“If a food is in your house or possession, either you, someone you love, or someone you marginally tolerate, will eventually eat it.”-John Berardi
How often when you grocery shop do you take extra time to read the ingredient list for the products you're about to purchase? Even if the products display that it is organic, gluten-free, fat-free, organic, contain no artificial flavours, etc. With that in mind, it can be seemingly difficult to know what ingredients to look out for when shopping. Some helpful questions you can ask yourself are:
Does this food come in a bag, box, or plastic package?
Can you pronounce or recognize all of the ingredients?
How far away is this food from what it used to be? (And do you even know what it used to be?
Does this food come in a bag, box, or plastic package?
These options make for the most convenient options when you don't necessarily feel like prepping or cooking food. However, it is important to pay extra attention to these food items. Be sure to look at the ingredient list carefully, and watch for things like refined sugars, inflammatory seed oils , and the length of the ingredient label.
Can you pronounce or recognize all of the ingredients?
Chances are, if you don't know what it is (or how to say it), your body likely won't either. When we fuel our bodies with highly processed foods, it creates added and unwanted stress to the body. This means our systems need to work extra hard to try and metabolize, filter, and break these compounds down.
How far away is this food from what it used to be? (And do you even know what it used to be?)
Many of these highly-processed foods, in high amounts, can increase your risk for a variety of nutritional deficiencies. Consider making small actions to make your trip to the grocery store just a little bit better, by slowly adding more nutrient-dense foods (veggies, fruit, nuts and seeds, etc.) to each meal. It's so easy to go straight for the things we know and love- but there might be something right next to your go-to that you and your body will love even more.
Your body is your temple, and it deserves nourishing, nutritious food that will give you the strength and energy you need to take on life. That being said, your body will thank you for taking the extra couple of minutes to read over the nutritional label to ensure what you're buying will support you. There are enough factors we cannot control (take pollution as an example), but how you fuel your body is not one of them, so let's take advantage of that.
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