Navigating the Grocery Store
In This Chapter
▶ Boosting your low-glycemic grocery shopping know-how
▶ Deciphering nutrition labels
▶ Staying on track with your weight-loss goals by keeping convenience foods on hand
Alow-glycemic diet isn’t always black and white — a fact that’s apparent the moment you set foot in a grocery store. Rarely will you find the words low-glycemic on product packaging. You can certainly go for healthy, high-fiber foods, but they may not always be low-glycemic.
Wandering through the grocery store without some preparation will leave you in a fog of questions. Was it oats that were low-glycemic or wheat? Do crackers count like bread? How do I figure out this box of macaroni and cheese? Should I pay attention to calories? With a little planning, though, you can make grocery shopping for low-glycemic foods much easier on yourself — and save your valuable time and money in the process.
In this chapter, I help you figure out how to navigate the aisles to find your best low-glycemic choices, how to cull glycemic information from food labels, and how to stock a healthy, low-glycemic kitchen. Grocery shopping will be a breeze from now on!
Being a Savvy Low-Glycemic Shopper
Shopping for groceries when you follow a low-glycemic diet is a little different from going grocery shopping while on other types of diets. Some foods haven’t been tested for their glycemic index, leaving you to make your best judgment call while shopping. Knowing what you’re going to buy before you enter the grocery store and how to find the best products once you’re there are the keys to having a good grocery shopping experience when you’re on the hunt for low-glycemic foods. The information in the following sections combined with a little preplanning will go a long way toward saving you from grocery shopping–induced headaches.
Planning meals to create your grocery list
A grocery list is the golden ticket to a relaxed grocery store trip that saves you time and money and keeps you from buying those oh-so-tempting cookies and chips. Using a grocery list helps you focus on buying low-glycemic foods and decreases impulse buys that may sabotage your weight-loss efforts.
You come up with a solid low-glycemic grocery list by planning out your meals for the week. Without a meal plan, you can end up buying foods you don’t eat, having the wrong foods in the house, or purchasing something just because it sounds good in the moment.
For years I regularly went to the grocery store without a plan and picked up either foods that sounded good or items I thought I might use. Time and again I wound up with a half-eaten roast chicken and spoiled broccoli and spinach. I’d then make two or three more trips to the store during the week to pick up items I didn’t have when I decided to make a certain recipe for dinner. This weekly routine cost me time and money, but it also convinced me that having a plan of what you need for breakfasts, lunches, and dinners (complete with all the ingredients you need for any special recipes) helps you stay on track with dietary guidelines.
Making a low-glycemic grocery list and planning your meals each week may sound like a daunting task, but it gets easier each time because you ultimately have a running list of the foods you use on a regular basis.
When making your first low-glycemic grocery list, your goal is to determine those items that you buy regularly (your staples). Then you can simply add other ingredients to that list each week. Here are some steps to get you started:
1. Figure out your staples.
Following are some common staples based on where you should keep them in your kitchen:
• Pantry: Old-fashioned or steel-cut oats, hearty stone-ground whole-wheat breads, low-glycemic cereals, pearl barley, bulgur, canned veggies (watch the sodium!), canned or dried beans, pasta, quinoa, nuts (especially walnuts and almonds), seeds, herbs, spices, vinegar, and oil
• Refrigerator: Eggs (especially those enriched with omega-3s), fish, lean meats, lowfat cheeses, cottage cheese, milk, lowfat plain yogurt, fruits, and veggies
• Freezer: Frozen berries and veggies In addition to these common staples, select foods from the lists in Appendix A that sound good to you and that best meet the low-glycemic criteria. (Note: Don’t feel bad if you have to keep referring back to Appendix A during your first several weeks of meal planning. It takes a while to remember which foods are low-glycemic and which ones aren’t.)
2. Purchase a small notebook (something that fits in your pocket or purse) and fill in your staples on the left-hand side of several pages.
You’ll refer to your list of staples each week, so using a small notebook and filling in several pages at once helps ensure your grocery list is always on hand. Of course, you may find that you don’t need to stock up on all of your staples each week, but your list still gives you a quick out- line to determine what you have on hand and what you need to get.
3. Determine any nonbasic recipes you plan to make and add any extra ingredients for that week on the right-hand side of a page.
