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Top 10 Things NOT TO BUY at the Grocery Store!

September 26, 2008 By Julie Lanford MPH, RD, CSO, LDN

Last post we talked about smart grocery shopping. This is an add-on to that and hopefully will help you avoid some of the tricks at the grocery store!

10 Things NOT TO BUY at the Grocery Store:

1. Foods with a lot of ingredients that you don’t recognize. If you read through the ingredient list and see a lot of long, weird and hard to pronounce words, then it’s probably not the best choice!

2. Foods with any form of sugar as the #1 ingredient. Packaged food that has sugar as the first ingredient means that the product is mostly sugar. Sugar words include words that contain sugar, syrup or end in -ose. If it’s the first ingredient then it’s not far from being a sugar cube!

3. Foods with any form of fat as the #1 ingredient. Fat should enhance the flavor of something, not BE the flavor! If cream, butter, margarine, oil or other form of fat is the first ingredient of the processed food, then think again.

4. Sugar drinks. Our bodies need water, our taste buds like flavor. The bottom line is that we need fluids. Don’t add extra calories and stress on your body by having sugar drinks around. Having a sweetened soda or tea no more than 2x/week is my recommendation.

5. Crackers not made from whole grains. I don’t know about you, but I eat crackers almost once a day. When you buy them, be sure to get ones with whole grains as the first ingredient. Crackers that qualify: triscuits, wassa, whole grain saltines. Crackers that DON’T qualify: wheat thins, cheeze-it’s, saltines.

6. Granola bars made from refined grains. Look at that ingredient list again. #1 should be a whole grain (usually oats). Healthy granola bars include: Kashi and Nature Valley. Not healthy granola bars: almost everything else!

7. FAKE cheese products. You might not realize it, but that totino’s cheese pizza that you just bought for 33 cents is NOT REAL CHEESE! Look at the ingredient list and you will see “cheese substitute”. Other violators include velveeta cheese, american cheese and many mac and cheese products.

8. Nutrition Supplements. Supplement suppliers would have you believe that their product is the magic cure to your problems. In the big picture, being physically active and eating healthy foods is much more influential than supplements. At the most, a multivitamin, vitamin D and calcium are all you need.

9. Hot dogs or sausages. I don’t care what you use to make them, hot dogs and sausages are fatty meat and chemicals smooshed into a shape. Even the fat free versions are still high in chemicals and nitrates, which have been linked with colon cancer.

10. Anything located by the checkout counter! Don’t get sucked into that very final impulse buy that the store is counting on. The candy is tempting you so if you must, just buy some gum.

Happy Shopping!
– Julie

Preservatives and Food Additives to Avoid
5 Tips for Smart Grocery Shopping

Filed Under: Education

This post may contain affiliate links for products I recommend. This means if you click on a link and purchase a product, Cancer Services, Inc. will receive a small percentage of the sale at no extra cost to you. We use these proceeds to support cancer patient direct services and community education in the Triad area of North Carolina. For more information, view our disclosure policy.

Comments

  1. Sara says

    September 26, 2008 at 6:07 am

    Amen on the hotdogs– I’ve been saying that for years– let me smash up my own meat and form it into a shape if that’s what we have to eat. And what’s the casing even made of anyhow?

    I do have to say though that sometimes at the check-out line they have some good deals on mints or gum- sugarless can be good for oral health. AND, at some stores they have nifty little organizing and minature things for your purse, etc. Those are sometimes healthy for your mental parts.

  2. Vince says

    May 23, 2009 at 7:37 pm

    Hey Julie, this top ten list is fantastic. I actually no longer shop at traditional grocery stores anymore. I end up going to the local farmer’s market, it’s the only way I know that the food is fresh and organic when it comes from the farmers themselves. These are all very good recommendations for those that still decide to shop in grocery store or who don’t have access to fresh farm food. I’ve heard that super markets are getting better items in their stores, more organic, etc., and hopefully the trend will continue. Who knows, you may actually find me back shopping there. You can post this to our site http://www.toptentopten.com/ and link back to your site. We are trying to create a directory for top ten lists where people can find your site. The coolest feature is you can let other people vote on the rankings of your list.

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