STOCKING YOUR PANTRY PART 2

Shopping in the grocery store is hard.  Food manufactures have millions of dollars to spend to try and entice you to buy their processed food so how do you keep on track?

Most of us tend to eat the same foods over and over again. But variety is really what keeps you interested.

Now this isn't really about your pantry but it is all about what to look for while shopping.

When you are shopping, stores are designed to have the best foods on the fringe.  Think about your store, the produce, the seafood, the dairy and the meat are typically all on the fringe with mostly the processed foods down the aisles.

The produce aisle is usually the first you come to so spend your time there. Choose a rainbow of colorful fruits and vegetables. The colors reflect the different vitamin, mineral, and phytonutrient content of each fruit or vegetable.

For the breads, cereals, and pasta make sure to choose the least processed ones that are made from whole grains. Regular oatmeal is preferable to instant oatmeal, but even instant oatmeal is a whole grain, and a good choice. If you can have oatmeal where you add your own ingredients like dried fruit and nuts as opposed to the ready mix ones that contain a lot of sugar.

Trying 100% whole grain does sometimes take a little bit of getting used to especially for items like bread and rice. A good way to ease the family into it to do a 50-50 mix or have a mix of whole grain items.

Meats, fish and poultry are best if you get organic as there are a pile of hormones and antibiotics that are eliminated or heavily reduced in the organic ones. Be sure to choose lean cuts of meat (like round, top sirloin, and tenderloin), opt for skinless poultry, and watch your portion sizes. Fish can accumulate mercury in their muscles through absorption from the surrounding water but mostly from the prey that they eat. Predator fish should be eaten in moderation.  These include fresh/frozen tuna, shark, swordfish, marlin, orange roughy and escolar

Frozen fruits and vegetables (without sauce) are a convenient way to help fill in the produce gap, especially in winter. It is super easy to throw in some frozen veggies into a soup to increase the nutritional value.

The most important part is to have a plan when going into the grocery store.  Most of us get in there and start grabbing "fun" things or easy things when we don't have a plan/list.  If you can manage to organize or a least part organize your week on the weekend you will be way better off.

In the following video Kim Lyons talks about some healthy items in her kitchen.