Grocery Store Garbage

Simply Cheetos.

This is the driving force behind today’s post.

Simply Cheetos. Healthy Cheetos. Cheetos are now a health food.

There is no judgement here if you eat Cheetos. Eat Cheetos until your fingers turn orange. But please Frito Lay, do not market your Cheetos as a healthy food.

Healthier than regular Cheetos? Sure. Healthy? No.

This got me thinking about all of the other “Health” foods in the grocery store. Foods with catch phrases like: “Low Carb”

“Gluten Free” “Organic”

“Natural”

“High in Vitamin C, D, or XYZ”

The list goes on.

Marketers will latch on to any buzz word they can to sell their product.

There is nothing wrong with these words. It’s just that they do not automatically make something healthy. Even more, many of these “Healthy” foods are marketed toward children.

Fruit juices, fruit snacks, granola bars, and more that are chock-full of sugar and other ingredients we might not want to overfeed our children.

Yet, they are marketed as healthy, so that is exactly what we do.

So what do we do?

We read labels, and understand that just because someone tells us a food is healthy, does not mean we need to believe them.

Here are some general guidelines to follow:

A) Choose foods that don’t need an ingredient list

Apples, Broccoli, Kale...these whole foods speak for themselves. No ingredient list

necessary.

B) Choose foods whose ingredients you know

What are natural flavors? How about castoreum that is used to flavor some candies? By the way, I dare you to Google castoreum.

C) In your grocery store, stick mainly to the perimeter of the store

This is where you are going to find most of the unprocessed produce, meats and dairy. As you venture into the aisle you will see more and more processed, packaged foods.

Most of all, be aware of what you are buying and eating.

If you choose to eat it, you choose to eat it. But, there is nothing worse than believing you are eating food that is helping your body when it is not.

Here’s to raising our grocery store awareness...one-minute at a time.

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If you are new to the blog, I want to encourage you to go back and check out my previous posts, as they serve as the foundation for what we talk about each week.

In addition, if you, or anyone you know would like to take your nutrition to the next level, please contact me about my coaching services.

Here's to the best version of you!