Follow this grocery shopping guide and make your life a lot easier.
1. Shop the perimeter of the store for the majority of what you buy:
produce
bakery
dairy
meat (not the deli)
Most grocery stores are designed with the refrigeration sections and produce on the perimeter. This is often the freshest and healthiest food you can buy. They have minimal if any preservatives or else they’d be in the center aisles.
2. Go with a list.
Before you step foot in the store, write down what you need. This prevents impulse purchases. Stick to your list and you'll avoid the junk food.
3. Do not go to the grocery store hungry.
This is the number one cause of buying more high calorie, junk food when trying to maintain a healthy diet. Have a little snack before so you won’t be tempted to throw everything you see into your cart. A snack with a combination of protein, fat and carbohydrate works best.
4. Be proactive
Don’t wait until the cupboards are empty and you wake up with nothing to pack yourself for lunch. Keep your kitchen stocked with certain foods all the time, even if you don't expect to use it. (see my Grocery List)
5. Scan the shelves.
There are tons of brands to choose from these days. The most expensive are often at eye level. Make sure to look at the top and bottom of the shelves to save yourself some money and where often, the more healthy versions of products are placed.
There are now over 49,000 food products in grocery stores so here are some tips to help you know which ones to buy. The most important part to learn to read the Ingredient List of the label that lists the actual items in the food.
Carbohydrates
Select complex carbs and try to avoid simple carbs. To determine what food in the grocery store is a complex carb, read the label under "Carbohydrates" on the Nutrition Facts part of the label. Under "Carbohydrates" is listed fiber and sugar. Select the carbs that have at least 3 grams of fiber and less than 5 grams of sugar. This rule of thumb works particularly well when trying to select a breakfast cereal in the cereal aisle. Also, works well in selecting bread. Some foods that don't meet this rule include white rice, must select brown rice, and must select whole grain pasta. Crackers will be a challenge because there might be good high fiber varieties available but most contain toxic fats. (See below) Fresh fruits and fresh vegetable will always fit this rule because they are high in fiber and the natural sugar in fruits is not something I would tell anybody to restrict.
Fats
#1 Rule - Avoid hydrogenated fats or partially hydrogenated fats. You must look at the list of ingredients to find this. It doesn't matter how far down on the ingredient list it is, just avoid it at all costs. Yes, its that bad for you. Also, avoid trans fats which is listed on the Nutrition Facts part of the label but most food companies are taking out the trans fat now, thank goodness. Other fats to avoid are what we call the "Dirty 6" oils. These all cause inflammation in the body and should be avoided at all costs. They include soybean oil, safflower oil, corn oil, canola oil, sunflower oil, and cottonseed oil. In fact, the only type of oil you ought to be using is olive oil, avocado oil and sesame seed oil for seasoning. Avoid any oil that is 'refined" which is usually peanut oil. All these oils cause inflammation in the body that leads to heart disease and many other health disorders. Saturated fat is no longer the bad fat to avoid because it does not cause inflammation.
#2 Rule - Include omega-3 fatty acids, particularly the kind in fish. Anything from the ocean is excellent nutrition. (Not deep fat fried...) Natural saturated fats in meat are also beneficial to your health and does not lead to heart disease as previously claimed.
Just a note about cholesterol, even though it is not a fat, most people think of it as such. It's not the cholesterol we eat that causes heart disease, its inflammation in the body that occurs by eating the above mentioned fats in Rule #1. Do not restrict eggs. Eggs actually are high in monounsaturated fat (a good fat) and the yolk contains many good vitamins/minerals like vitamin A, vitamin E and iron. Hard boiled eggs make an excellent snack.
Protein
Any naturally fatty meat is an excellent protein source. Saturated fat is no longer necessary to avoid to prevent heart disease; it's the oils that cause inflammation, as mentioned above. Select natural cuts of beef, pork, chicken, turkey, fish/seafood, beans/legumes, full fat dairy, cheeses and eggs for excellent protein choices. Eating full fat proteins will keep you satisfied longer so you won't crave the unhealthy foods such as the next one listed...sugar.
Sugar
Sugar is the second most inflammatory food you can eat after the oils/fats mentioned above so avoid sugar as much as possible. Avoid foods that have greater than 5 grams of sugar per serving on the label. An exception would be dark chocolate that is greater than 70% cocoa because of the beneficial chemicals in dark chocolate called flavanols. Flavanols have been shown to have modest benefits regarding blood flow, blood pressure, cholesterol, enhancing exercise performance, memory and cognition, skin wrinkles and blood sugar control. This is the one "sweets" you can buy at the grocery store.
Artificial Sweeteners
Artificial sweeteners are not the answer to our sweet-tooth problem. We now know that artificial sweeteners stimulate our insulin which leads to weight gain. Your brain senses sweetness and stimulates a burst of insulin anticipating that it's going to need it as if you were eating sugar. Insulin secretion leads to fat storage or weight gain. Also, artificial sweeteners destroy healthy bacteria in our gut flora which is crucial to a healthy digestive system as well as a healthy immune system. So, by all means, please avoid artificial sweeteners when grocery shopping.
If you want to make grocery shopping really easy, take the advise of Michael Pollen, author of Omnivores Dilemma and buy foods with only 5 ingredients or less.
When a food is labeled as All Natural:
According to a recent survey of over 1000 consumers, products labeled “natural” were considered more eco-friendly than those labeled “organic.” Basically, people trust the “natural” label more than the “organic” one.
The truth is that there are no FDA regulations for the use of the word “natural”. The FDA has not officially defined the term . In fact, they stick to their 1993 policy: “FDA has not established a formal definition for the term ‘natural’, however the agency has not objected to the use of the term on food labels provided it is used in a manner that is truthful and not misleading and the product does not contain added color, artificial flavors, or synthetic substances.”
So, just because a product says it’s “all natural” doesn’t mean it’s more nutritious than any other item. For example, cookies and baked goods contain “natural” sugar and white flour. Your best bet is to check the ingredient list to see what’s actually in the product. “Natural” really doesn’t tell you much.