/

• Salmon: https://www.hotforfoodblog.com/recipes/mains/2023/08/02/tofu-salmon-fillets/

• Shrimp: https://www.86eats.com/recipes/vegan-coonut-shrimp-tofu

• Tuna: https://lovingitvegan.com/vegan-tuna/

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