5 Food Shopping Tips
Updated: Mar. 20, 2019
Make sure you not only have well-stocked food cupboards for healthy eating, but also are buying the right products at the right time, in the right way. Keep reading to learn how.
Buy Fresh Food
There is no simpler, no easier nor plainer measure of the healthiness of your food than whether it comes to you in boxes and cans or is fresh from the farm or fields. If more than half of your shopping comprises pre-prepared foods, then you need to take your eating habits back to the healthy side by opting for more fresh vegetables, fruit, seafood, juices and dairy products.
Shop With a List
Organize your shopping list in categories: dairy, fresh produce, meat and so on. This will get you out of the supermarket at the speed of light. If you’re a woman, consider asking your husband or son to do the food shopping. US research shows that, compared to women, men are more likely to buy only what’s on the list. But shopping with a list also has benefits beyond speed and spending. By sticking rigidly to a well-planned list, you can resist the seductive call of aisle upon aisle of junk food, thereby saving yourself and your family from an overload of empty calories.
Food Shop on a Full Stomach
You’ve no doubt heard it before, but it’s worth repeating. Walking through a supermarket with your tummy rumbling can make you vulnerable to buying anything that isn’t moving. If you can’t arrange to shop shortly after a meal, be sure to eat an apple and drink a large glass of water before heading to the store.
Purchase Food a Few Days Before it’s Fully Ripe
There’s no point in trying to buy fresh vegetables and fruit for your family if the bananas turn brown and the peaches go mushy two days after you get them home. Buy fruit that’s still a day or two behind ripeness. It will still be hard to the touch; bananas will be green. Feel carefully for bruises on apples, check expiry dates on bagged produce and stay away from potatoes and onions that have started to sprout.
Buy in Season
Of course, it’s tempting to buy strawberries in December, and once in a while that’s fine. But fresh fruit and vegetables are definitely best when purchased in season, meaning they’ve come from relatively close to home. They often cost less and are tastier.