Although your list of staples will remain constant from week to week, the rest of your grocery list will vary depending on any special recipes and meals you’re preparing.
Now that you’ve chosen your meals for the week and prepared your low- glycemic grocery list, you don’t need to wander the aisles wondering what to make this week or trying to remember whether certain foods are low-glycemic. You may even be surprised at how much money you save by focusing on your list and ignoring impulse-based items.
Knowing the best aisles to visit
When you’re armed with a grocery list and stick to the right aisles, you can make your grocery shopping trips efficient and avoid any weight-loss saboteurs along the way. Studies show that people have a tendency to buy impulsively — a fact that grocery stores count on when they position tempting food items in your line of sight and offer samples of various foods. Before you know it, you’re walking out of the grocery store with goodies that aren’t on your list and that may end up creating obstacles to your weight-loss efforts.
Use the following strategies to help you stay on track and avoid what I like to call “grocery store saboteurs”:
✓ Don’t go grocery shopping when you’re hungry. Head to the store after enjoying a satisfying low-glycemic meal. That way you won’t be tempted to go for the quick (usually high-glycemic) convenience foods because you’re starving and can’t wait to crack ’em open when you get home.
✓ Shop the perimeter. The outside edge of a grocery store is typically the best place to find your fresh, healthy food items (think produce, dairy, meat, and seafood). Guess what. These are also the most straightforward categories for low-glycemic shopping, which means you can buy low- glycemic fruits, vegetables, and dairy products with ease.
✓ Beware of the beginning section of each aisle. When you walk into a store, your line of sight is straight in front of you, which is precisely where the store typically puts yummy-looking treats, cereals, and other promotional products. Getting sucked in by colorful pictures boasting 2-for-1 specials is a double whammy that’s awfully hard to resist. So why even put yourself in temptation’s way?
✓ Do hit the interior aisles that contain canned meats, vegetables, and fruit. These items are often spread out between two aisles. Visit these aisles for staples such as tuna and soups, as well as ingredients for any special recipes you picked out when you prepared your grocery list. As long as you’re armed with your grocery list, you can navigate these aisles safely (minus the ends, of course).
✓ Skip interior aisles that don’t have anything on your list. Do you have a habit of going up and down every single aisle when you’re at the grocery store? If so, then you’ve probably realized how easy it is to, say, be seduced by the pictures of brownies and cakes on the packages in the baking aisle and promise yourself you’ll only eat a few as you throw some brownie mix into your cart. Forgo these temptations, stick to your list, and only go down the aisles whose products you actually need. (Here’s a bonus for you: This strategy saves you some time and money too!)
✓ Know what breads to look for before heading into that aisle. Even though bread products are a staple in many households, the bread aisle can be a tricky one to navigate. Make sure you know what types of bread are the best low-glycemic choices and try to avoid the tempting muffins and donuts hanging out in this aisle.
✓ Know which pasta and rice choices are safe before shopping that aisle.
Pastas and rice can be quite tempting. Improve your chances of making low-glycemic choices by knowing which types of pasta and rice are safe ahead of time.
✓ Tread carefully in the frozen-food aisles. You can find a lot of great items (such as meats, veggies, and fruits) in the frozen-food section. You can even find some not-so-bad for you treats (think frozen yogurt). However, the frozen-food aisles are also riddled with countless other foods that may challenge your commitment to your low-glycemic lifestyle. Because a low- glycemic diet encourages moderation and balance, you shouldn’t feel like you can’t walk past the frozen pizzas and ice cream. But you should skip any items that aren’t specifically on your list.
If you forget which aisles to aim for and which to steer clear of, just remember this: Stick to your grocery list.
Keeping an eye out for official seals
Early adopters of the low-glycemic diet had to engage in a little more guesswork when choosing packaged foods such as breads, crackers, and pastas at the grocery store. Granted, you still need to examine packaging to make the best judgment call, but thanks to some new labeling laws, this process is going to become easier over time.
The Glycemic Research Institute (GRI) — a private, internationally accredited certifying agency hired to provide certifications that are backed with research — operates a federally approved certification program. Food items that meet all the certification criteria, including clinical studies, are guaranteed to be low-glycemic. They can therefore use the GRI’s low-glycemic labels on their packaging in the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom. These labels simplify the process of choosing packaged low- glycemic foods at the grocery store.
