“Take care of your body. It’s the only place you have to live.” J. Rohn
Smart shopping can result in a smaller waistline as well as other health improvements. Almost every time I grocery shop I find new products that prove beneficial to my health and weight-loss efforts.
Items labeled “Low-Sodium” are become commonplace and in the last year or so I’ve started seeing “No Salt” and “No Salt Added.” Campbell’s Soup, Ro-Tel, Del Monte, Hunts, and many other name brands all offer healthy canned items.
Here’s a link to a great article, Healthy Grocery List Plus Diet Tips, According to Dietitians https://www.shape.com/healthy-eating/diet-tips/ultimate-healthy-grocery-list
Learn how to read the Nutrition Facts label because sometimes these labels can be misleading and difficult to decipher. It’s important to realize that all the nutrient amounts shown on the label, including the number of calories, refer to the size of the serving. I remember picking up a quart jar of pasta sauce once and quickly glancing at the label as I set it in my shopping cart. It read “50 Calories” and I thought that was really great. You can imagine my embarrassment when I prepared it in a recipe only to discover that it was 50 calories per serving and, regardless of the fact that it was in a large quart jar, a serving was defined as 1 tablespoon … if only I had slowed down and read the entire label and not just the calories!
Pay close attention to percent Daily Value (%DV). The %DV shows how much a nutrient in a serving of a food contributes to a total daily diet. The %DV helps you determine if a serving of food is high or low in a nutrient. Generally, 5% DV or less of a nutrient per serving is considered low and 20% DV or more of a nutrient per serving is considered high. More often, choose foods that are: Higher in %DV for Dietary Fiber, Vitamin D, Calcium, Iron, and Potassium … Lower in %DV for Saturated Fat, Sodium, and Added Sugars.
I know this information is possibly confusing; that’s why I wrote earlier that labels could be misleading. The American Heart Association has a recent article that is brief and helpful; use this link to go to the article, Understanding Food Nutrition Labels. https://www.heart.org/en/healthy-living/healthy-eating/eat-smart/nutrition-basics/understanding-food-nutrition-labels