The modern day supermarket seems to be more about advertising gimmicks and specials than it is about fresh natural produce. Gosh the supermarkets have changed since my grandmothers’ day when there was no obesity epidemic.

So OK, mom just pointed out there were no supermarkets when my granny was a child and even in the 60’s they only got one small box of groceries a week. I really have no idea how this was possible. What did they eat?

We Have Come a Long Way – But Have We.

Almost everything on the shelf at the moment has a health claim or sales gimmick attached to the lable. Like all the sugary cereals that have collector’s cards so your children have to keep buying them to collect the set. They get hooked on sugary rubbish food at a young age and will go back for more over their entire life time. Advertisers try to tell you that breakfast cereals that contain almost 50 % sugar are good for your children. Great marketing, not so great for the health of the nation.

The Supermarket and Health Claims

Look around the supermarket and health claims will be flying in your face ‘80% less fat’ (than what?), ‘99% fat free’ (OK -  so they took out the fat but stuffed it full of sugar instead), ‘lite’ (in colour?) and ‘gluten free’ in things that never contain gluten in the first place.  These claims do not necessarily mean they are a healthy option. I would encourage you to look further at these products. Yes turn the pack over and see what the real deal is.

Take sweets for example. Many now claim on their packet to be 99% fat free. Does this mean they will help us to loose weight? No, because they still contain a large amount of calories with no nutritional value and remember excess calories, no matter if they come from sugar, fat or carbohydrates get stored as fat.

Back to Basics

Firstly it would be great if you could say all the ingredients in the product let alone know what they are. I bet half the ‘food’ you buy you don’t know what’s in it. You may be a little surprised. Compare foods and buy the one which is the most natural.

Let us take peanut butter as another example. With peanut butter you may have the choice of a regular or a ‘light’ version. The regular will have peanuts and vegetable oil. Great we know what that is. The light version will have peanuts, sugar, salt, oil, preservatives you probably can’t pronounce and the list may go on and on. Check out the calories, probably quite similar. So we choose the regular because it is simply a more natural product with less ingredients and similar calories.

Please don’t let me get started on breakfast cereal. Even in New Zealand where we have a clean green image to uphold, most T V adds for cereals are just misleading to say the least. So my advise is to make your own muslie or granola, or stick to whole grains like puffed wheat and porridge made with steel cut oats.

Choose the Least Processed Food.

You want to have potato wedges for dinner? Don’t buy them from the freezer pre deep fried with additional flavours, preservatives and animal fat, buy potatoes and make them yourself.  Look for the recipe from DietDitchRecipes.com and save both your waistline and your wallet. And frozen mash potato, you have to be kidding right. You get the idea.

You will find most healthy food won’t have a food label. It doesn’t need one because it has no additives and is not processed. Think raw nuts, lean meat, fish, eggs,  fruit and vegetables. Perfect and nutritious with no label required.

Do your beautiful body a favour and practice smart shopping.

Image: © Adamgregor | Dreamstime.com