Health Tip #27

Why Shop The Perimeter Of The Grocery Store?

If you think about your local grocery store, it’s mostly laid out with the fresh foods, seafood, meats, dairy and produces cases around the perimeter of the store.  So why should we shop the perimeter of the grocery store?  This is where the whole foods are.  Always look for the foods that are the least processed, harvested from the wild or come from a farm rather than a factory. The middle aisles tend to be where we find highly processed foods containing dubious ingredients.

Choose High Quality

Even when shopping the perimeter it behooves us to choose the highest quality ingredients that we can afford.  If you can, choose wild local seafood, local grass-fed meats and dairy products and a rainbow of brightly colored, local and organic produce.

Plan Ahead

It does take more time to prepare a whole food meal from scratch but the benefits to our health is well worth the effort.  Planning ahead, making a menu plan and shopping with a list will help with this task.  Using a slow cooker, especially during the cooler months, is another great time saver.  Planning ahead and remembering not to shop when feeling ravenous are good ways to save money and to help make the healthiest choices while shopping.