Purchase from natural food stores like Whole Foods as much as possible. Shop when you are not hungry. Eat before going to the market. Shop the perimeter of the grocery store. Grocery stores are laid out in such a way that the healthiest foods are on the perimeter.
Items of Concern:
- Peanut butter
- Instant rolled oats: In nature, oats are exceptional for your health. Most oats at most grocery stores are highly processed and have high sugar content. Look for steel cut oats instead, which are made with whole grains.
- Packaged meats: Processed meats are loaded with sodium nitrite and other harmful chemicals. Look for nitrite-free meats. It is always to purchase organic meats.
- Virtually all buns and pastries, and most bread: At a typical grocery store, the vast majority of bread (and all buns and pastries) are full of refined, fattening “flour” and added sugars. It is to eat stone ground whole grain bread.
- Skip the boxed cereal aisle completely: Odds are that you will not find anything good for you in the cereal aisle. It’s all refined flour and sugar. Whole Food cereals are an exception.
- Most salad dressings: Most popular salad dressings contain trans-fats that will make you sick unless they are made with healthy oils such as extra virgin Olive.
- Sugary pasta sauce: High fructose corn syrup (or just sugar) is often the number one or number two ingredients.
- Most soups: They say that taking chicken soup for a cold is a good idea. Unfortunately, it is not. Most canned soups are so full of MSG and sodium nitrite that they contain enough sodium to make you hold a few pounds of water. The “noodles” in most soups are just refined carbs as well. Still, you can find soups without these ingredients, but you will probably only find them in the health food section of the store.
- Lunch snack packs: The packaged, processed foods are loaded with sodium nitrite (in the meat) and hydrogenated oils (in the crackers), and have no fiber.
- All soft drinks: Both diet and regular are a major contributor to our obesity epidemic.
- Most margarine: They are made with hydrogenated oils, or “partially hydrogenated” oils.
- Most granola bars: Most granola bars are sugar and refined carbs –in a sense, granola bars have just become candy bars.
- Anything that says “sugar-free”: Odds are if it says there’s no sugar in it, it contains Splenda/sucralose. They will only increase your weight problems.
- Most instant breakfast grains: Generally speaking, any breakfast cereal that is “ready to eat in minutes” is not good for you.
- Most canned fruits: Canned fruits typically have lots of added high fructose corn syrup. Better to have fresh fruit or frozen fruit.
What’s your strategy for healthy shopping?
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