Haley Haskin
- May 19, 2020
- 11 min read

Grocery Shopping for Wellness

Updated: Apr 30, 2023

If you’ve been reading my Health and Wellness blogs, you know I’m super passionate about living a healthy life. You also know that there is a lot of sneaky food and junk food out there you should be wary of, which leaves the question of what foods you can confidently shop for, and how to make sure you are taking charge of your eating habits from the get-go. And that all begins in the grocery store.

The best way to initiate a healthy lifestyle is to control what you bring home to your kitchen in the first place, because once it in the kitchen it is fair game. You want to make sure that junk food never even makes it into your house. But grocery stores are sneakier than you think. Strategic marketing and well-placed fixtures of processed foods and sweets are easy to fall prey to when you don’t have a plan. That is why I have made one for you! Let’s talk about all the ins, outs, tips, and tricks of grocery shopping for wellness!

Planning Your Grocery Shopping Route

When grocery shopping with a healthy diet in mind, there are areas of the grocery store to spend time in, and areas you want to avoid. Areas you want to spend the most time in are: Produce, Meat, Poultry and some time in Dairy. The areas you want to spend much less time in are: Bakery, Frozen, and Pantry. If thinking in terms of “spending time” is weird for you, think of your cart being made of percentages. You want approximately at least 40% produce and 25% meat. The other 35% can be made up of dairy, frozen, and pantry items.

It makes sense doesn’t it? If we are steering towards the most natural, wholesome, untouched foods, we should strive to add items to our carts that don’t have nutrition labels, because they are that pure. Get back to basics with fruits, vegetables, eggs, and fresh meats – the things we would eat before we had grocery stores. Try to strive for your cart to be made up of 80-85% wholesome foods.

As you make your way into pantry land and frozen land, you will see that the amount of ingredients on nutrition labels just gets higher and higher. When in doubt, here is a helpful hint to remember: the fewer ingredients listed on a label, the better. That means the food companies have had less opportunity to tamper with these foods, so they are generally safer to add to your cart. Less is more. The simpler the better.

Don’t Trust all Labels

Junk food companies are out to get us, and if you don’t believe me just read this blog. In order to combat this, it is important that you don’t just read the front of a package, which will boast anecdotal claims, such as “30% less fat,” “low sugar,” “no high fructose corn syrup,” “12 essential vitamins and minerals,” “good source of iron,” “with 10 grams of protein,” and more. None of these things are inherently bad, don’t get me wrong. But marketing departments use ad grabs like these to make their foods seem healthier than they actually are. A good rule of thumb to use here is: the healthier something claims to be, the more skepticism you should employ in making your decision. Health isn't about adding vitamins and minerals, it is about not taking them away in the first place. Sadly, a lot of these pre-packaged "health foods" have been through too much processing to really be called that. Make sure you flip to the side nutrition label, so you can see what is actually up with the food you are about to buy.

How to Read Nutrition Labels

Here is an ordered checklist of things to look for when reading a nutrition label. If your label fails a number before you reach the end of the checklist, put it down and keep shopping.

The first thing you want to look for is sugar. Obviously low amounts of sugar altogether are preferable, but especially low amounts of added sugar, which just make foods more addictive. In each item, you want to try to stay below 5-7 grams of sugar. For reference, it is not recommended that men eat more than 36 grams of sugar per day, or that women eat more than 25 grams of sugar per day. You can do the math there.
Next you want to look for carbohydrates. Low amounts of carbohydrates (less than 20 grams per serving) are preferable. It is even better if a good amount of these carbohydrates is made up of fiber.
Then look to the ingredients. If any of those carbohydrates or added sugars are from enriched flour, corn syrup, high fructose corn syrup, fructose, or glucose, throw the box, and run for your life.
Lastly, you want to look at the fats and proteins. High amounts of both of these are good! In fact, the amounts of proteins and fats should hopefully outweigh the amount of carbohydrates, and especially sugars.

If your label passes all these tests, you are probably safe to eat it! There are a couple other sneaky ingredients to watch out for on nutrition labels, but I cover that in another blog. Overall, just use your discernment. If an item has 1 gram of sugar and corn syrup is listed as an ingredient, you probably aren’t going to die. You will develop good judgement as you practice reading more labels! (I take a tiny amount of pride in how many nutrition facts I have memorized.) If you’d like more information on this checklist and how to prioritize macronutrients, I’d be happy to write an extended post explaining it. Just leave a comment or shoot me a message! But for now, just remember these four health proof checkpoints: 1. Sugar 2. Carbs 3. Ingredients 4. Proteins and Fats.

Grocery Pickup is Life

If there is one thing this 2020 quarantine has taught me, it is the glory of grocery pickup and delivery. I cannot believe how much time, money, and calories I have saved since I started using it during this pandemic! Even once this is over and the pickup fees are no longer waved, I am pretty certain this grocery shopping method will still save a ton of money.

It is unbelievable just how good the marketing teams are. I don’t even like shopping that much. But I walk into a store, and suddenly my head is on a swivel, twisting and turning to look at all the cool shiny things, brightly colored signs, and convincing sale tags, most of which are boasting deals on candy bars, powdered donuts, and breakfast pastries. All of these things I forgot existed until this very moment where I’ve impulsively decided I should buy them. An intended five-minute trip to grab avocados and eggs has turned into twenty minutes, and I’m $20 poorer than I was expecting to be.

