Purely Nourished

Doesn’t it seem the more and more we shop for food, the more con­fus­ing and over­whelm­ing it gets? Even I find myself lost amongst isles and isles of choices. Nav­i­gat­ing the gro­cery store doesn’t have to be so dif­fi­cult. I am going to help arm you with the effec­tive tools to quickly and effort­less­ness nav­i­gate your way through the store. We spend hours of our lives at gro­cery stores each year, why not spare some extra time for the other impor­tant things in your life.

Here are some tips to keep you on track!

First things first. Make sure you have your reusable bags, wal­let, gro­cery list, and any coupon clip­pings you took the time to cut out of the Sun­day news paper. Once you have those impor­tant things you are ready to shop. Shop the perime­ter and try to stay away from the cen­ter isles at all costs.

Usu­ally when you enter your gro­cer store you come face to face with the col­or­ful pro­duce in your super­mar­ket. Choose the major­ity of those items organic while pay­ing close atten­tion to the dirty dozen. Once you loaded up on a wide vari­ety of fruits and veg­eta­bles, check out the seafood sec­tion. These cold-blooded aquatic ver­te­brates are a great source of pro­tein while low in sat­u­rated fat. On top of that they’re loaded with omega-3 fatty acids which are known to decrease triglyc­eride lev­els, slow growth rate of ath­er­o­scle­rotic plaque, and lower blood pres­sure. When choos­ing fish, choose based on your loca­tion. If you are close to the ocean, go for the fresh, local options; if resid­ing inland go for a vacuum-packed frozen option. Mod­ern freez­ing tech­niques make many of the fish in the freezer sec­tion supe­rior due to flash-freezing tech­niques. Your next stop is Ani­mal Pro­tein. Every­body is dif­fer­ent and has dif­fer­ent dietary needs. Some peo­ple live best with some ani­mal pro­tein in their diet. Choose options that are high-quality, organic, and free-range. Be sure to check the pack­ag­ing dates. Dairy is usu­ally found soon after the meat in the super mar­ket. Choose high-quality, organic prod­ucts and exper­i­ment with fat-content. If you are a highly active per­son and enjoy hav­ing dairy in your diet, try the whole ver­sion. The whole ver­sion is in it’s most sim­plest form, sat­is­fy­ing, and can keep you from crav­ing other high fat dairy options such as ice cream. Although dairy is fine in small por­tions, try to limit your dairy intake. Notice how you feel with it and with­out. You may feel best leav­ing it out of your diet. Next you can usu­ally find eggs and soy pro­tein. As for eggs,  they are the per­fect com­bi­na­tion of pro­tein, car­bo­hy­drate and fat. They are also a great source of Vit­a­min D which plays an impor­tant role in main­tain­ing organ sys­tems and absorb­ing cal­cium. Three things to look for when choos­ing eggs: organic, free range and veg­e­tar­ian fed. The most pop­u­lar type of soy is tofu. It can be a great alter­na­tive to meat and can take on pretty much any shape or fla­vor it is cooked with. Tempe, another form of soy pro­tein, is great sauteed with veg­gies. It is also a great alter­na­tive for get­ting the extra pro­tein you may be miss­ing if you are a vegan or veg­e­tar­ian. As you round the sec­ond cor­ner of the gro­cery store, you can usu­ally find the bak­ery. If you can’t live with out bread in your diet, choose options with five or less ingre­di­ents. You don’t need all the extra preser­v­a­tives that most breads are chock full of these days. Top five ingre­di­ents: 100% whole wheat flour, salt, yeast, sugar (prefer­ably honey), and water. The grain isle is one impor­tant isle not to miss. If you are lucky, your gro­cery store will have a sec­tion with grains in bulk. If not, don’t worry,  I can still point you in the right direc­tion. The bulk sec­tion is usu­ally full of grains, beans, seeds, and nuts.  They are all great sources of  healthy fats and fiber. Grains boast B vit­a­mins, while, beans, seeds and nuts are a great option for incor­po­rat­ing healthy sources of pro­tein in your diet.  You can buy as much or as lit­tle as you like with­out pay­ing for the fancy pack­ag­ing. If you don’t have a bulk sec­tion, visit the isle with pack­aged grains. It is extremely impor­tant to incor­po­rate grains as a pri­mary source for car­bo­hy­drates. Try some­thing new that you haven’t heard of before. The best options easy to incor­po­rate are buck­wheat, mil­let, quinoa, and brown rice. Visit the bean, legume, and lentil isle as well, if your store doesn’t come equipped with a bulk sec­tion.. These are great sources of essen­tial amino acids when com­bined with rice and grains to make a com­plete pro­tein. Lentils are a great source of iron, used to pre­vent iron defi­ciency in veg­e­tar­i­ans and veg­ans. If you need other prod­ucts, be sure to choose items with few ingre­di­ents and with­out extra sugar in the form or corn syrup.

Well there you have it. A sim­ple guide to keep you on track at the gro­cery store.

See later posts for more info on spe­cific foods.

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