Supermarkets with a healthy, natural focus are springing up around the nation. Here in Montgomery, we have recently added Earth Fare to our grocery shopping choices, and Fresh Market is expanding to a new location. Whole Foods is a major nationwide chain distributing heathy grocery items.
The benefits of shopping at these types of stores are great. You have a large selection of organic foods with little to no preservatives and a wide variety of fresh food choices. Most stores even feature their own brand, which offer great options at a lesser price.
Beware though, that you do not believe everthing you buy at these stores is healthy for you. A brownie is still a brownie when it comes to sugar and carbohydrate content and can still add inches to your waistline. All too often, we believe that if something is marketed to us as healthy, then it must be. And everything in these stores is marketed to consumers as healthy. Usually healthiER but not always extremely healthy. Empty calories are empty calories even if they are organic. Remember to treat them as such.
Use the same grocery shopping guidelines as you would in a traditional grocery store. Buy most of your food from the perimeter of the store, where the fresh produce, meats, breads and dairy are held. Read calorie and fat content and remember that treats are still indulgences when you're loading up your cart.
Overall, remember to have fun. Grocery shopping should be an experience and your options at these stores are endless. Play around with ingredients and create healthy and delicious meals for you and your family. Pick up a couple mouth watering cookies from the bakery for a special occasion. Splurge on the bottle of organic wine, which tend not to have sulfites like regular wine. Your food should be one of the top investments you make, so if something costs more than you would pay at a regular grocery store chain, like meat, keep in mind there's probably a good reason why.
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