Healthy eating at home starts with choosing healthy foods at the grocery store. It is so much easier to prepare delicious and wholesome meals if you have top-quality ingredients on hand. Here are some tips for grocery shopping for healthy foods:

• Make a list of the food items you need before you go shopping and stick to it. Without a list, you may forget something important and you may be more tempted to buy poor-quality junk foods.
• Don't shop when you are hungry or in a hurry. In either case you will be more likely to grab junk, processed foods or sugary treats.
• Fresh fruits and vegetables are best, but if you can't eat them in a day or two, frozen fruits and vegetables are a better choice.
• Choose lean meats such as fish fillets, skinless chicken breasts, lean pork chops and turkey. Avoid processed meats like hot dogs, sausages and bologna.
• Stay away from the snack aisle. Don't tempt yourself with chips, sodas and high fat, low nutrition snack foods.
• Read the nutrition facts labels on any canned and packaged foods. Notice the how much fat and sodium are in the food. Those cans of "spaghetti and meat balls" aren't as healthy for you as buying whole grain pasta, making lean, ground turkey meatballs and a fresh tomato sauce.
• Choose low fat milk, soy milk or rice milk.
• Replace white bread with 100 percent whole grain bread.
• Keep your favorite spices and herbs on hand to add flavor to your meals instead of adding extra salt.
• Don't buy frozen dinners that are high in fat and calories.

Rules of Shopping

 

1. Rule number one: Buy fresh food! There is no simpler, no easier, no plainer measure of the healthiness of your food than whether it comes in boxes and cans or is fresh from the farm or the fields. If more than half your groceries are prepared foods, then you need to evolve your cooking and eating habits back to the healthy side by picking up more fresh vegetables, fruits, seafood, juices, and dairy.

2. Shop the perimeter of the store. That's where all the fresh foods are. The less you find yourself in the central aisles of the grocery store, the healthier your shopping trip will be. Make it a habit -- work the perimeter of the store for the bulk of your groceries, then dip into the aisles for staples that you know you need.

3. Think of the departments (dairy, produce, meat, and so on) as separate stores within the supermarket. You wouldn't shop at every store at a mall the same way, would you? You know better than to idly browse through a jewelry store, don't you? So apply the same approach to the grocery store. Target the sections that are safe to browse through -- the produce section, primarily -- and steer clear of the dangerous sections (the candy, ice cream, and potato chip aisles).

4. Shop with a list. Organize your shopping list based on the tip above -- that is, by the sections of the store. This will have you out of the supermarket at the speed of light. If you're a woman, consider getting your husband or son to do the food shopping, says Joan Salge Blake, R.D., clinical assistant professor of nutrition at Boston University's Sargent College. The latest survey from the Food Marketing Institute shows that compared to women, men are more likely to buy only what's on the grocery list. But shopping with a list has benefits beyond speed and spending. By lashing yourself to the discipline of a well-planned shopping list, you can resist the seductive call of aisle upon aisle of junk food, thereby saving your home, your family, and yourself from an overload of empty calories.

5. Food-shop with a full stomach. We're sure you've heard this one before, but it's worth repeating. Walking through the grocery store with your tummy growling can make you vulnerable to buying anything that isn't moving, says Blake. If you can't arrange to shop shortly after a meal, be sure to eat an apple and drink a large glass of water before heading into the store. View healthy snack ideas and recipes.

 

6. Buy organic whenever possible. Sure, it costs a few dollars more. But a study in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry found that organically grown fruits and vegetables contain higher levels of cancer-fighting antioxidants than conventionally produced foods. However, if organic is too pricey for you, don't worry; organic or not, fruits and veggies are key to a healthy larder.

7. Buy frozen. Frozen fruits and vegetables are often flash frozen at the source, locking in nutrients in a way fresh or canned can't compete with. Stock your freezer with bags of frozen vegetables and fruits. You can toss the veggies into soups and stews, microwave them for a side dish with dinners, or thaw them at room temperature and dip them into low-fat salad dressing for snacks. Use the fruits for desserts, smoothies, and as ice cream and yogurt toppings.

 

8. Look for fiber. You want at least 1 to 2 grams of fiber for every 100 calories you consume.

 

9. Whenever you find yourself reaching for a package of ground meat, switch over to the poultry section instead and pick up ground turkey, ground chicken, or soy crumbles. Works just as well as ground beef for meatballs, meat loaf, or chili. This little substitution can cut more than 30 percent of the calories and at least half of the fat and saturated fat in a three-ounce serving, says Blake. When it's smothered in a zesty tomato sauce or flavored with seasonings, you'll never be able to tell the difference. If you're feeling a little gun-shy about abandoning the beef, use half turkey and half lean beef, or half soy crumbles and half beef.

10. Choose strong cheeses. Instead of American, cheddar, or Swiss, pick up feta, fresh Parmigiano-Reggiano, or a soft goat cheese. These strongly flavored cheeses will satisfy your yen for cheese without damaging your waistline

 

11. Confirm that a wheat bread is whole wheat. Some of the folks selling bread are trying to pull the wool (or is it wheat chaff?) over your eyes. Sure, a wheat bread is made from wheat. But if the first ingredient is refined wheat flour, then it's made from the same wheat as white bread -- which means, stripped of fiber and nutrients, and in some cases, dyed brown for a fake healthy appearance. What you're really looking for are the words "whole wheat." That's the stuff with minimum refining and maximum beneficial nutrients.

12. Buy plain yogurt and flavor it at home. Pre-flavored yogurts have oodles of sugars that destroy any healthy benefits they once had. If you add a teaspoon of all-fruit jam at home, it'll still taste yummy, you'll consume far fewer useless calories, and you'll save lots of money.

13. Buy healthy add-ins for plain cereals. These include raisins, fresh berries, dried berries, almond slivers, pumpkin seeds, sesame sticks, and bananas. The best breakfast-cereal strategy is to buy unsweetened cereals and then add in your favorite flavors. That helps you bypass all the empty sugary calories -- and lets you enjoy the cereal more. For ease, keep a wide-mouth, well-sealed jar on your counter with shelf-stable ingredients for quick mix-ins. Keep a scoop and ziplock bags handy, and you've got a handy, nutritious meal or snack for home or on the go.

14. Read juice labels carefully. Orange juice, although quite healthy, often has 20 grams of sugar in the average 8-ounce glass. Instead, try guava juice. It has three times more vitamin C, and is loaded with potassium (a great blood pressure regulator) and beta-carotene.