Shopping For Healthy Foods

The grocery store can be a pretyy hazardous place when you’re trying to stick with a healthy diet. It offers both the healthy foods you need as well as the opportunity to buy all kinds of unhealthy foods.

Today we'll go over some of the basic rules for shopping for healthy foods. You probably know some of them, so think of this as a reminder to follow the rules for them to work.

Never shop on an empty stomach. This is the best way to ensure that you will buy things you don’t need. It is much easier to give in to temptation if you’re hungry.

Read the labels on canned goods. For example, you want to be sure to buy canned fruits that are packed in juice or lite syrup when juice is not available, not heavy syrup. You want tuna packed in water.

Look for the words “hydrogenated”or “partially hydrogenated”. The earlier these appear on the ingredients list, the worse it is. These fats are unhealthy, so avoid them when you can.

When choosing poultry, try to get skinless varieties. Much of the fat in poultry is in the skin. Chicken breasts have much less fat than legs and thighs.

Frozen dinners can be deceptive. Take a look at how many calories they really contain, as well as fat, sodium and cholesterol.

Aren’t getting enough calcium? If milk and cheese really aren’t to your taste, pick up some calcium fortified orange juice. The taste is great.

When buying bread and pasta, look for whole grain products. There is a difference between wheat bread and whole wheat bread.. Also give brown rice a try.

Switch your snack foods. Pretzels, some baked crackers, ginger snaps and angel food cake are relatively low in fat. If you’re watching your salt intake, of course, pretzels should be off the list.

Above all, make a list of the things you really need to buy. You don’t have to rely on your memory, risking the need to go back to the grocery store more often than necessary, and you can better avoid temptation.

About the Author:

Stephanie Foster started http://www.makehealthymeals.com/ to provide a resource to help families eat healthier food. She provides a variety of healthy recipes at her site.

 Stephanie Foster

More Articles 

Know Thy Food Label - Nettie Mae
Whether you're concerned about cancer, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, or simply losing weight, you want to eat a healthy diet and focus on foods that are high in vitamins, minerals, and phytonutrients, and balanced in fats, carbs, proteins....

Italian Restaurant, Antonino's, Ranked Top In Inland Empire By Major Food Critic - Keith Hunt
“Antonino's in Rancho Cucamonga is one of those fine dining restaurants that lots of the locals know about but those outside of the area are not familiar with. It is one of the top Italian restaurants in the Inland Empire,” states Allan Borgen, ...

The Facts About Organic Baby Food - A Pruder
Quite simply, organic baby food is that which is processed without the use of artificial pesticides and/or synthetic fertilizers. While many note organic food as being either store-bought, garden grown or gathered in the wild, the correct...

Understanding Food Safety Of Home Made Jerky - Tommy Stabosz
Beef jerky is a snack food known at least since ancient Egyptian times. In early times, humans made beef jerky from animal meat that was too big to eat all at once, such as bear, buffalo, or even whales. North American Indians mixed ground dried...

Make Eating Healthy Foods Fun - Kadence Buchanan
Children everywhere in the world have an on-going love affair with junk food such as hamburgers, pizza, candy, soda and salty foods like potato chips and french fries. Unfortunately, it's hard to find a single child who has these same strong...

Restaurants can now take full advantage of the Internet to increase food orders - Ed Bahl
Americans are now seeing the advantage of ordering take-out food from restaurants. With American families spending more and more time on the road, it's now apparent that being able to order prepared food that the entire family can eat in the...

Preparing Foods At Carnival Time - Dr Deryck D Pattron Ph D
Preparing foods at carnival time may be both challenging and exciting since it may involve preparing food for individuals, families, friends and other gatherings. Food may be prepared at home and served, brought to the event, or prepared and...

Fat Burning Food - The Search for the Holy Grail - David Maillie
Fat is taboo these days. The world is at loggerheads with it and in this battle, the ace up its sleeve is the fat burning food. Though it sounds too good to be true, but fat burning food actually has the capacity to melt fat and make it easier...

Pairing Food And Wine Is Not Simple Any More, But A Few Simple Rules Really Help Out - Steve Sands
Food and wine pairing is not an exact science. Many people follow the old rule of paring red wine with red meat and white wine with fish and poultry. Unfortunately this outdated rule doesn’t take into consideration the complexity of today’s...

Greek Food - Yannis Moraitis
A meal in Greece is highlighted with a selection of hot and cold plates known as mezedes. Soups are few but they are meals by themselves. - The main course is a boiled or grilled meat/fish. There are also many delectable meat stews to choose...