How to Make Grocery Shopping a Healthier Experience
They always say never to go grocery shopping while hungry. For many of us, fulfilling our weekly shopping trip is one of our most annoying chores. Making sure we get enough to stock the pantry is stressful enough, let alone trying to navigate healthy eating options! This piece will cover some ways that you can help bring healthy habits into your grocery shopping.
Planning For Health
If you are just looking to visit a grocery store and hope that you’ll come out with the right stuff to make a healthy meal, you’re going to be disappointed. Everyone has different health needs, and going into what makes for healthy eating in the modern day would be an article on its own.
Everyone can do a meal plan to help make sure they are building a healthy diet. This means deciding what you will eat a week in advance and creating a menu. It’s much easier to make the most nutritional decisions at this stage rather than trying to make them in the grocery store. Planning a head based on your dietary needs and restrictions will keep you on track and make you less overwhelmed on your weekly shopping trip.
Another great way to get ahead on being healthy is to organize grocery deliveries. In a lot of situations, this can be much more convenient for you than getting to a grocery store. You can plan the perfect healthy shopping list from the comfort of your own home. (Remember, if you’re looking for a juice cleanse in San Diego, we deliver our green drink and other products across California!)
Building a Healthy Grocery List
As mentioned, everyone’s health requirements will be a little bit different. Everyone can follow some general guidelines for a healthier grocery list, no matter if you’re shopping in-store or getting it delivered.
First and foremost, you can never have enough fruits and veggies. Learn to love your green veggies, leafy greens, and juice smoothies. The health benefits of fruits and veggies are infinite, and they’ll generally provide you with tons of nutrients, including valuable antioxidants and immune boosters. All this while managing to be low carb, low sugar, and low fat! Fruits and vegetables are simply win-win kinds of foods. Also, look for seasonal fruits and veggies. The winter time is great for asparagus while the summer is prime time for strawberries and oranges. This will ensure you’re getting the best quality produce and hopefully help with your budget.
Secondly, do your best to resist processed foods and high sugar snacks. We understand; it can be hard to drop some of your favorite cookies or chocolates. But these kinds of foods tend to be high in fats and sugars and low in the types of things your body actually needs. Quick tip: try to stay on the perimeter of your grocery store. It’s generally the inner isles that contain all of the processed foods, while the outer area features the fruits, vegetables, dairy and unprocessed grains.
Speaking of getting what your body needs, when possible, it’s always a good idea to get organic or whole food. This means less lost nutrients, and less weird stuff in your body.
Shopping Smart
So let’s say you do find yourself in a grocery store. Maybe you have your planned list in hand. Or perhaps you just found yourself with time and an opportunity. How should you go about shopping in the most sensible way possible?
First things first, have lunch if you haven’t already. It’s a cliche, but shopping on an empty stomach is rarely a good idea. You’re much more likely to buy things you don’t need if you suffer from hunger or sugar cravings.
It’s also vital that you learn how to read nutrition labels and take your time to understand what they mean. Getting the hang of modern nutrition fact labels is an art all its own. Generally, you should be suspicious of anything that seems exceptionally high in saturated fats, sodium, or added sugars. Also any label that has 20+ ingredients probably isn’t the healthiest option.
Make sure to check out the produce section carefully. The fruits and veggies here are going to be some of the best things for your health. Aim for the freshest choices, and always get organic if you can.
Lastly, be careful when comparing all your options. Is there a lower-fat or low sodium version of what you’re buying? Is there a whole grain or multigrain option? Make sure that you know all of your healthy options beforehand, and shop accordingly.
Beat Cravings With Chef V!
Even a 3 day juice cleanse from Chef V can help you beat those grocery store cravings, letting you shop in healthy confidence.
Of course, Chef V also offers plenty of choices beyond the grocery store with our delivery options. With Chef V, you can get a fresh juice cleanse in San Diego just as easily as you can get our green drink in New York! Check out our cleanse options and order today.