Healthy Food Shopping Tips You Didn’t Know You Need!

Grocery shopping is always tricky even for the most organized person. How can you guarantee that you’ll get all the items you need in one shot without forgetting a thing or two? Healthy food shopping is trickier because all the tempting, unhealthy food keeps staring at you in almost every aisle begging you to pick it up and jeopardize your health and diet. Therefore, we sensed that it’s important to show you some great healthy food shopping tips that will benefit you a lot in your next grocery shopping.

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Decide on The Meals

Picking up random things from the vegetable and fruit aisles isn’t the smartest thing to do. If you’re shopping for the week, try to have specific recipes in mind and shop for their ingredients only. Don’t get distracted by the variety of options and stock on things that will eventually rot in your refrigerator. Moreover, if you’re going to cook four meals, for example, this week, make sure you buy enough ingredients to prepare the portions you want. The quantity of the things you’ll buy depends on the number of your family members and how many days you plan on eating the same meal.

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Make a Versatile Menu

When you’re deciding on the week’s meals, make sure you make them versatile so you don’t get bored. Besides variable types of vegetables, always buy poultry, beef, and seafood. You can buy different cuts every week to prepare different dishes, but it’s important to eat the three sources of protein. This doesn’t apply to you if you’re a vegetarian. If that’s the case, you need to create a diverse vegetarian menu that contains protein, fibers, and all the other necessary nutrients. Lentils, beans, mushrooms, quinoa, and chia seeds are some examples of protein-rich foods you can buy.

Jot Everything Down

Once you know what you’re cooking this week, have a pen and paper handy or type on your smartphone’s notes all the ingredients for every recipe. Write them all with the right proportions so you know how much you need of each ingredient. As soon as you have an idea of what you need, compare the ingredients you wrote to the ones you already have in your pantry so you don’t buy unnecessary extra items. For instance, if the recipe says: ½ kg rice, ½ kg minced meat, and ½ kg of zucchini and you already have ¼ kg of each, you only need to buy ¼ of the previous items.

Organize Your List

Writing down everything you need from the grocery store can result in a helter-skelter list. This chaotic list will not be efficient while shopping. You need an organized list that will make it easier for you to bring everything you need from each section without the need to go back and forth. Divide your list into as many sections as you need. Your list can have similar categories: Vegetables

Fruits

Protein

Carbohydrates

Healthy fats

Dairy or non-dairy products

Condiments

Beverages

Underneath every category, write the items that belong to it and shop accordingly. This will save you a lot of time and effort.

Don’t Fall for The “Healthy Snacks” Section

Whenever you’re shopping in a supermarket, there is always a section labeled “healthy snacks” that usually has protein bars, crackers, granola bars, and the like. Unfortunately, these snacks are not as healthy as they’re marketed. Many of them include a fair amount of sugar and other artificial ingredients that make them totally not recommended for a healthy food shopper. It is best to look at the back of the product you intend to buy and read the ingredients so you know exactly what you’re going to eat.

Satisfy Your Cravings Healthily

The moment you decide to change your lifestyle and follow a healthier one, all your food choices will change. You will no longer eat desserts or candy because now you know and understand how harmful they are. Instead, you’ll look for healthier alternatives, such as fruits or nuts to satisfy your cravings, especially if you have a sweet tooth. Ensure that your shopping list includes a variety of fruits and nuts, but don’t buy a lot.

Don’t Forget Your Salad

Since you’re going healthy food shopping, it is mandatory to have salad in every meal. The vegetables found in salads are extremely important for your health and can help make you fuller. There is nothing wrong with the regular cucumber-tomato-parsley salad, but there are a gazillion different salad options that you can choose from. Look up salad recipes on the internet and make a different one every day. It is best to eat freshly-made salads to ensure the quality of each ingredient.

All images credit: jshealth