Beginners Guide to Healthy Grocery Shopping

You need to read this beginner's guide to grocery shopping if most of the grocery items you buy end up in the pantry or the cabinets, and not in the fridge or freezer.

If most of the items you are buying end up in the cabinet, it means you are mostly buying boxed, packaged, or canned foods.

While all well-stocked kitchens needs a supply of cereals, pastas, grains, canned beans and vegetables, and tomato sauce, those items should not make up the bulk of a weekly shopping trip.

There are some important ways to shop healthy, and to avoid food traps at the supermarket.

Alternatives to Grocery Stores

For those with many fresh food markets and specialty stores, it is possible to skip the grocery store altogether. Whenever possible, fresh produce should be purchased at a local produce store. Stores that specialize in produce tend to have fresher fruits and vegetables than grocery stores. The owners of local produce store oftentimes go to the local wholesale producemarkets in nearby cities and hand-select the items for the stores themselves.

Produce at grocery stores has been trucked in, and may never even be seen by the store manager.

Also buy fresh fruits and vegetables from local fruit stands, when in season. The produce will be fresher, and fresher produce will last longer, and be safer to eat.

Another reason to shop at the locally owned specialty store is because they will tend to have mostly fresh items that you need.

In addition to shopping at the local produce store, find a local butcher or meat market. Shopping at a local butcher to meat market enables the shopper to buy the exact amount of meat they need, and not be forced toselect from a a pre-packaged meat case. Meat at a local butcher or meat market also tends to be leaner, since the customer has direct contact with the butchers. It just provides a higher level of customer service, which means leaner meats for the customer.

Also buy fresh bread from a local bakery. Grocery store bread prices fluctuate with gas prices. It is no more expensive to buy freshly baked bread and rolls at the local bakery.

A Beginner's Guide to Healthy Grocery Shopping