The GRI’s Low Glycemic seal appears on those products that have been clinically proven to have a low glycemic index and load when fed to individuals without diabetes. Look for the following seal on products such as Uncle Sam Cereal and Ezekiel 4:9 Sprouted 100% Whole Grain Bread.
The Low Glycemic for Diabetics seal (see the following figure) denotes products that have been shown in clinical studies to have a low glycemic index and load in Type 2 diabetics. (The GRI hasn’t done any testing to determine which foods are friendly for people with Type 1 diabetes.)
These labels help take the guesswork out of grocery shopping so you can rest assured that the specific food product you’re buying has been clinically tested. However, as you venture into your local grocery store, you may not see these labels being widely used. That’s because the various food manufacturers can decide whether or not to have their products tested. As more people become familiar with the health benefits of a low-glycemic diet, it’s quite likely that more manufacturers will apply for one of the GRI’s certifications. (Visit the Glycemic Research Institute at www.glycemic.com for a list of products that are currently using these seals.)
Comparing fresh, frozen, and canned produce
Small differences can occur in the glycemic level and nutrient value of food (especially produce) depending on how it’s packaged. These differences aren’t always drastic, but they’re good to know about anyway. Here’s what you should know about fresh, frozen, and canned produce:
✓ Fresh produce is much better at retaining nutrient value; it also has a lower glycemic load. The closer your food is to its harvest time, the more nutrients it retains, which makes locally grown produce an especially good option because it hasn’t had to travel from another city, state, or country. Always watch for freshness in your fresh fruits and vegetables, whether you’re purchasing locally or not.
Bruises and wilting in produce may be the result of improper handling or a sign that the food is past its peak (meaning it has fewer nutrients to offer you).
✓ Frozen produce has a slightly lower amount of retained nutrients and a similar glycemic load. These products are frozen immediately after being cleaned and processed, which helps them retain more nutrients. Frozen produce can be a great economical value during off-seasons. For instance, when blueberries are out of season, the price for fresh ones can go up to $5 for a small carton and up to $7 for the organic version. That’s a bit much to spend. Fortunately, you can find frozen blueberries for much less year-round (or you can just purchase blueberries when they’re in season and freeze them in freezer-friendly containers for up to six months). Just make sure you’re not choosing frozen fruits that have sugar added to them.
Frozen fruits and vegetables (and even meats) are great to have on hand as a fast and easy way to round out your meals.
✓ Canned produce loses some of its nutrients and often has a bit higher glycemic load than fresh or frozen produce. For example, raw apricots have a glycemic load of 5 whereas canned apricots have a glycemic load of 12. Heating during the canning process is part of the explanation for this higher number; the other part is that foods, specifically fruits, are often canned in light syrup. You’re better off hunting for canned fruits that aren’t stored in syrup when you’re trying to follow a low-glycemic diet. When it comes to vegetables, especially beans, canned foods are great convenience items, and their glycemic load is similar to that of the fresh option.
Checking ripeness
Ripeness affects foods in two ways: It raises their glycemic index and glycemic load while simultaneously reducing the nutrients you can get from them. Some foods, such as fruits that are very ripe, have a higher glycemic load than their less-ripened counterparts. For instance, a slightly overripe banana has a glycemic load of 13, whereas a slightly underripe banana has a glycemic load of 11. Both bananas fall into the medium glycemic load level, so eating either one will have the same impact on your blood sugar. However, a com- pletely underripe banana (one that’s mostly green) has a glycemic load of 6. That may make it a low-glycemic food, but eating a solid green banana isn’t preferable for most folks.
The longer a food sits out, the riper it becomes, leading to lost nutrients. To make sure you’re getting the top nutrient value from various foods, try to select them at their peak of freshness. Fresh fruits and vegetables not only have more nutrients but they also have a lower glycemic load and a good taste.
Use the following list of popular fruits and vegetables as your freshness guide the next time you’re at the grocery store:
✓ Apples should be firm and smooth with no bruises or soft spots.
✓ Asparagus should be firm and brightly green for nearly the entire length of each stalk.
✓ Bananas should be yellow with a slight green color. Avoid bananas with black freckles or obvious bruising.
