Grocery Guide: General Guidelines
Posted by Nathan Jackson on
Hello everyone! While my previous Grocery Guides have been a little more content specific I wanted to create a list that you could take with you and use as your general guidelines when navigating the grocery store aisles.
General Guidelines
- Stick to the outer aisles for the bulk of your food. The freshest, least processed foods are there.
- The bulk of your food should be meat/eggs and produce.
- Try to buy as much of your meat, eggs and produce as grass-fed, organic or pasture-raised as possible. Natural doesn’t mean much.
- Buy a variety of meats and vegetables. Do not stick to the same thing such as lots of chicken and little red meat!
- Avoid as many boxed, bagged, or canned food items as possible. They are the most processed and toxic
- If you have to buy something boxed, bagged, or canned try to avoid the ones that have sugar, high fructose corn syrup, or corn syrup as one of the top three ingredients.
- Avoid any and all products that have any oil that is hydrogenated or partially hydrogenated. This means there is trans-fat in the product even if the label says it doesn’t contain any! It is a legal marketing lie.
- Avoid any and all products that contain Monosodium Glutamate (MSG), hydrolyzed protein, spices, flavorings, natural flavorings, etc. They can all legally mean the same thing for MSG
- Avoid any and all products that contain artificial sweeteners such as Aspartame, Nutrasweet, Splenda, Sucralose. Try Raw Honey, Organic Maple Syrup, Stevia Extract, or Rapadur
- If a product says whole grain or made from whole grain, yet you cannot literally pick up the WHOLE grain in your hand then it is processed. Whole grain breads are still processed. Whole grain literally means the whole, actual grain. Examples include rice, spelt, barley, quinoa, oats, wheat, wheatberry, etc. The shorter the shelf-life the better!
Happy eating folks. In good health!
Nathan W. Jackson