How to Choose Healthy Foods from Your Everyday Grocery Store

Most people would love to eat healthier. Whether you are using a specific diet or just trying to make healthier choices, eating healthier requires you to purchase healthier foods. Sometimes, this can be difficult.

In order to truly eat healthy, it’s important that you choose the healthiest ingredients. Choosing an apple over a bag of chips is a great way to start, but choosing an apple that has been filled with unhealthy preservatives may not be doing much more for your overall health and wellness.

Most people have started shopping at specialty stores in order to ensure they get the freshest, most natural ingredients and foods. While this is an option, you can still find healthy foods at your everyday grocery store too.

Most grocery stores stock based on their bottom line. Obviously, choosing to stock foods with preservatives is better for their bottom line because A) it’s cheaper and B) these foods last much longer. But you can still find plenty of healthy options at your local grocery store by using the following tips.

Find the organic section.

Most grocery stores today have come to realize that their customers are interested in buying organic. For this reason, most stores have added an organic section to their produce department, as well as other areas throughout the store. Locate the organic section in your grocery store and do all of your shopping from this section. This way, you can ensure that the foods you eat are safe from preservatives and other unhealthy additives. Just keep in mind that this section may include less items than what a specialty store may carry, so if you’re looking for something other than organic apples and lettuce, you may be out of luck.

Pay attention to product labels.

If you don’t necessarily need to purchase organic, but you want to make sure you’re buying healthy foods, be sure to pay attention to the product labels. Most products will call out their health and wellness benefits through stickers or other callouts, such as fair trade, raised without antibiotics, non GMO, etc.

Talk with your butcher.

If your grocery store has a butcher, have a conversation with your butcher to find out which products are the healthiest. He or she should know where their products come from, and they may even be able to provide you with information regarding the pasteurization of certain products, how animals were raised, or what the animals may have been fed. They will also be willing to provide you with certain cuts of meat. So if you’re looking for a filet instead of a T-bone, just ask.

Know the difference between preservation processes.

In order to maintain a longer shelf life, food is preserved. While some preservation methods are unhealthy due to unnatural chemicals and additives, others are much healthier alternatives, like HPP. Choosing foods based on healthier processing services such as these can help ensure you receive the safest, healthiest products from your local grocery store.