Food Supply Tips - Ways to make the food supply work for you.

The tips on this page are related to the food supply and how to get the best tasting and most nutritious foods for your grocery dollars. We all have a portion of our budget that we are willing or able to spend on the foods we eat. As food prices go up, finding new ways to make the most of our food budget becomes even more important.

These are tips that I know are useful because I use them myself. I will be adding to this page as more tips come to mind or as I discover new ideas that will help you make the most of the food supply.

When you shop at the supermarket, do most of your shopping on the perimeter of the store. This is where most of the whole, unprocessed foods are located. The inner aisles are where most processed and junk foods reside. If you mostly avoid those aisles (okay, you have to venture there to get your brown rice and lentils), you won’t be tempted by the bright packages. With many processed foods, more is spent to make the packaging attractive, than is spent on the product inside the packaging!

Cantaloupe is a wonderfully nutritious and low calorie treat, but how do you pick one that will be sweet and juicy? The secret to picking a ripe cantaloupe is the appearance and fragrance. Pick the one that is less attractive—not smooth and perfect—and the one that has a sweet fragrance when you smell the end where it was picked. Be sure that the melon is not too soft or moldy, since it may be overripe. This method works much better than thumping it!

What about the quality of the eggs you are eating? The shell should be thick and not break easily. If it crushes easily, the chicken that it came from was not fed a healthy diet (probably from a chicken factory). Consider buying cage-free eggs or organic eggs. The extra expense is worth it for both taste and quality. (If you buy a cage-free or organic egg and it doesn’t pass the “shell test” or taste better, consider a different brand.) Don’t shy away from brown eggs, they are just from different colored chickens!

I like to have a supply of hard-boiled eggs on hand for high-protein snacks, to add to green salads, to make egg salad and for use in other dishes. The easiest way to make consistently perfect hard-cooked eggs is with an egg cooker.

Just put the eggs in the holder, add the appropriate amount of water from the special measuring cylinder, and when the buzzer goes off, you will have perfectly cooked eggs.

A rule of thumb to remember when choosing cheese is the harder the cheese, the more saturated fat it has. Thus, cottage cheese has less saturated fat than a sturdy cheddar or an aged Swiss. It is generally our goal to eat less saturated fat, since it is the fat that tends to collect in our blood and arteries.

As far as is possible, buy produce that has not been sitting and being sprayed with water for any length of time. You will notice that at many supermarkets the vegetables are sprayed with water, or misted, periodically to keep them fresh looking. Unfortunately, the constant spraying can leach the nutrients and flavor from the produce. Constant exposure to light can also destroy the nutrients in many fruits and vegetable. If you can find a local source of produce, or a source where the produce is fresh and where there is less time and fewer steps between the grower and the seller. Farmers’ markets are often a good place to go for fresher, tastier produce.

High Fructose Corn Syrup. It's ubiquitous! Nearly every food on your grocery shelf has it as an ingredient, even the potentially healthy foods like whole grain bread. Unfortunately, it is sweet and it is cheap, so food companies are using it without regard to the health consequences. The problem with HFCS is that it keeps you hungry. There is a chemical released by your brain to tell you that you are not hungry anymore, and HFCS seems to inhibit this process. Check your food labels, and avoid products with HFCS. This will not be easy, but you can still find some products that do not have it. Recently, I was amazed to see a banner on a food product, "NO HIGH FRUCTOSE CORN SYRUP!" When I checked the label it showed, "high maltose corn syrup" as a main ingredient. Do you think this is any better?

If you are confused by the terms "wheat bread" "whole-wheat bread" and "100% whole-wheat bread," you are not alone. One way to tell if a bread is actually going to deliver the fiber of a 100% whole-grain product, is to check the label for the amount of fiber in one slice of bread. If it has at least 3 grams of fiber per slice, it is more likely to have 100% whole grain in it and not just a mis-leading label.

When checking food labels for nutritional value, be aware that sugar comes in many forms, and food companies have become adept at disguising it and separating it so that you don't realize how much sugar is actually in the product.

Cane juice… Cane syrup… Corn Syrup… Corn Sweetener… Dextrose… Fructose… Glucose… High Fructose Corn Syrup… High Maltose Corn Syrup…Honey… Lactose… Levulose… Maltose… Malt Syrup… Molasses… Sucrose… Syrup…

Of course, anything that is called sugar, such as maple sugar, brown sugar, invert sugar, raw sugar or turbinado sugar are also forms of sugar. If you are trying to cut down on sugar or have medical issues that necessitate avoiding sugar, you need to be aware of these other names for sugar.

When you are looking at food label ingredient lists, keep in mind that the healthiest foods generally have ingredients that you recognize. If the list reads like a chemistry lab experiment, you may want to look for a product that contains more real food and fewer chemicals. If this is not always possible, at least be aware of the limitations of these “unnatural” foods with regard to your health, and use them consciously and sparingly.

Generally, the simpler versions of a food will contain fewer additives. For example, if you like to go out for ice cream, a dish of vanilla ice cream will have fewer additives than when it is enhanced with toppings and flavorings. The same applies if you buy ice cream at the grocery store. You will need to read the label to be sure, but generally look for plain flavors such as vanilla in a brand that uses basic ingredients. Keep in mind that you can buy the plainer flavors and then add your own high quality toppings at home. In my experience, low-fat and no-fat versions are loaded with additives to compensate for the loss of flavor and texture when the fat is removed.

Watermelon is a favorite summer treat, and with its complement of vitamins and minerals, can be part of a healthy eating lifestyle. The best watermelons are those that are uniform in shape, dense (they feel heavy for their size), have a definite spot where they rested on the ground while ripening on the vine. They should also be free of any soft spots and should have marks where the melon detached naturally from the vine, rather than being cut while still green. If a watermelon is not allowed to ripen on the vine, it will never obtain the desired sweetness.

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Disclaimer: The information on this site is
provided with the understanding that the author
and publisher are not providing medical or
nutritional counseling, and that it in no way
replaces consultation with a health care professional.
© 2012 by Mission Enabled All rights reserved.

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Food Supply Tips