Healthy Grocery Shopping Tips

Plan Ahead

• Make a list before heading to the store. This will help eliminate impulse buys.
• Plan your meals for the week and add all the foods and ingredients for meals to the list. This will help reduce trips to fast food restaurants.
• Go grocery shopping when you are not hungry. This will also reduce impulse buying. 

 Read labels

•  Labels that have fewer ingredients are more likely to be easily processed and digested by the body. 
• Labels with a lot of artificial ingredients that are hard to pronounce are more likely to be processed and have chemicals in them that make their shelf life longer.
• Try to avoid foods that have one of their top listed ingredients as high fructose corn syrup.
• Look for foods with about 1-2 grams of fat for every 100 calories, and no more than 3. 

Shop Along the Perimeter of the Grocery Store

• The more natural/whole foods are found on the perimeter of the store. These include: fruits and vegetables, meats, dairy, and whole grains. 
• The processed foods with high fructose corn syrup are usually found in the middle aisles.