But grocery pickup promotes intentionality and almost completely eliminates impulse buying. Not only do you save time and money. You save yourself so many calories from impulse dessert buys! When it comes to unnecessary junk food, I say don’t eat it, don’t look at it, don’t keep it in the house. And grocery pickup is a great way to achieve that without even causing you the tormenting inner battle of “putting it back.”

Sometimes it can be nice to shop around the store while you are still building your lifestyle and figuring out which foods work best for you. But once you know what you like, grocery pickup is the way to go!

Sample Stocking-a-Kitchen Grocery List

This a sample grocery list I would give to someone who has decided to live well, completely cleaned out their kitchen, and is starting from scratch. I wanted to do it this way so I could have a clean slate and not have to leave out good things like cooking oils, condiments, and spices (plus I’m moving again in two weeks and I’m gonna need this list). Obviously, this is a very personal list pertaining to my taste buds and preferences, so do with that what you will. I will soon be releasing some blogs with meal and snack ideas, which will make this grocery list make more sense!

Produce:

These are just my personal favorite fruits and veggies. Really, anything goes here! Produce is natural and always a winner, so I won’t boss you around in these aisles.

Apples
Cutie oranges
Peppers
Onions
Zucchini/Squash
Spring mix/kale and salad toppings (carrots, nuts, tomatoes)
Lime
Lemon
Berries
Carrots
Cucumbers
Celery
Avocado
Sweet potatoes
Butternut Squash
Brussels Sprouts
Tomatoes

Pantry:

Generally you want to keep your pantry items as minimal as possible. However, if you are stocking a kitchen, you will need things like spices, cooking oils, and various other “one-time” buys that come from the pantry section and are still pretty natural.

Light tasting olive oil (great for baking and salads)
Extra virgin olive oil (wonderful for cooking)
Spray avocado/coconut oil (great for baking)
Coconut oil (great for baking)
Vinegar (great for salads)
Buttermilk ranch dressing (also for salads)
Avocado or Olive oil mayonnaise (great for tuna salad)
Mustard (great for tuna salad or lunch meat roll ups)
Pickles (great at the end of meals or rolled in lunch meet with cheese)
Worcester sauce (has a tiny amount of sugar, but great for sautéing and baking meat)
Canned tuna (good for tuna salad)
Canned chicken (good for chicken salad)
Diced tomatoes (good for chili)
Tomato paste (useful for stuffed peppers)
Salsa (can be eaten with eggs or used in chili)
Sugar free Powerade or Pedialyte (I frequently lack salt)
Low sugar protein bars
Whole multigrain bread (with no sugar added)
Peanut butter
Mixed nuts
Almond or coconut flour (great baking alternatives)
Kodiak cakes pancake mix (I will never stop raving over these all-natural low carb/sugar pancakes)
Plain steel cut oatmeal (not instant, flavored, or rolled)
Sugar free maple flavor
Stevia
Erithrytol
Sugar Free/Dark chocolate chips
Harvest Snaps (great low carb, higher nutrition munchie)
Banana chips (higher in sugar but a great munchie alternative to regular chips)
Staple Spices: vanilla extract, cinnamon, clove, garlic powder, onion powder, chili powder, basil, oregano, smoked paprika, and last but not least, the Scarborough spices: parsley, sage, rosemary, and thyme.

Dairy:

I am a strong believer that there is nothing wrong with a little butter on my veggies, cheese in my eggs, or sour cream in my chili. Dairy can be inflammatory in excess, but it is so very savory, and is still paleo, primal, and ketogenic. Dairy products can also be a super alternative to eating dessert because they are so satisfying.

Eggs
Cheese
Heavy Cream (I use a dot of this in my coffee with no sugar; also great for adding richness to recipes)
Real Butter (Do not, I repeat, do not buy margarine)
Almond Milk (there is nothing terrible wrong with whole milk, but every human is a bit lactose intolerant; milk substitutes are less inflammatory)
Sour Cream (for chili and southwestern power bowls)
Cream cheese (great for veggies and lunch meat roll ups)

Meat:

If you live alone and can’t eat fresh meat fast enough, you can either buy it frozen, or section it and freeze it yourself when it hits the expiration date. You can't really go wrong with meat. Here are some of my favorites.

Salmon
Tilapia
Trout
Chicken thighs (I think thighs have the most flavor)
Grass fed Ground beef (It is only $1 more than non-grass fed and is way better)
Pork chops
Bacon
Sausage

Frozen:

Here you want to strive for fruits and vegetables. Try to avoid any full meals that have been pre-cooked, because they contain a lot of mysterious starches and preservatives. I try to buy most of my fruits and veggies fresh because they taste better, but there is nothing wrong with buying frozen ones if it saves you money and you can’t eat fresh ones fast enough! I buy all my cruciferous veggies frozen, because they are pre-cut/mashed/riced/spiraled/what have you.

Mashed cauliflower (great with pork chops)
Riced cauliflower (awesome with salmon)
Frozen broccoli and cauliflower (good with chicken)
Stir fry veggies
Natural ice cream (no corn syrup)

*Yes, ice cream. I always allow myself a treat! Especially since I take such care to eliminate 85% of other harmful ingredients in the rest of my shopping list. What will a small, occasional serving of cane sugar do? The answer is: make healthy living feel possible and perpetuate my success rate.