The Grocery List Part 2- The Healthiest Options

Now that the Grocery list is up, lets take it a little further- The main reason you choose foods from the outer ring of the grocery store, is because these are where the majority of the whole foods are found. What is a whole food? A whole food is something that is free from processing, or very minimally processed, unrefined, with no added ingredients. Lets take an apple for example. An all natural apple has one ingredient- apple. It is a whole food. A box of cereal usually has many ingredients that aid in, and are a result of the processing it goes through to make the product. A box of cereal is not a whole food. Hopefully with these examples, it is now understood what it is to be a whole food.

The easiest way to eat healthy and keep track of what is going in your body is to eat as many whole foods as possible. Of course there are going to be exceptions to this. Lets take dairy for example. Milk obviously has to go through processing in order for it to be on the store shelves and ready for consumption. If we want to drink milk, but want to eat whole foods as much as possible, lets choose the best milk possible. Buy certified organic milk- that way we are ensuring minimal processing, and milk that does not come from cows treated with any externals such as hormones, etc. Buy a gallon of certified organic milk and try it- you will notice a difference in taste as well (and it tastes much better in my opinion). Of course we want to stick with low fat or skim milk whether it is organic or not, to keep the saturated fat content at a minimum. Milk is just one example of something that has a degree of processing, but if we consume it, we can make wiser decisions on the type of milk we choose.

The big picture we are looking at is consuming foods with the least amount of ingredients as possible, and if you buy 100% all natural and organic, you are buying foods with far less added ingredients. Moving along, we find that when buying foods that are 100% all natural and/or organic, we also eliminate other ingredients that you never want to see added in our foods. When you look at the ingredients label on a food product, there are several items that you should teach yourself to immediately identify as no-no's. Artifical colors, flavors, preservatives, and hydrogenated oils. These are all ingredients that you will not find in natural and/or organic foods, because they are not...natural! They are chemically engineered ingredients added to prolong shelf life, manipulate taste, color, appearance, etc...

• Artifical Preservatives- Keep an eye out for terms that have the following words: Benzoates, Sulphites, Nitrates/Nitrites, and Parabens. All chemical additives to preserve shelf-life/storage life, but not needed. Sure, your all natural, and/or organic foods will go bad faster without these additives, but at least you will be ingesting real food!
• Artifical Colors/Flavors- you can immediately spot artifical colors like Blue 1, Red 40, Yellow 5, etc. Artifical flavors may be harder to read on a label. Your best bet? Make sure a product says it is free from artificial colors, flavors, and preservatives! 
• Partially/Fully Hydrogenated Oils- This one sticks out like a sore thumb, and is usually the first thing I look for, and spot on a label. Oils are liquid at room temperature. By chemically adding hydrogen, they can remain solid at room temperature. A perfect example is peanut butter. You can notice an all natural peanut butter easily, because you will see the oil separation at the top of the jar. But look at a jar of Skippy, or JIF, or Peter Pan, and guess what? All smooth! This is done because that all natural peanut butter with oil separation doesn't look as appealing, but it is FAR better for your health. Companies add hydrogenated oils for appearance, and to prolong shelf life. But it is a chemically engineered ingredient, and the human body is not designed to know what to do with it. Yes, saturated fat in excess is unhealthy; but since saturated fat comes from animals, and humans have eaten animals forever, at least the body can recognize what it is! Stay away from anything hydrogenated.

In closing, we want to try and eat as many whole foods as possible. But if we have to buy something pre-packaged with an ingredients label on it, lets buy something with the least amount of ingredients, and with no added artificial or chemically engineered ingredients. Stay tuned for my third and final installment of the Grocery List, where I cover food options for non meat and non animal by product consumers.