Supermarket shopping

Posted by kathryn in Shopping Basket, Health News and A Balanced Diet

While I avoid supermarkets most of the time, by getting vegetables delivered , going to growers’ markets, as well as local shops and delis, I realise I’m in a lucky position. I live in the inner city of Sydney where there are small shops and grocers within walking distance, so it’s easy to pick up a few items on the way home.

For most people, because of location or time, supermarkets are the only option. However supermarkets can be difficult places to negotiate, as discussed in an article by John Newton in the SMH . Reporting on a book by US nutritionist, Marion Nestle, called What to Eat: An Aisle-by-Aisle Guide to Savvy Food Choices , the article discusses the best ways to shop and ensure you’re getting healthier products for you and your family (as well as saving money).

As pointed out, supermarkets are commercial enterprises, they are there to make money, a goal which can be at odds with your desire to buy good quality, healthy food at a reasonable price:

“Supermarkets have one goal and one goal only,” she writes. “To sell food and make a profit, and as large a profit as possible.”

Supermarkets provide good food that is fresh, convenient and inexpensive but, Nestle writes, “You and the supermarket are likely to be at cross-purposes. The foods that sell the best and bring in the most profits are not necessarily the ones that are best for your health.”

This is also reflected in findings by Choice magazine about the freshness of fruits and vegetables available in supermarkets, as well as the “tricks of the “health food aisle in the supermarket.

So it is up to us, as consumers to be a bit more shopping smart, to be aware of some of the tricks and make the best choices we can.

The article ends with some good suggestions on how to be a supermarket savvy shopper:

• Don’t buy anything with long ingredient lists. The fewer ingredients, the less processed the foods are and the less “junky”.
• Be sceptical of health claims. Breakfast cereals, for example, may have a daily serve of folate, but can also be full of sugar. Junk food is often fortified and packaged to make it sound better than it is.
• Don’t buy anything for children with a cartoon promoting it. If it needs “pester power”, it’s unlikely to be healthy.
• Power bars and vitamin waters give you several hundred calories – and sugar in a hurry. You might as well eat a chocolate bar or have a banana.
• Always shop on the periphery of the supermarket, where the fruit and vegetables, deli and fresh foods are likely to be. Spend less time in the centre aisles, where most of the processed food is.
• If you must go into the centre aisles, don’t buy anything with more than five ingredients on the label.

bq.

19 September, 2006