Smart Grocery Shopping
|  Video
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| Juli McDonald |
| 3/11/2010 |
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| When you buy groceries, you have several options. You can go cheap, you can go convenient or you can go healthy. The trouble is, you often have to sacrifice one for the others. If healthy is your preference, you need to make a few important decisions. March is National Nutrition Month, and paying closer attention to which foods you buy could get you a better report at your next checkup. The first step to healthy food shopping is how you feel when you do it. Going to the store hungry will likely lead to buying more food than necessary, and making worse selections. It`s also helpful to go with a list, and don`t forget to visit the produce section. If you don`t like buying fresh fruits and vegetables because they go bad, canned and frozen fruits and vegetables or dried fruit contain the same good nutrients. As far as what to avoid, shoppers should stay away from trans fat. Other things to pay attention to on food labels include saturated fat and sodium. Per serving, less than 2 grams of saturated fat and less than 300 milligrams of sodium are recommended. Shoppers should be aware of misleading labels. Some packaged food products might not be bad for you, but they`re not very helpful either. "It might say it`s heart healthy because it`s low in fat but might have absolutely no fiber. A person could have a low fat diet which is helpful, fiber is what`s going to really bring cholesterol down," said Medcerter One dietitian Nicole Enzminger. Nutritionists recommend at least two grams of fiber per serving, which can be added through whole grain breads and cereals. It`s easy to walk right past the flier when you`re grocery shopping in a hurry, but taking one glace through could make you a smarter shopper. Fruits and vegetables listed on sale in the flier are more likely to be available fresh and in larger quantities. "You want to shop with food ads because food ads will definitely tell you what`s in season or I noticed this weekend they have blueberries, raspberries and strawberries. They`re not necessarily in season but every now and then they have products that are good and on sale," said Enzminger. To learn more about nutrition and making informed eating decisions, you can visit www.eatright.org. |
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