Thursday, January 27, 2011

The how-tos for healthy grocery shopping

While health food stores are becoming more mainstream, not all of us have the luxury of living close to one. Last week when I was catching up on my favourite blogs, I saw a great video online from Dr Frank Lipman.

In a short and sweet 3 minute video, he offered some very practical tips on how to navigate an ordinary supermarket and come out with a healthy basket.

Watch the full video:



Here’s a quick summary for you:
  • Never go shopping when you’re hungry
  • Choose foods as close to their natural state as possible (or as author Michael Pollan says, don’t eat food that your grandmother wouldn’t recognise)
  • Shop the outside aisles where the fresh foods are
  • Your first choice should be fresh foods, then frozen, then tinned 
  • Take a copy of the dirty dozen and clean 15 guides with you (this is a guide to the fruits & vegetables with the most and least pesticide residue after testing). You can view it here in an earlier Dose
  • Choose organic dairy, and if you don’t eat dairy, a good alternative is almond milk, as are dairy products made from goat’s and sheep’s milk
  • Choose plain, Greek yoghurt over flavoured and low-fat yoghurts which are generally laden with sugar or artificial sweeteners 
  • When it comes to meat, avoid processed meats and opt for natural grass-fed meat and organic, free range chicken. If they're unavailable or out of your price range, the next choice would be antibiotic and hormone free meats, and then lean meat as most toxins are in the fat. 
  • Avoid fruit juice unless you squeeze it yourself; all bottled juices from shops and supermarkets are pasteurised, a heat-treating process that destroys enzymes, lowers vitamin concentrations and alters the taste. 
  • Avoid cereal with cartoon characters on the packet as it's usually very high in sugar
  • Avoid the bakery sweets; if you have a sweet tooth, go for raw chocolate 
I’ll add my own piece of advice to that – avoid the confectionery and snack aisles.

Happy shopping.

Do you have any further tips on healthy supermarket shopping? Any particular products or brands to recommend?

2 comments:

Nikki @ Styling You said...

This is great advice - and so simple when you really think about it.

Bianca said...

Take a list and stick to it!