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sanguebom · Posted: Wed Oct 03, 2007 6:36 pm Post subject: Going Shopping

Your Guide to the Grocery Store

If you’re working on cleaning up your eating habits and making healthful food a regular part of your day, here is the place to start – the grocery store. That’s where it all begins.

You may not need all of these items each time you shop, but some items are good to have on hand all the time because they make a good snack or meal. Frozen or canned foods are especially good to have handy. They keep well and are easily made into a meal.

Here is a sample grocery list to help you mark off the items you need. It will make your next trip to the grocery store faster, easier and a whole lot healthier!

FRUIT

• Apples, oranges, bananas, grapes, grapefruit, melon, strawberries, blueberries, exotic fruits, etc.

• To save time, buy fruit already cut.

• Frozen and canned fruit are just as good, but watch for heavy syrup in the canned fruit.

• Any type of fruit blended with yogurt and juice makes a great treat.

VEGETABLES

peppers, mushrooms, carrots, celery, cucumber, squash, zucchini, broccoli, cabbage, etc.

• Garden burgers for a quick and easy meal.

• For salads: cut up vegetables or buy packaged salad fixings.

• Frozen vegetables are a wise option because they're easy to prepare; canned vegetables are also a good choice as long as the salt content is not too high.

MEAT

• Extra-lean hamburger, other lean beef, chicken breasts (frozen), or whole chicken or turkey.

• Fish and seafood (frozen or fresh) -- Most are low in fat, but watch out --some can be 50% fat or more!

• Beans -- pinto, white, navy, black. There are a lot of dishes you can make with beans or add to other dishes to create a very healthful meal. Buy canned and rinse (to get excess salt off) or dry beans (very inexpensive).

• Eggs -- whites are nonfat, available without yolks in prepared versions.

GRAINS

• Whole grain bread for sandwiches and toast.

• High fiber/low-sugar cereal, oatmeal, grits, waffle and/pancake mix (whole wheat).

• Brown rice, wild rice, pasta (assorted varieties).

• Bagels (whole wheat preferably).

MILKS

• Nonfat milk, nonfat or low-fat yogurt (plain or flavored -- the lower the sugar, the better), nonfat or low-fat cottage cheese, reduced fat cheese, nonfat or low-fat frozen yogurt.

• There are other milk products that you may need for special recipes and/or meals but those listed here are the basics.

A GOOD APPLE

Which kind of apple is at the top of the nutrition pile? Research points to Red Delicious apples.

All apples are excellent sources of disease-fighting plant compounds, such as quercetin and other polyphenolics. However, a recent Canadian study revealed that Red Delicious apples and Northern Spy apples had the highest concentrations of polyphenolics of all the apple varieties that were tested.

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