Tips for Healthy Shopping

• As a general rule, if there are ingredients that you cannot recognize, pronounce or spell, you should not be putting those into your body. And no cartoon characters either.

• Sugar is o.k. in moderation. However, eating "refined" sugars is not. Here are some examples of the names of these refined sugars to avoid:

"cane, brown, beet, date, grape, glucose, sucrose, maltose, maltodextrin, dextran, dextrose, sorbitol, corn syrup, fructose, high fructose corn syrup, corn sugar, fruit juice, fruit juice concentrate, barley malt, caramel, carob syrup and sorghum syrup"

• Choose breads with "WHOLE GRAIN". White breads and white breads with "enriched flour" are not the best choice.

• Select the freshest, brightest colored fruits and veggies! Also, you want the stems on your grapes to be GREEN not brown

• Watch out for those sodium levels

• AVOID TRANS FATS and PROCESSED FOODS!

"0 Grams of Trans Fat" does not mean there isn't any! Crazy, right? It just means that per serving there is less than 1 gram. So, it can be .8 grams and if a box has 10 servings, that means you actually consume 8 grams of trans fats.  

(see the article below that talks about how bad these trans fats and processed foods are for your heart!!!)

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FDA Consumer Magazine cites major sources of trans fats are contained in:

1. cakes, cookies, crackers, pies, breads, baked goods

2. animal products prepared in partially hydrogenated oils

3. margarine

4. French fries

5. potato chips, corn chips, popcorn

6. shortening

7. salad dressings

8. breakfast cereals

9. candy

Trans fats raise your LDLs, or bad cholesterol, which slowly builds up on the walls of your arteries. Trans fats may even lower good cholesterol, or HDLs. The Annals of Nutrition & Metabolism says that the intake of trans fat creates a substantially higher risk for heart problems due to narrowed arteries. Animal products contain small amounts of trans fat whereas processed foods are packed and overflowing with it.

Here are some tips on avoiding trans fat in your diet and lifestyle:

Partially hydrogenated foods have trans fats. If "partially hydrogenated" appears at or near the top of the ingredients list on the nutrition label, you should find a comparable item that uses canola or olive oils. Become familiar with the other names of trans fats when you are watching your labels. These include margarine, partially hydrogenated vegetable oil, partially hydrogenated vegetable shortening, and shortening.

Stay away from fried foods. Ask your waiter or waitress to prepare your meal with 100% corn oil, which is free of trans fat and is polyunsaturated.

Use fats in moderation. Five to eight teaspoons of fat is the recommended daily intake by the American Heart Association. No more than 10% of your calories should come from saturated or trans fat.