✓ Broccoli should have a dark green color and be tightly bunched together. Avoid broccoli that’s turning yellow.
✓ Cantaloupes should have a yellow or golden background color, not a green one (green is too underripe for flavor). The stem area is slightly soft when the fruit is ripe.
✓ Nectarines should have an orange-yellow-red color and feel slightly soft but not too soft. Skip ones with major soft spots or bruising.
✓ Oranges should be round and uniform in appearance. Pass over any with white mold at the ends.
✓ Salad greens should be crisp and not overly soft or wilted.
✓ Watermelons tend to make a sloshing sound when they’re overripe, so give the one you’re looking at a small shake as a test.
Reading Nutrition Facts Labels
Even though you can’t find a food’s glycemic index or load on its packaging, the ever-present nutrition facts label is a valuable tool for finding the best low-glycemic choices as well as the best foods for weight loss. Knowing what to look for on the label can make life easier for you as you navigate the grocery store aisles.
If you aren’t used to reading a nutrition facts label, deciphering that text may seem like a daunting task. Never fear. In the sections that follow, I give you the information you need to understand nutrition facts labels and cover how to determine whether the foods you’re looking at are low-glycemic.
Examining the nutrition facts label
Following a low-glycemic diet for weight loss means you must look at the whole picture of the foods you eat. Determining that a particular food is low- glycemic is only half of the equation. You also need to make sure that food is both healthy and low in calories. The nutrition facts label gives you all the info you need to know to make an informed choice. Following are the basics on what a standard nutrition facts label in the United States covers, plus a few tips to help you find the best products:
✓ Portion size: How many portions are in the package. Portion size is one of the most important things to look at first because it means the rest of the information you find on the label is based on that specific portion size. So if the package says there are two servings and the calorie level is 100, then you’ll end up with 200 calories if you eat the whole package.
The information on a nutrition facts label can be very deceiving if you don’t pay attention to portion size. I remember being with my sister once when she picked up a couple presumably healthy cookies at the health-food store. We got in the car and each gobbled down a cookie after only glancing at the label. We both felt unusually full afterward and decided to look at the label again. The cookie was 120 calories per serving, and there were eight servings per cookie!
✓ Calories: The amount of energy in one serving. Shoot for lower calorie levels when choosing your foods and be willing to compare different products to find the perfect one. If you’re looking at entire entrees, follow these guidelines:
• Women should consume 400 to 500 calories per meal.
• Men should consume 500 to 700 calories per meal.
Note: These guidelines are for entire meals only. If your entree is less than the top number in the recommended calorie range, that’s okay.
✓ Total fat: One of the three sources of calories for the body. Consuming a moderate amount of fats is important for your overall health. A gram of fat has more calories than a gram of carbohydrate or protein, causing your calorie level to add up quickly whenever you consume fats. Try to get no more than 30 percent of your calories from fat per day.
An easy way to determine the amount of fat you’re consuming without breaking out the calculator is to look for 3 grams of fat per 100 calories. So, for example, a food that has 200 calories should have 6 grams of fat or less, and a food that has 300 calories should have 9 grams of fat or less.
✓ Saturated fat: A subgroup of total fat that’s considered unhealthy.
Increased saturated fats in the diet are linked with heart disease and certain types of cancer. Try to get no more than 10 percent of your daily fat intake from saturated fats.
A good rule of thumb is to only consume 1 gram of saturated fats per 100 calories. So if you’re eating a food that has 200 calories, it should ideally have no more than 2 grams of saturated fats.
✓ Trans fat: A man-made fat that’s linked with heart disease. Do your best to purchase products without trans fats. If they aren’t listed on the label, go to the ingredients list and look for the terms hydrogenated oil or partially hydrogenated oil; these terms are another way of saying a food has trans fats.
You may notice that the label says 0 trans fats, yet you still see hydrogenated oils listed among the ingredients. That means the food is made with trans fats, but for that portion size the amount of trans fats adds up to less than 0.5 grams. If you use more than the listed portion size, that minimal amount of trans fats will add up.
