Navigating the Supermarket

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

For better or worse, nearly all of us get our food from supermarkets and will likely continue to do so for the foreseeable future. Whether you shop at Kroger or Trader Joe's, Safeway or Whole Foods, you should realize that supermarkets spend millions and millions of dollars every year to manipulate you once you walk in the door. What you see, where and how often you see it, how it is displayed... none of these things are coincidental.

There is nothing fundamentally wrong with this. Supermarkets operate on razor thin profit margins and do in fact carry an astonishingly wide assortment of products. In many ways they are the envy of the world. During his 1959 visit to the United States, Soviet Premier Nikita Kruschev wanted to see two things: an IMB facility in Jan Jose and a Quality Foods supermarket in San Francisco. It is reported that till the day he died he believed that the market was overstocked just for his visit. But every aspect of the layout of your modern supermarket is carefully designed to direct and influence your shopping.

Here are some tips from Consumer Reports On Health newsletter for navigating the supermarket and getting out with a cart full of healthy groceries.

 1. Always have a list. Ideally, give some thought to what you plan to eat over the next week or so and base your list on that. This will make sure you leave with what you really need and at least alert you to when you are buying something you don't. Also, if you usually shop at the same store, you can save yourself a lot of time by arranging your list in the order you will walk through the store.

2. Read Labels. Food labels allow you to easily compare nutrition across different brands of the same product. You may be surprised by how great the differences can be. Pay special attention to sodium and added sugar content, and look for whole grain as the first ingredient in baked goods.

3. Stock up on frozen items. Frozen fruits and vegetables are just as - or sometime more - healthy as their fresh counterparts. Plus they keep for weeks vs days. Beware of highly processed foods though, frozen or not. They are often loaded with salt, sugar and calories.

4. Buy organic when it matters. Organic foods protect you from pesticide and other chemical residue in your food. But not all foods present the same risks. Look here for lists of foods that should be organic and others where it doesn't matter much.

5. Know the layout. Most supermarkets are laid out in roughly the same way. Fresh foods like produce, meats, fish, baked goods and dairy are on the outside, along the walls. Packaged, processed foods generally fill the aisles. The things that the store especially wants you to buy are displayed at the ends of the aisles (the manufacturer's pay the store extra for this positioning) and the real garbage is near the checkout line.

6. Don't be fooled. If it seems to you like the store is constantly re-arranging where everything is, that is because they are. By forcing you to look for what you need, they are hoping you will see things you do not need and buy them anyway. Avoid such impulse buying. You will save money and eat healthier too.

With a plan and a little understanding, your trip to the market can be healthy, productive and efficient.