Healthy Eating Starts with Smart Shopping

When it comes to eating healthy an important thing to realize is that will power is not typically a successful strategy.  Sure you may have some victories but sooner or later it’s likely that your resolve will succumb to everyday stresses and the abundance of poor nutritional choices that are so readily available in today’s world.  A strategy that does work, however, is to plan ahead and when looking to eat clean, planning ahead starts with smart shopping at the grocery store.  Here are eight easy steps to help you become a smarter shopper and make healthy eating a priority in your household.

1.  Make A List
The first step to smart grocery shopping is of course to prepare for your trip to the store.  Making a list will help you to actually think about what you want to eat during the upcoming week and plan out your meals.  It’s much easier to stay on track when you know where the tracks are going.  If you want to improve your nutritional habits but don’t take the time to actually think through what you might be eating and when each week – you’re going to be in for a rough ride. 

2.  Check It Twice
After you’ve come up with your list, review it to make sure that each meal or snack includes natural, whole and balanced foods that will fuel your body.  I like to think of this as focusing on what you need, not what you can’t have.  If you’re not sure about a particular item on your list, think about where it comes from.  Was it raised or grown on a farm?  Could it be made, relatively simply, from things raised or grown on a farm?  Try to imagine the steps necessary to go from raw ingredients at a farm to the actual food you’ll be putting on your plate and you’ll get a great idea of how natural or otherwise your choices are.

3.  Shop the Perimeter
When you arrive at the store, take note of how it’s laid out.  A typical grocery store will put the staple items (which should make up the majority of your healthy grocery list) around the perimeter of the store.  Think about it.  Milk, eggs, and meat are almost always in the back of a store and produce is usually far off to one side.  This is done for good reason as these natural, unprocessed and healthier items don’t have a long shelf life so shoppers will need to stock up on them more frequently.  By placing them around the perimeter of the store, you’re forced to walk through more of it and potentially pick up some extra items along the way.  Remember your list and stick to the perimeter for most of your shopping.

4. Keep It Lean
Lean protein is a key component to a sound nutritional strategy and you'll find plenty of options as you peruse the perimeter of the store.  While chicken and turkey breast are extremely lean, you can find lean choices in several flavors these days including options like egg-whites, low-fat greek yogurt, fish, and shellfish.   The leanest cuts of beef and pork come from the round or loin sections with tenderloin being the leanest.  So splurge for that filet and feel good about eating a high quality extra-lean protein source!

5.  You Don’t Always Have to be Fresh
When stocking up on fruits and vegetables, I think most would agree that fresh is best.  But, buying and preparing fresh produce for every meal is not always practical.  Use fresh, bulk produce as much as possible within your budget and time constraints but don’t stop there.  Utilize the pre-cut, pre-prepared, frozen, and canned options out there to make it possible to include these powerhouses of nutrition in every meal without having to slave away in your kitchen day in and day out.  After all, canned veggies are better than no veggies.  If you’re worried about salt content, reduced sodium options are more prevalent and you can also strain and rinse them at home to reduce the added salt even more.

6.  Don’t Buy What They're Selling
Don’t be fooled, food manufacturers have one goal and that is to sell as much of their product as possible.  They will manipulate serving sizes, labeling, and healthy claims as much as they can to tempt you to buy.  Buzzwords like natural, light, fat-free and phrases like “made from real cheese” or “made with whole grains” are all designed to make you feel like their product is a good choice for you.  Don’t rely on any manufacturer’s claims.  Educate yourself about what you’re eating so you can decide on your own what’s healthy and what’s not.

7.  Read the Fine Print
Nutrition labels might seem daunting at first, but you can learn a lot from a relatively quick glance.  Instead of just focusing on the calorie count read through the ingredient list and check out what you’re really getting.  The more ingredients present, the more likely it is that what you’re holding contains all kinds of unnatural, unhealthy, and unreal stuff.  Short, simple lists with easy to pronounce and recognizable ingredients are your best bet.  Pay attention to the first few items listed in the ingredients as these are what you’re getting the most of.  Ingredients on a nutrition label are required to be ordered by quantity from largest to smallest so if you’re looking for whole grain bread and the first ingredient doesn’t include the word “whole” in it – pick another one.

Also, there are a couple of particularly nasty ingredients that I like to avoid namely high fructose corn syrup and anything hydrogenated.   Hydrogenated oils are one of the primary forms of trans fats commonly found in packaged foods and have been linked to cancer.  High fructose corn syrup is a sweetener and regardless of industry claims that it’s the same is sugar – it’s still extra sugar that I don’t need in my food.  For that matter, I typically avoid things with sugar in the ingredient list as well as I prefer my sugar to be naturally occurring not added in for extra “flavor.”

8.  Stick to the List
It may seem obvious, but stick to your grocery list.  This doesn’t mean you can’t have desert ever, it just means that you should plan when you’re going to splurge and that should be represented on your grocery list.  Unplanned splurges are where you tend to get into the most trouble.  You came up with a good plan in advance so stick with it. 

With these eight steps in mind you should be well on your way to becoming a smarter shopper.  Have some questions or want to dig into the details a little more?  Leave a comment below or check out this smart shopping for healthy eating grocery store tour!