I have a very fortunate shopping ability when I buy clothing–I can walk in the store, look around a few minutes, pick something up that I like and as long as they have it in my size, I am ready to buy. It’s fast and painless!
I could do that when it comes to food shopping too, especially if I go in there hungry. It is so easy to breeze through, load up the cart (start to eat some of the purchase before reaching the checkout), and voila–food for the week!
But I don’t. In the food store (grocery, health food or otherwise) I am a label reader and I bet you are too. If you’ve been reading my recent posts you know how important it is to check on the quality of your ingredients before you buy them no matter what store you’re in. (See https://mycookinglife.com/2012/03/18/the-whole-food-and-nothing-but-the-food/ and https://mycookinglife.com/2012/01/23/whats-good-enough-to-eat/ and https://mycookinglife.com/2012/01/24/a-bandwagon-worth-jumping-on/)
Not only is it important to know the basic ingredients and make sure those are all actually real food, but you have to know the food adjectives. These are the ones on the front of the packaging and in the ingredient list such as “healthy,” “whole grain,” “low fat,” and here’s a real doozie, “smart.”
To help you with more pieces to this puzzle, here’s an article I thought you would like to see: Health – philly.com.
And P.S. I am all for going food shopping while hungry. Some of my most inspired menus result from that!
Here is a challenge for you:
For one week of shopping, buy only foods where the ingredient is the food itself! Eliminates anything that is pre-made, but should actually be relatively easy unless you need to buy bread.
This is a great way to look at food labels Danny! I agree that doing this would be a big step toward improving the quality of your food. Thanks!
Thanks for coming over, Kathy! You are welcome any time! Planning to go to the Southwest Chocolate and Coffee Festival tomorrow. Won’t that be fun?
Yes indeed! Lots of fun! Chocolate AND coffee. Heaven…
Hope your shopping trip went well, Patty! I was a little nervous coming over to your blog because it’s right before dinner and I’m hungry. Thanks for educating us about labels and healthy ingredients. They are so important.