✓ Fiber: The indigestible portion of a plant that provides roughage. The more the better! Fiber helps control your blood sugar and helps you feel full for a longer period of time. It provides denseness to foods, has no calories, and can be found in fruits, vegetables, beans, lentils, and foods made with grains such as cereal, pasta, bread, and rice. Shoot for 3 grams of fiber or more per serving.
✓ Sodium: A flavor-enhancing preservative. Sodium can cause your body to retain fluid, making you feel heavy and bloated. Scientific research shows that it may even stimulate your appetite. Avoid these negative effects by going easy on the salt shaker, choosing lower-sodium items, and limiting your sodium intake to 240 milligrams per serving.
Staying at or below 240 milligrams of sodium per serving tends to be difficult when you’re dealing with packaged and canned foods because they often use sodium as a preservative. Do the best you can by finding the lowest sodium content available.
Using the ingredients list
Although nutrition facts labels include data on total carbohydrates and sugars, that doesn’t give you much to go on as far as glycemic load. To determine that, you really need to know what the food is made up of. For instance, if you find whole-grain bread, you need to know what grain was used to make it — wheat, oats, or millet. Wheat and oats are fairly low-glycemic, but millet can be medium- to high-glycemic. Fortunately a food’s ingredients list can give you a good idea whether you’re buying a product that uses low-glycemic foods.
You can typically find the ingredients list at the bottom of the nutrition facts label, like in Figure 10-1. (However, you may find it in a different spot on the package depending on the available space.) Ingredients are listed from highest content to lowest. So the first ingredient makes up most of that food, and the last ingredient makes up the least amount.
Looking at the ingredients list for bread and pasta is one thing, but what on earth do you do with an entire entree that uses many different foods (think lasagna or a frozen dinner)? Well, unless these items have been tested, you must make your best-educated choice by looking at the glycemic load of the individual ingredients. Of course, the glycemic load of foods can change when the foods are
combined together. Fortunately there’s no need to get too hung up on the small details because using low-glycemic foods in moderation is shown to provide benefits to blood sugar levels and heart health. So just take your best guess when it comes to mixed foods and stock up on the foods you know to be low-glycemic (like most fruits and veggies).
Unless a product is tested for its glycemic index, you can only make your best- educated choice about it. If you know, for example, that most tested whole- wheat breads are low-glycemic, then you can get an idea for other products made of the same ingredients.
Stocking Up for Success
One of the best strategies you can put into place to keep yourself from abandoning all of your new dietary changes is to keep your pantry stocked. This advice may sound simplistic, but it’s truly one of the most useful strategies for staying on track. Why? Well, if you haven’t already, you’ll eventually reach a point where life gets messy or busy and you just don’t have time to plan and prepare healthy meals.
Thinking that every day of the week will go as planned just isn’t realistic. Sure, you know that on Monday you’re going to make chicken cacciatore for dinner and on Tuesday you’re going to make stir-fry. What happens when on Monday your boss wants you to finish up a project at home or you just don’t make it to the grocery store? All of your good intentions can easily fall apart right then and there when you revert to your old habits or simply grab some fast food or take-out. Although this is okay to do once in a while, the reality is these types of little weekday interferences occur all the time. Life just never seems to run as smoothly as you want it to, and that’s one of the biggest challenges I see people encounter when making diet and lifestyle changes.
To truly integrate a low-glycemic diet into your lifestyle, you need to be pre- pared. Keeping some healthy convenience foods on hand at all times is the key. I’m sure you’ve had one of those days where you’re running late or you’re just not in the mood to cook. If you always have some backup foods on hand, you can throw together something quick and healthy — meaning you don’t have to abandon your new low-glycemic eating habits just because life got in the way of your plan.
Stocking up on staples when they’re on sale or when you have coupons can actually help you slash your food budget.
In the following sections, I share some pantry, freezer, and refrigerator favorites so you know what to stock up on in order to make fast and easy throw- together meals.
Pantry basics
Following is a list of great items to always have on hand in your pantry (feel free to swap in your own low-glycemic favorites):
✓ Soups
✓ Chili
✓ Grains (quinoa, pearl barley, or brown rice)
✓ Bread (note that this is a perishable item)
✓ Low-glycemic cereals
✓ Oatmeal
✓ Polenta mix
✓ Canned beans
✓ Canned vegetables
✓ Canned fruits packed in water (with no added sugars)
✓ Tuna fish or packaged salmon
When stocking up your pantry, always choose low-glycemic items that have a long shelf life.
