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A Handy Australian Guide to Healthy Shopping
Trying to unearth healthy food when shopping in your local supermarket is indeed a challenging task.
Aside from the sheer number of food stuffs presented to you it is estimated that larger supermarkets are now just about bursting at the seams with in excess of 14,000 items stacked high on their shelves there is also an overwhelming increase in the amount of 'bad food' too that you have to successfully navigate your way through to find the 'good' stuff.
And if you don't remain vigilant, it's far too easy to arrive at the checkout with a supermarket trolley that is laden with unhealthy and non-nutritional food. In other words, 'junk food' that's jam-packed full of fat and salt.
So before you go supermarket shopping again, I urge you to get yourself a copy of the book titled the 'Australian Healthy Shopping Guide'.
This book, written by dietitian Caron Milham, takes all the hard work out of shopping for food. It can help you to lose weight, or effectively manage it, as well as teach you how to regain improved feelings of health and wellbeing.
The secret to the success of the 'Australian Healthy Shopping Guide' lies in the way in which the book has been structured. Let's take a look at that structure now.
The content of the book has been divided into three major parts.
The opening part of the book is introductory in nature and leads you step by step through how the Guide can help you to remove the confusion that surrounds shopping for quality food products.
The second part of the book shows you how to read and decipher food labels. Acquiring this skill is essential. That's because it empowers you with the knowledge needed to successfully choose the healthiest products when shopping for you and your family.
The third part of the book, which is by far the largest part, focuses on removing the 'guesswork' and the 'hard work' out of shopping for food.
It achieves that goal by providing you with comprehensive details of the healthiest options in a large range of food categories.
Examples of the different food categories that are fully investigated in this part of the book include the following:
Grains
Fruit and vegetables
Meats and meat alternatives
Convenience and frozen meals
Sauces, recipe bases, pastes, marinades and gravies
Snack foods
Beverages
In turn, each of these major food categories is broken down into sub-categories. So, for example, the 'Grains' category consists of the following components:
Breads, bread substitutes and fruit breads
Breakfast cereals
Rice
Pasta
Other grains (including noodles), for example, buckwheat
Savoury biscuits
In a similar fashion, the 'Snack Foods' category consists of the following sections:
Breakfast bars and muesli bars
Nuts, seeds and nut pastes
Sweet biscuits
'Other' snacks, for example, air popped popcorn
In total, the Guide publishes the names and details of over a thousand different food products, all of which have been analysed by accredited practicing dietitians.
But what sets the 'Australian Healthy Shopping Guide' apart from other books about nutrition is its unique use of recommended choices for different types of food. These choices are 'gold', 'silver' and 'bronze'.
Here is how the Guide defines each of those three choices:
'Products that meet the 'gold' criteria within a food category are the 'healthiest'. They have the best nutritional combination overall for a particular food category for being:
1. Lower in fat, saturated fat, added sugar and salt
2. Higher in fibre and nutrients'
The Guide then explains that 'products that meet the 'silver' criteria within a food category are still highly recommended choices, to include often, for most people'.
Lastly, 'products that meet 'bronze' criteria are still recommended for most people, to include at least sometimes, for variety'.
So, for instance, if you want to buy a healthy yoghurt, it is simply a matter of turning to the 'Dairy Foods' section of the Guide and then browsing through the details of the different yoghurts, including soy yoghurt and fruche, that are listed there.
The Guide helps you to sort through all the different variations on yoghurt including 'natural', 'added live cultures', '96% fat free', 'light', '25% less sugar', 'reduced fat' and so on.
Another bonus with the book is the many nutrition facts, cooking tips and weight loss tips that have been inserted throughout its pages.
Personally, I believe that the best way to start reading the 'Australian Healthy Shopping Guide' is to begin with the testimonials that appear at the start of the book.
Not only will these testimonials whet your appetite to read the rest of the book, I'm sure that they will act too as a positive catalyst to set yourself the goal of healthier eating.
As a result of reading the Guide, you will be armed with the requisite knowledge that will help you to reach and maintain your ideal weight.
One final point the Guide also contains a section titled 'Smart Shopping Tips (Friendly to your waistline and wallet)'.
Summing up this book is easy dont go shopping without referring to its invaluable contents!
To browse the Web site of Caron Milham, the author of the 'Australian Healthy Shopping Guide' who is an Accredited Practising Dietitian with 23 years experience CLICK HERE And once you're on that site, you can read more about the 'Australian Healthy Shopping Guide' or purchase a copy of it. Another excellent reason for visiting this particular site is to find out about Caron's unique and exclusive 'Chooz to Looz' weight loss programme.