More Healthy Shopping

Shop Smart

This is part 3 of "Living a Detox Lifestyle". These tips will continue to help you navigate through grocery store items in order to choose the highest quality food.

Produce

Although it is usually more expensive, organic produce is much healthier and has more nutrients than non-organic produce. Ideally, produce should be fresh, ripe, in-season and locally grown. Look for a local farmer’s market or consider mail-ordering organic food if there is none in your area. Color counts too–bring home an entire rainbow of colorful fruits and vegetables if your eating guidelines allow for them.

Meat

Buy only organic and/or free-range, hormone and antibiotic-free meats whenever possible. Lean meat is always healthiest. If it is not available then trim off all excess fat before cooking.

Poultry and Eggs

Poultry and eggs should be organic and/or free-range, hormone and antibiotic-free. Eggs labeled as “High Omega 3” are especially healthy. If the label says "cage free", it doesn't necessarily mean "free range".

Seafood

Buy only smaller varieties of cold water, non-farm-raised fish. Fish should smell a bit like the sea, but fresh. It should not smell bad. Avoid shellfish and scavenger type seafood. Most fish are contaminated with toxic metals and chemicals, farm raised is the least healthy and most contaminated.

Buy Whole Fresh Foods

Read labels carefully and look for foods that contain only one ingredient. Look for the word “whole” before the first ingredient on the label or ingredient list. Fresh food is healthier than packaged, frozen or canned foods. Always buy fresh first. If you do by packaged foods, always check the expiration dates on the labels.

Watch out for These

Non-Domestic Produce

Non-domestic produce is usually out of season for the climate we live in, picked unripe, heavily sprayed and lacking nutrients you’ll get with local, organic produce. If it was picked ripe and unsprayed, do you think it could handle the shipping?

Ground Meat

A patty of ground meat can contain body parts from up to 80 cattle whose health is unknown. That package of ground meat started collecting bacteria on all of its surfaces as soon as it was ground. If you insist, have your butcher grind it fresh for you, or do it yourself. Better– stick with whole meat cuts.

Frozen Poultry

Most frozen poultry is packaged by poultry processors. Most use hormones to maximize bird size and growth rate and must use antibiotics to prevent disease because of the extreme cage-crowding found in a typical poultry farm. The hormones and antibiotics remain in the bird and are passed into your body when you eat them. 

Deceptive Labeling

The word “natural” does not mean healthy or safe. Insect parts and rodent droppings are also “natural”. If the ingredients say "hydrogenated oil" (of any kind) or "partially hydrogenated oil" then the food contains trans-fats – even if the "Food Facts" say zero trans-fats. Our watchdog government allows up to .5 grams of trans-fats to be in foods without declaring it. A few servings of deceptively labeled processed foods and you are taking your trans-fat consumption into the danger zone.   Click for more trans-fat information.

10 Things to Avoid

1.  Non-domestic produce

2.  Ground Meat

3.  Frozen Poultry

4.  Farm Raised Fish

5.  Food with Additives

6.  Processed Foods

7.  Deceptive Labeling

8.  Hydrogenated Fats

9.  Artificial Sweeteners

10 High-Fructose Corn Syrup

Train your Body. Train your Mind. Tame your Tongue.

Information on this site is not a substitute for consulting a licensed medical professional or nutritionist. You should never begin an exercise or nutritional regime without consulting your health care provider