How to Build Your Healthy Grocery List
You are familiar with "don’t go to the store hungry", add to that advice "you always need a grocery list." Build your own list around these healthy diet staples and remember to read nutrition labels.
Your Healthy Grocery List:
Vegetables
Vegetables provide high nutrient value, including vitamins, minerals, and fiber.
Healthy options:
- Dark, leafy greens: spinach, kale, and lettuce
- Cruciferous veggies: broccoli, Brussels sprouts, and cauliflower
- Starchy veggies: white and sweet potatoes, squash, corn, and parsnips
- Non-starchy veggies: artichokes, peppers, mushrooms, eggplant, and zucchini
Fruits
- Fresh, or frozen fruits and veggies all provide nutrients such as fiber and antioxidants, you must consume at least 2-3 servings of each.
Healthy options:
- Berries: strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, blackberries, and unsweetened cranberries
- Stone fruits: peaches, plums, nectarines, apricots, and cherries
- Citrus fruits: grapefruit, oranges, and lemons
- Melons: cantaloupe, watermelon, and honeydew
- Apples, Pears, Pomegranates, Grapes, Bananas, Pineapples, Avocados
- Example: Frozen fruits are a perfect addition to a smoothie.
Whole Grains
Whole grains can help you stay full because they take longer to digest and break down, they are satisfying. This can help you eat less overall. Also, make sure that whole grains such as 100percent whole-wheat are listed first on the ingredient list: examples include: oats, whole-grain bread, brown rice, amaranth, teff, farro, buckwheat, barley, millet.
Dairy and Eggs
Healthy options:
- Yogurt: Low-fat unsweetened Greek yogurt, Low-fat dairy milk or plant-based milk, Kefir
- Make sure you buy plain regular and Greek yogurts and add your flavor to it to control the sugar content.
- Cheese: cottage cheese, goat cheese, feta cheese, part-skim mozzarella, Grass-fed ghee and butter.
- Eggs: Pasture-raised eggs
Meat and Seafood
- Seafood: seafood is relatively low in calories, protein-packed, and particularly nutrient-rich.
Fatty fish: salmon, and sardines
Lean fish: trout, tuna steaks, cod, flounder, and halibut
- Beef: Grass-fed
- Poultry: chicken and turkey
Nuts, Seeds, and Legumes
- Nuts and seeds provide healthy fat and fiber and a wide range of vitamins and minerals. Nuts contain healthy fats that help control blood sugar levels and boost heart health by reducing cholesterol levels.
Healthy options:
o Almonds, Hazelnuts, Pistachios, Walnuts, Peanuts, Sunflower seeds, Quinoa, Beans, Lentils, Chickpeas, Peas, Soybeans