Freezer-friendly favorites
The beauty of the freezer is that it allows you to use produce in an afford- able and convenient way so you don’t need to abandon fruits and vegetables
when you’re short on time. The following items are great to keep in your freezer on a regular basis:
✓ Frozen vegetables (all kinds except for potatoes such as French fries)
✓ Frozen fruits (with no added sugars)
✓ Bag of skinless, boneless chicken breasts
✓ Frozen salmon burgers
✓ Whole-wheat hamburger buns
You can also add your own cooked freezer favorites to have handy when you need them. Some ideas include
✓ Homemade soups, stews, and chilis
✓ Cooked brown rice, quinoa, or pearl barley (portion in individual serving bags so you can pull one out for a quick meal)
✓ Grilled chicken
Weekly refrigerator staples
Refrigerator staples are more perishable, so pick foods you know you’ll use to avoid wasting anything. Don’t get discouraged if it takes some time to figure out what your refrigerator standbys should be. That’s completely normal.
You may have a much longer list of refrigerator staples than the following one when you do your meal planning. These items are just meant to be around for quick meals when you need them:
✓ Cheese
✓ Yogurt
✓ Milk
✓ Eggs
✓ Deli meats
✓ Salad dressing
✓ Favorite grilling sauces
✓ Prewashed bags of salad greens or fresh spinach
✓ Favorite low-glycemic fruits
Using stocked staples to make quick-and-easy meals
The whole goal of having low-glycemic foods on hand is to use them to create on-the-fly meals. Doing so helps decrease your need to eat in restaurants and saves you calories and money. Ultimately, that means you can reach your weight-loss goals successfully over time.
Some meals can be thrown together in minutes, whereas others may take a little more time to prepare. The deciding factor in how to use your low-glycemic staples is how much time you have. You can be as creative as you want with this process, but here are a few ideas to get you started:
✓ Mixed greens with salmon: This is an ultra- fast meal to put together. Simply grab your
mixed greens and any fresh veggies you have on hand and mix with your prepack- aged salmon, kidney beans or chickpeas, and your favorite salad dressing.
✓ Chili or soup and salad: Another quick meal is to warm up one of your favorite soups or chilis and make a side salad with your pre- packaged greens. This is a light meal, so you can pack your salad high with veggies, beans, or even nuts.
✓ Rice, beans, and vegetables: Even though rice is typically a higher-glycemic food, brown rice tends to have a low- or medium- glycemic load. Cook some brown rice or use some that you’ve already cooked and frozen, add some black beans plus any veggies you have on hand, and top with some cheese. Warm it all up in the microwave until your cheese melts. Note: To save on calories, don’t overdo the cheese. A quarter cup is plenty.
✓ Grilled chicken breasts with vegetables and quinoa: Take your frozen chicken breasts, top with your favorite grilling sauce, and grill until cooked through. Cook up some quinoa or use some that you already had frozen and warm up some frozen veggies in the microwave. This is a complete meal that you can make any time as long as you have these staples around. (Remember: Always cook frozen chicken breasts in one of three ways: in the oven, on the stove, or on the grill. Don’t cook frozen chicken in the microwave because the meat won’t cook evenly.)
✓ Salmon burgers with steamed vegetables:
Thaw out a hamburger bun and cook your frozen salmon burger in a pan. Add any top- pings you enjoy and warm up some frozen veggies for a side.
✓ Sandwiches: If you really don’t want to cook (or even think about it!), you can always have a sandwich for lunch or dinner. Whether you make up tuna fish or basic turkey, sandwiches are always an easy fix that you can eat with soup, salad, or fruit.
✓ Veggie omelet (or scramble): Mix your eggs and a little milk, pour into a pan, add some thawed vegetables, and top with cheese.
✓ Oatmeal and berries: Cook up your oats on the stove or in the microwave. Thaw some frozen blueberries in the microwave for 30 seconds and add ’em to the cereal. Pour in some milk, and you’re ready to go! If you want a bigger breakfast, eat a yogurt or poached egg with your oatmeal.
Need more inspiration for your next meal? Check out the recipes in Chapters 16, 17, and 18.
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