How to fill your trolley with clean, lean and delicious food.
Supermarkets can be very deceiving. You may think you’re buying organic or a box of healthy snacks, but be careful; the devil’s in the detail – literally. Those fancy labels and big claims are often just masking the ingredients they don’t want you to see.
To ensure your supermarket trolley is loaded with goodness, follow these rules:
1. Stick to the outside aisles
This supermarket secret is one of my faves. The outside aisles are where you’ll find fresh fruit and veg, eggs, dairy and all your meats. So, try and fill up your trolley from these aisles first. The middle aisles are good for staples like olive oil, nuts, brown rice, and quinoa – but avoid processed and sugary foods.
2. Read labels
And I mean, the fine print! Don’t just fall for fancy and colourful labels and buzz words, read the ingredients list. If you can’t pronounce the ingredients, put it down! And anything with too many ingredients (unless they’re all whole foods) is way too processed to consider.
3. Check out the order
Did you know that ingredients are listed in order of prominence in the product? So, make sure the first few ingredients are healthy and NOT sugar. Some of our favourite condiments are loaded with sugars, so it definitely pays to read the labels and compare brands.
4. Watch out for ‘fat free’
Be careful: ‘fat-free’ or ‘low fat’ may not be the smart option. Often these products are loaded with sugars and chemicals to replace the flavour. Also, when the fat is removed, you’ll find you won’t feel full after eating, so you could end up overeating. I always buy full fat and I promise you, eating it will not make you fat.!
5. Write a list
To help keep you on track and in the right aisles, write a shopping list before you go to the supermarket – and only buy what’s on the list. If you don’t have a guide, it’s very easy to pick up unnecessary products and be seduced by colourful packets and sugary sale items. (Our KIC program has an inbuilt online shopping list – so easy!)
6. Shop when full
Have you ever gone out for breakfast so hungry you ordered avocado smash, with bacon, mushrooms, feta, hash browns AND toast? Then after you’ve eaten it all, you think “Whyyyyy?” Same goes for supermarket shopping. Don’t go when you’re starving because you’ll only buy food to curb those cravings. Instead, have a snack or a smoothie, let it digest and shop when your tummy is content.
Article by Laura Henshaw, co-founder of kicgirls.com
