SURVIVING THE GREAT SUPERMARKET SWINDLE
Do you ever feel a sense of confusion and panic whilst grocery shopping? In a world where we are continually being bombarded with information and options, making the right, healthy choices for our families is becoming increasingly difficult.
Oh but have no fear, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency is here to rescue us from our ¨Paradox of Choice¨ and guide us in our food selection with their Nutrition Facts Sheet information.
I don’t know about you, but Nutritional Fact Sheets give me a headache. They are hard to read and oftentimes don’t tell the whole story. Take the percent daily value for example - assuming that I am organized enough to know exactly what my family is going to eat for the upcoming week, I must then consider the information found on these facts sheets for every product consumed! Who walks around the grocery store compiling these daily values?? Personally, I think most of us just skim through this information without paying too much attention. Additionally, we now know that not all calories are created equal. In order to get a clearer picture of how many calories are actually consumed versus how many are burned, we have to consider the cost of the digestive process. Food labels ignore the fact that different calorie sources have varying effects on satiety, hormone levels and energy expenditure, so simply counting them is not the best way to lose weight or reach optimal health.
An easier and more effective way of understanding what you are truly eating would be to check the ingredients list of your food choices. By now most of us have already been told that the one ingredient to avoid when grocery shopping is the ADDED SUGAR. By "added" I am referring to the chemically processed and refined - TABLE SUGAR. Refined sugar is a form of crystallized sugar that has gone through extraction and purification processes and therefore lacks any meaningful nutrients - it is simply just empty calories!!
An average North American will consume about 23 teaspoons of sugar each day! If it seems like a lot, well - that's because it is!! The daily recommended values by the American Heart Association is only 6 teaspoons for women and 9 teaspoons for men. We are not talking about added sugar here, the recommendation levels take into consideration any naturally occurring sugars found in fruits, dairy products and carbohydrates.
So what is going on here? Are we really eating that many sweets in a day? Are we always walking around stuffing our faces with Twinkies, donuts and soda pop?
When we talk about the average North American, we are not referring to some extreme versions of people that only eat at McDonald's or have Krispy Kreme for breakfast.
No - the average is you and me, regular folk, that think they are in control of their sugar intake. The unfortunate reality is that most of us aren’t even aware of how much sugar is added to the things we buy and eat.
Did you know that there are over 50+ pseudo-names for sugar
that the food industry uses on their labels?
Some of the most commonly used are: agrave nectar, cane juice/sugar, corn syrup, dextran, fructose, glucose, malt, sucranat and maltose. This is why reading labels and ingredients on packaged goods is so important. There are no shortcuts to this method - until we change how our food industry is run, it is up to us, the consumer, to be vigilant about what we are buying and eating.
A word of caution: just because you shop at an organic food store or in the gluten-free section does not mean that you are safe from all the SUGAR DRAMA. More often than not, these "healthy alternatives" are the worst culprits in hiding the sugar content.
So how do we go about avoiding refined sugar while shopping for food?
Here are some of the tricks that can helpful:
BEFORE YOU SET OUT ON YOUR TRIP TO THE STORE, look at the packages of the things you usually purchase and check their ingredients. If you find any of the sugars listed above, set out to find its sugar-free alternative
we have all heard about WALKING THE PERIMETER of the store first. This is where you will find the fresh fruits, veggies, meats, fish and dairy. No label reading skills required here - this is where you should be spending the most time picking and choosing food for your family
SHOP STRATEGICALLY IN THE MIDDLE AISLES. Purchase things like dried legumes and grains. Forgo buying canned and packaged goods but if you must, make sure to read the labels and look out for added sugar. The cereal aisle is particularly notorious for having hidden sugars however I can assure you from experience that it is possible to find some with no sugars added
Obviously we all know this one: DONT SHOP WHEN HUNGRY. Shopping on an empty stomach, when your glucose levels are down, is a very bad idea because this is when you are most vulnerable to surcomb to your sugar cravings
Finally STAY STRONG TILL THE END. Grocery stores use the age old trick of packing sugary goodies all around the cash registers because they know that by the end of your shopping trip you are probably bored and hungry. So dont fall for these selling tactics and stick with your good intentions
Kicking that sweet poison out of your life is possible. When bad habits are replaced with good ones and these grocery shopping tricks become second nature, in due time you will find that certain foods are better left on the shelf and not in your cart.