We all are busy in our everyday life and we all tent to rush when it comes to shop for our groceries. Even in cases when we take some more time, we stay faithful to our routine and beliefs. The social media and the whole trends of eating of our society influence our choices of food. The majority of people tend to make healthy choices even if they have to invest more for some products and this is great; in the end what is more important than our health.
We should not forget that if we try to buy smart the companies are also trying to sell smart. In our times when the art of marketing is unstoppable is really hard to find the best choices both healthy and economically.
Below I would like to give you 7 fast solution to buy smarter and heathier to consider next time you go grocery shopping. It will help you to save your budget while choosing high quality food.
Quinoa is one of the trendiest food of the moment. Doesn't organic quinoa sound healthy? It's one of those products that ends up in your shopping cart, not because you need it, but because it makes you feel better about your food choices.
There are many recipes done with it. It can be used in main meals, snacks, and also deserts. You can discover many of those recipes in our site too.
However, even though the organic quinoa is more expensive, it is not any healthier. Most quinoa does not require pesticides to grow, so buying organic or not doesn't matter.
People may use pesticides, but quinoa doesn't need them, since it has a coating that contains bitter-tasting saponins, making the crop nearly impermeable to pests. I do not think any farmer should be willing to spend extra money on pesticides for a product that grow naturally healthy.
Do not forget to soak quinoa before you cook it because it removes the bitter taste of saponins and also activates enzymes in Quinoa which make it more digestible and nutritious.
Buying organic produce always sounds like the healthy choice, but beware, especially when it comes to fruit with a thick peel. Organic avocados are marked up quite a bit from regular ones, and the "organic" label doesn't really matter for them.
"Foods that have to be peeled, like bananas and avocados, tend to have a much lower number of residues when those foods have been prepared to eat
Save some money and go for the regular avocados.
Your guacamole will be just as delicious and healthy.
Infused olive oil is a great treat. The smell and taste it can add to your meal is incredible, but the infused olive oils at the store are highly marked up in price. I discourage purchasing infused oil and vinegars, because they are so easy to make yourself and often go rancid before you've used them.
Instead of buying that pricey bottle at the store, make small batches of your own at home. This way you'll save money on the ingredients and will be less likely to waste the extra oil.
If you have never made homemade infused oils yet we have a bunch of recipes of infused oils here.
Everyone has their own way to make its own choices when it come to healthy food. When you're trying to eat healthy and really start missing junk food, you start to make irrational decisions, like eating an entire box of vegan cookies.
They're vegan, so they must be healthy, right? Unfortunately, they're no healthier, just a lot more expensive.
Let think about it this way:
A vegan chocolate chip cookie may be dairy-free and/or made with organic or raw ingredients, but it can still be 240 calories with 39 grams of carbs, 19 grams of which come from sugar
Just check the labels and if you want to compare a small order of McDonald's fries has less carbohydrates, sugar, and calories than that!
DO NOT FORGET: White sugar is vegan, flour is vegan, chocolate chips can be vegan.
Just because a cookie is made with these does not mean it's worth buying it!
I have always assumed that it's cheaper to buy fresh fruits and vegetables as opposed to frozen, but it may be time for me to rethink that. Frozen produce is often cheaper and may even have more nutrients than the fresh varieties. It creates a pool of vitamins even in seasons when the fresh products are not available. For example, I always buy organic frozen peas which are as delicious as fresh ones.
So, trying to buy fresh produce that are out of season might be more expensive and less healthier. I always advice to buy in season produce and also to buy local as much as possible. Otherwise, buy frozen as much as you can, because it tends to have higher nutrients from the flash freeze process compared to fresh items that may have travelled thousands of miles.
We also tend to throw out a lot of fresh produce every month." Buying frozen helps ensure that we use up what we have before buying more the following week. You can also freeze your one produce before turning bad in order to prolong their use and save money: such as bananas which you can use to make smoothies or delicious banana bread.
Buying frozen is especially helpful when it comes to organic. I start realizing that purchasing fresh organic or even fresh non-organic produce added up fast, and most of the time we didn't eat it fast enough before it would spoil. But purchasing frozen bags or freezing the products yourself, saves you a ton. In the same time, we make up enough room in our grocery budget to purchase other produce fresh that doesn't freeze as well, such as tomatoes, squash, lettuce and zucchini.
Frozen is also the way to go to save on seafood.
Many stores mark up their fresh seafood, but it may have come off the same truck as the frozen packages. Go for frozen seafood rather than for “fresh” because anyways seafood needs to be brought in frozen and then thawed in the store. These fresh items can cost up to 40% more than the exact same thing that's frozen.
Buying bags of frozen seafood also helps with the waste concern. You can cook just a little at a time, as opposed to trying to use up the fresh seafood before it spoils.
Of course, this is an advice for all the population that shop in supermarkets but if you live by the bay do not even have a second thought about the fresh seafood produces.
Everybody loves to eat a fish that jump from the sea directly in your pan!
Fish and chicken are becoming more and more popular in our society as many diets recommend them and favour them toward other sources of proteins.
I buy boneless, skinless chicken breast just about every week. Even if I did not make any plan to use it, I know we will use it, so I automatically toss it in the cart. However, buying chicken breast with the bone in can cut the price in half.
Along with that, boneless skinless chicken thighs cost cheaper than chicken breast. The thighs tend to not dry out as quick as the breasts either.
This makes them easier to cook and juicer to eat. Anyway, do not forget no one in the family will make the difference while eating them. They will just be happy to eat chicken!!!
When I used to go shopping I liked those cute packing products in nice bottles and jars or covered with glitter paper that reminded me of Christmas. Or, products wrapped in soft clothes which made the product look so chic but, in the end, I always ended up paying my emotional satisfaction in an overly high price.
We all know food companies are marketing to us and it’s easy to get sucked into the clever packaging. Be wary of anything with a label. Brands often use eye-catching graphics to lure us into purchasing their product, even simple 'artisan' crackers or granola can appear to be more valuable with the right packaging.
A good advice is to go for the generic store brand versions, which are cheaper and most often contain the same products found in the more expensive brand versions.
Make sure to pay for quality food, not quality advertising.
