A go-to grocery checklist for longevity, wellbeing

By Mercedes Kay Gold, CNP, CPT

Eating a nutrient-dense diet dramatically impacts your body wholistically inside and out. It’s impossible to live a long vibrant life on a diet of processed, pathetic and colorless food stocked full of sugar plus scads of scary ingredients. Reap the benefits of the rainbow and fuel with fresh plants as much as possible. On-the-go? Ideally you chose the power of prep, but there are moments when take-out, gas stations, airports, and grocery store grab-n-go counters are the only options. Make the best choice!

Many grocery stores have prepped food ready to go. It all smells and looks lovely, but do you read the cute cards directly in front of the featured foods?  There are many troublesome ingredients. Aside from the health benefits or not, ingredients are especially important for those with food sensitives.

Top offenders:

• Soy! This means skipping the oil, beverages, salad dressings, and tofu.  It’s genetically modified unless stated otherwise.
• Canola oil! It’s highly inflammatory and man-made.
• Corn oil! Corn is GMO and of no health value.
• Partially-hydrogenated oils are a no! Skip any peanut butter unless 100 per cent all-natural. So long shortening and lard, too.
• Pass on the palm oil. It hurts us and the orangutans. We are destroying their homes.
• Corn syrup or HFCS is sugar and used in the oddest places. Seeing it used in roasted vegetables is an outrage. Balsamic vinegar or glaze, honey, maple syrup is also unnecessary. Natural is best.
• Vegetable oil! Run from this cheap oil. It is often used in steamed rice and for deep frying and in cold pasta and potato salads, as well as cole slaws.
• Food coloring may be the cuteness behind cupcakes, but beware, it’s linked to cancer.
• Tilapia, trout and salmon. They are farmed. One time watching footage of a fish farm will be all the proof you need.
• Aspartame, Splenda and Saccharin are still available and horrible for one’s health. Splenda is widely used in coffee chains and linked to cancer. Erythritol is now being linked to heart attacks so watch for the new culprit.
• Seasoned roasted chickens are an easy take away for dinner in a pinch, but the seasoning can contain gluten, food coloring and cheaper roast chickens are injected with oil to remain moist under the hot lights.
• MSG (monosodium glutamate) is used to soften meats.
• Sodium nitrites or sodium nitrates are in luncheon meats so please pass on the pizza and sub sandwiches even in bougie healthier grocery stores.
• Avoid sodium benzoate and potassium benzoate, agents that preserve shelf life.
• Skip smoothies from powders at local coffee chains. Fresh pressed juice is an awesome option!
• Skip syrup boosters in specialty coffee and brewed teas.

Better choices

• Choose pre-chopped salads and toss the croutons and sugar-coated roasted nuts and seeds.
• Choose whole grain bread over white.
• Choose veggie pizza not nitrate stocked deli meat or fried sausages.
• Choose brown steamed rice over white and fried rice.
• Raw nuts and fresh apples or bananas are readily available in gas station chains. There are always a few clean bars to choose from with raw ingredients. Look for the healthy solution!
• · Prep is always perfection, but on-the-go make the best choice possible! Clean foods without ingredients are best. Raw bagged veggies and fruit!  Stay healthy!

Photo credit: ©Naypong via Canva.com

Mercedes Kay Gold is a Certified Personal Trainer and Certified Holistic Nutritionist who loves helping others live their best life when not spending time with her children and grandson, Theodore. She can be reached at mercedeskaygoldfitness@gmail.com