by Leann Zotis

Created on: July 04, 2008   Last Updated: February 14, 2010

There are two important steps when shopping that, if followed, will practically guarantee that you will leave the store with bags full of healthy, nutritious food. First of all, shop the perimeter of the store.  This is where you will find the produce section, the dairy refrigerator section and the fresh meat and seafood counters.  Foods that are minimally processed offer the greatest nutritional value. 

Whenver possible, buy it fresh! If you find it in the produce section, it's a safe bet that it's going to be good for you. Living, growing foods are the perfect sustenance for living, growing human beings. The closer something is to its original, unprocessed state in nature, the closer it will come to being suitable to your own natural digestive system.

Of course, the produce section or the fresh seafood counters are just a small part of any grocery shopping experience. After leaving aisle #1, you will find yourself adrift in a sea or packaged, processed, prepared foods that will most likely cause you to scratch your head in bewilderment as you consider the options. This is where the second step comes into play.

The second important factor in nutritional shopping is to read the nutrition label! Practically any food that is touched in any way by some sort of manufacturing process bears a nutrition label. What? You say that all that gibberish on the back of a package of cereal is too confusing? To learn your way around the nutrition label, start small. You don't need to understand every piece of information on the nutrition label.  Learn the importance of a few of the basic nutritional facts and you'll be on your way to healthier grocery shopping.

What's important? First, look at the serving size. So often, a person will look at a nutrition label, see that it says "only 100 calories", and proceed to eat three times the recommended serving size that equates to that "100 calorie" claim. This defeats the whole purpose of determining serving size. One cup is one cup. One ounce is one ounce. If you can't judge the correct measurements by looking, buy yourself a measuring cup and a scale and weigh and measure your food until you become better at "eye-balling" a serving size.

After that, strive for a just a few nutritional goals at first. The recommended calorie intake per day on most nutritional labels for the average person is around 2,000 calories. Knowing that, it just doesn't make good sense to eat a pasta dinner that supplies 1,200

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