Zig Ziglar tells a story about his childhood in Yazoo City, Mississippi. He always knew had enough to eat, because when he passed his plate for seconds in a family of nine children, his mother would tell him “No son, you have had enough.” I imagine that his family had a healthy grocery list, but they weren’t always able to purchase enough to go around.
Most of us in this country don’t have to worry about eating too little these days. Unfortunately, the opposite is true, we usually eat too much. On top of that with our incredibly busy lifestyles, we often neglect to take the time to eat correctly, opting instead for fast food on the run. I heard it summed up in the phrase; ”The average business man takes better care of his car than his body.”
Good nutrition is easy to identify, we know we should eat fruit, vegetables, proteins, fats and grains. But our tastes tend to get in the way and we wind up with too much salt, sugar and the wrong kinds of fats, like those in snack chips. On the other end of the spectrum trying to get the recommended daily allowance would mean eating volumes of food that are impossible.
Seriously, how many Americans eat 4 servings of fruit and 5 servings of vegetables and 3 servings of grain plus, plus, plus every day? So for starters, a good recommendation would be a multi-vitamin supplement program. There are plenty of them around, find one and use it regularly, your body needs it.
That said; what should you have on your healthy grocery list? Once again several factors come into play how is your general health, have you decided to follow certain dietary restrictions? Do you have food allergies that prevent you from eating certain categories of foods? It will be different for many of us especially when we add our likes to the mix. The crazy thing is that there are so many choices available to us that it gets very hard to make a decision.
Here are a few guidelines that I would recommend.
- Eat fresh! Hit the produce section first. Pick out the vegetable accompaniments first. Buy only the amount you will consume in 3-4 days so you don’t lose it to spoilage. Vitamins A and C here.
- Lots of salads! Think salad for each meal that you are shopping for, get creative you can make a slaw out of broccoli, or jicama or passilo pepper. Less cooking means more natural vitamins.
- Fruit! An apple a day… does what? Ever get cramps when you exercise? How is your banana intake? Start your morning with a fruit smoothie! Red and purple berries are full of anti-oxidants.
- Go for the protein! Vegan’s, Vegetarian’s head for the walnut aisle, the rest of us need to go to the seafood and fresh meat counter. Omega 3 and 6 is extremely important, it comes best from red meat and fish. You need a serving or two of each weekly, to keep you brain and heart in good health.
- Get Some Grains! Most of the super-market bakeries have “designer” breads these days. Your mission is to find grain filled breads, try to avoid white processed flour, real whole wheat is best for the fiber it provides. (I know some of you are gluten intolerant, sorry) We all need good digestion and fiber helps that process. Personally, I bake my own bread, it’s easy and so good!
- Don’t Forget the Legumes You can build a number of delightful luncheon salads from different kinds of beans. Black beans and corn with cilantro and roasted red pepper or curried lentil and apple salad, kidney bean tomato cucumber salad. I could go on but you get the picture.
- Avoid! The snack aisle, go for baked crackers over fried chips. Ignore the soda aisle, move along nothing to see here. Grab some green tea instead. Finally, if you are attacked by the chocolate go for the dark type it’s actually healthy for you.
In looking at the information available on this subject I came across a great site that offers a shopping list based on a huge database of recipes that they are accumulating. You decide what category of eating preference you wish to use. (Vegetarian, Vegan, Blood type Diet, Diabetic, Body building, Gluten-Intolerant, Etcetera) You are then shown several pages of recipes and for each recipe you can download a printable shopping list. Cool idea for a healthy grocery list
Enjoy,
Michael Brown
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Your tips are very helpful. I’m just imagining what to eat this breakfast and your article told me so! Thanks for the post!
It’s a great idea to eat lots of fresh produce, but it’s also very important to rinse them properly and only buy what you plan on eating/using within the next few days. Fresh produce is so expensive these days you can’t afford to waste it.
Florence;
I whole-heartedly agree. One of the benefits of modern day super- markets is the pre-cut and packaged salads and small serving sizes of popular vegetables. Normally they will keep for a week or so un-opened. You used to have to buy a whole head of lettuce now you can buy a 4 serving salad mix.
That said this country will continue to see higher prices in the stores until we get a sane energy policy. Develop our own resources, and stop sending our money overseas for high $$$ oil.
I love those tips! I have just started a high cereal diet for breakfast. I hope it helps in weight loss.
This is great! I love the way you talk about eating healthy. We can do this if we are willing to make changes, and these changes are for the best.Thank you so much!!
The list mentioned in the blog is certainly very healthy and quite easy to follow if once we understand the importance to these food. Very good blog
It’s the beginning of football season here in the USA and we really like our chips and salsa as well as other dips while watching football.
What are we to do when most of these appetizers are loaded with calories? Even if you’re not a football fan, or a chips and dip eating person, I am sure you can benefit from having more healthy snack options.
Hi Michael,
as a vegetarian, I’d love to have fish for health reasons, but don’t for ethical and environmental ones.
Other than walnuts, what do you recommend for protein, omegas, etc.?
thanks!
Michael;
As a “carnivore” I don’t think I can adequately answer your question. Obviously soy and related products are your best sources of protein. For Omega 3′s you can get some help from walnuts and flax seed, but the best sources are fish related. Look at this web site for some further information. http://www.drweil.com/drw/u/QAA400645/Vegetarian-Sources-of-Omega3.html
Some years ago the Nutrilite Company bought the “Ocean Essentials” company. Ocean Essentials has a fleet that fishes only in arctic circle waters. They catch the salmon and immediately process the oil on board so as to preserve maximum freshness and quality. It is guaranteed to be free of mercury and other contaminates, it is pure omega 3 oil. I know that your lifestyle precludes the use of “Meat”, however for a necessary nutrient like Omega 3 you might want to make an exception.
I hope this helps.
Thanks,
Michael Brown
Diet! Still hard!
But thanks for the food items to take to lose weight.
The first three letters of diet are…? Yes it is incredibly hard to diet when your goal is to loose weight or you have been presented with a health challenge that requires a sudden change in all that you eat. I am hoping to influence the readers to make gradual changes and healthy choices in the things that they normally eat. It all comes down to habit, and changing your habits are never easy, especially when it comes to how things taste. Unfortunately several people had a bad taste in their childhood and never go back and try again, that means they miss out on some fantastic taste experiences. Your tastes do change as you get older.
I always try to eat on the healthier side, but as a single person household I manage to always have something to throw away. Is there anything that I can do when picking up fruit/veggies or anything I can put them in to make them last longer? I just feel like it’s such a waste otherwise!
I know what you mean, I cook in an industrial style kitchen, but at home there are only two of us. Kind of tough for me to cook for only two when I am used to cutting up things by the “5 pounds” at a time. Two recommendations that I would make. First, if you have a freezer with some capacity cook enough that you will use up any halves of this or that and freeze it in smaller containers that you can take out for a single meal. Secondly, I discovered recently (and I don’t know why this works)that wax paper bags are excellent for storing things like onion, bell pepper, jalapeno etc. that I only use a part of. It is weird, I have been able to keep food-stuff around for a couple of week in wax paper when they would spoil when wrapped in cellophane in less time. Try It and tell me what you think. Thanks Mike Brown