If you want to take good care of your health, you need to eat healthy. The first step towards making that a habit is to make healthy foods a regular part of your daily meals. That can be difficult if you don’t have healthy ingredients at home. To get these ingredients, you will need to change your grocery shopping habits.
To save you time which you would spend reading about the health benefits of each and every food item at your local grocers, we have prepared a short list of some basic steps you should take whenever you visit your grocery store.
1. Avoid items with long ingredient lists
If you pick something up with the intent to buy it, check its ingredients list first. If it has a long list of ingredients, put it back on the shelf without a second thought.
Most of the ingredients on that list will be different kinds of chemical additives and sugars and they’re in those foods only for the benefit of the company that made that product. These ingredients have zero health value, so only go for those items that have short ingredient lists.
2. Don’t buy the ‘no cholesterol’ claim
A lot of items have ‘no cholesterol’ labeled on them in order to attract health conscious customers. This is a way of deceiving people because what most people don’t know is that all plant based products have zero cholesterol. So if a product claims to have no cholesterol, you need to be extra wary and check what other ingredients ARE in there.
3. Be wary of ‘natural’ products
When a product is labeled as ‘natural’, it simply means that the farmers or companies that made that product did not have to be inspected with regards to their claim of making natural products. If a product is labeled as ‘natural’, there should be extensive details given beside that, explaining exactly how it is a natural product. If there is no such description, avoid the product.
4. Avoid getting fooled about whole foods
You may be interested in getting ‘whole’ foods. However, just because a product is labeled ‘wheat bread’, it does not mean that it is a whole food. Only go for ‘whole grain’ bread or ‘whole wheat’ bread and other similar products with ‘whole’ in their name.
5.Look out for MSG
Be careful that whatever you buy does not contain MSG. It might be listed under a number of different names such as; monosodium glutamate, hydrolyzed soy protein, autolyzed yeast or sodium caseinate. MSG is a harmful ingredient that can cause toxic effects in people who eat it, such as headaches and other symptoms.