Navigating Labels

For most of us, taking the time to prepare pure, wholesome foods during the hustle and bustle of everyday life is a rare thing indeed.  Between the demands of full-time employment, maintaining a household, and in many cases, raising children, reserving an hour towards making dinner is the last thing anyone wants to do.  Consumers thus place their faith in ready-made meals and boxed dinners with the seductive assertion: “Ready in just 10 minutes!” inscribed in bold print.  However, much like you wouldn’t select a bruised-looking apple based on what information you glean from its skin, you shouldn’t disregard the readily available information printed on the back of your packaged foods. 

Convenience shouldn’t be the sole deciding factor in what foods to select when browsing through grocery store aisles.  In fact, it shouldn’t even be a priority.  Ignore food labels and you could be committing yourself to a bad apple.  

Shop Smart

It should come as no surprise that the United States is the world’s leading nation for obesity – we don’t know how to pick the foods we eat!  The food industry has capitalized on convenience over nutrition, and now more than ever, families have taken to choosing the convenience of pre-made, processed foods over the traditional home-made meal.  Consumers have fallen prey to the lure of decadent-looking images and ten-minute prep times emblazoned on box dinners, so much so that the actual content of their mealtime choices is completely disregarded.  To be expected, this has resulted in a significant decline in overall health.   

Of course, it doesn’t have to be that way.  A conscious effort to make educated and healthful choices when perusing the aisles of your local supermarket offers a simple, straightforward remedy.  Here are several tips to consider that should get you started:

Organic Mania - Is it worth the hype?

Since the advent of the green movement, no other topic has elicited quite such controversy and concern as the frenzy for organic food.  Long gone are the days when grocery shopping was a simple matter of grab-and-go.  Rather, today, a visit to your local grocery store presents the daunting dilemma of determining what foods are safe to eat and whether or not their higher price tag is worth the supposed benefits. 

Consumers are now bombarded with findings condemning conventional farming practices as unnatural, unnecessary and most of all, unsafe.  And like a villain that needs vanquishing, the public turned to organic food as their champion of wellness and defender of health.  Celebrated for being free of toxins commonly found in conventional farming aids, food that has been organically-produced offers the assurance that what you’re eating is delicious, nutritious and most importantly, safe.  Yet for all the outstanding claims of the organic movement, is it really worth the hype?