Grocery shopping is a chore that everyone must do, and making the right food choices while shopping isn’t always easy. The tips below will help you to make healthier choices when you are shopping for groceries.
1. Avoid shopping for groceries on an empty stomach.
2. Avoid buying canned foods that are packed in oil or syrup. Instead, look for canned foods that are packed in water.
3. Read the packaging carefully. If the words ‘hydrogenated’ or ‘partially hydrogenated’ appear high on the list of ingredients, the level of unhealthy trans fatty acids is likely to be very high.
4. When buying poultry like chicken or turkey, look for meat that has already had the skin removed and buy breast meat whenever possible.
5. Frozen dinners are very convenient, but can sometimes have high levels of sodium, fat, and cholesterol. Look for brands that are low in sodium, fat, and cholesterol.
6. If you don’t like to eat a lot of dairy products, select orange juice that has been fortified with calcium.
7. When buying breads, cereals, and rolls, look for those made with whole grains.
8. Looking for a sweet dessert? Try cantaloupe. An entire half of the melon has just 95 calories, yet will provide more than a full day’s supply of vitamin C. You’ll also get lots of beta carotene.
9. Be careful buying snacks that may be deceiving. The coating on yogurt covered raisins and nuts, for example, is made of sugar and partially hydrogenated oils.
Grocery stores have so many options these days that it really isn’t hard to make healthy purchases once you know what you are looking for. Just be sure to read the labels, and you’ll quickly learn what is a good choice and what is a bad choice. After that, you just need the will power to go past the bad ones.
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