Category: smart shopping

A primer on building your food budget

Rising food costs have obsessed consumers in these post-Covid times. While signs have emerged that costs have leveled off, they likely won’t fall any time soon, so everyone needs to work on budgeting for their food needs. If you haven’t done this, a good place to start is with this primer The New York Times ran recently entitled 9 Tips to Stretch Your Food Budget.

Among the tips are changes in lifestyle — eat less meat, snacking less and avoid wasting food. But there are also ways to save money, like using coupons and knowing your grocery store and how to find the cheaper offerings in a. given food category.

Coupons these days are largely digital, be sure to have the shopping app for every store you shop at to get their best deals. Also, check out national couponing sites. These tend to have coupons for major brands, which I tend to avoid because they’re usually the most expensive, but you can get occasional deals.

My goal is to only buy sale/coupon items every time I shop, and to save at least 30% off full prices overall. You can see an example of one of my recent receipts here with all the discounts noted.

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Grocery costs stable in May but still higher than 3 years ago

The good news is that inflation, and the increases seen in food prices the past three years, are moderating. The bad news, those food prices are still 20% higher overall than they were three years ago.

Everything you buy should be a deal or a sale, check this receipt of mine to see the savings.

Grocery prices were unchanged in May compared with April, according to Consumer Price Index information released for May recently.

“Wednesday’s report indicated that consumers are beginning to get some relief from the price spikes of the past three years. Grocery costs were unchanged, on average, from April to May, after actually falling 0.2% the previous month. Food prices have risen just 1% over the past 12 months, though they’re still up about 20% from three years ago,” reports Associated Press.

Smart shopping can cut your food bills, always be on the lookout for digital deals and other possible savings when you plan your weekly food shopping trips.

Producers won’t cut prices unless demand drops dramatically, so it’s up to you to manage your budget and find the deals.

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Ozempic fallout — a new line of frozen foods

The arrival of new weight-loss drugs like Ozempic is shaking up the food business, sometimes in unexpected ways. After report on top of report predicting declining sales of US junk food, one food processor, Nestle, has decided to embrace the new drugs by introducing a new food line to appeal to those taking them.

A Nestle PR photo of what one offering in its new line will look like.

“Vital Pursuit, a brand of line of frozen foods with significant protein and fiber content, is  ‘intended to be a companion for GLP-1 weight loss medication users and consumers focused on weight management in the U.S.,’ as well as being ‘well-suited to support a balanced diet for anyone on a weight management journey,’ according to the company,” reports MediaPost.com.

Expect to see more such products, high in protein but perhaps lower in calories. No mention, however, about salt, fat or sugar content. We can’t wait to get our hands on nutrition labels for products in this new line. Watch for products in stores during the fourth quarter of this year.

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More good news on olive oil, it can deter dementia

Olive oil should be a go-to good fat for any heart patient. Plus it can taste great, I use it not only on salads but on grilled veggies and a host of other dishes, just check my recipe page.

And now there’s more good news, a study has found it can cut the risk of developing dementia.

According to a report in Everydayhealth.com:

Olive oil we brought back from Italy in 2017.

“Scientists examined data collected over almost three decades on about 93,000 middle-aged adults. At the start of the study, participants were 56 years old on average and had no history of cardiovascular disease, a major risk factor for dementia. 

“Every four years, participants completed dietary questionnaires detailing what foods they typically ate and indicating how often they consumed olive oil: no more than once a month; up to 4.5 grams (g), or 1 teaspoon (tsp) daily; between 4.5 and 7 g (1.5 tsp) daily; or more than 7 g daily. 

“Compared with people who rarely if ever consumed olive oil, those who got at least 7 g a day were 28 percent less likely to die of dementia-related causes by the end of the study, according to results published in JAMA Network Open.

Continue reading “More good news on olive oil, it can deter dementia” →
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Britain seeks to cut salt intake but substituting may not be the best answer

Britain has been much more active that the United States in acknowledging, and trying to curb, the daily intake of salt. But this report on FoodNavigator.com notes what I see as a disturbing trend there.

Rather than eliminate sodium completely from food items, the article touches on the substitution of potassium chloride for sodium chloride by food processors.

I’ve tried so-called potassium salt. It tasted a bit different. But that’s not the major issue. The danger is that too much potassium can have its own dire consequences.

“If you have too much potassium in your body, your kidneys may not be able to remove all of it, and it can build up in your blood. Too much potassium in your blood can damage your heart, make you feel palpitations and even cause a heart attack. You can’t always tell when your potassium levels are high,” notes the Cleveland Clinic.

The Food Navigator article notes Britain has cut salt consumption and seen positive health results for its population. But my advice for individuals would be simply cut salt, don’t use a substitute that could cause you more harm than good.

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Our relationship with food — the good, the bad and the ugly

Fortunately for many of us in the United States, we aren’t worried about eating enough to survive. We are in a unique position, historically, in that were have access to many, many more calories than we need to survive — hence the obesity epidemic.

So at the start of every year, we’ve developed a new food ritual — people searching out new diets to drop some pounds after their massive end-of-year holiday eating binges.

Why do we, as a relatively affluent society, have such a love-hate relationship with food? I’ve recently heard from three experts delving into this question in their own ways.

Why Am I Eating This: Is This the Nourishment I Need? In this book, Sandy Robertson walks readers through a simple, seven-step process designed to help transform their relationship with food.

“What’s the right amount of food that satisfies our nutrition and fuel needs but satisfies us psychologically, too?” Robertson asks in a recent interview. “When we’re eating, we’re feeding our soul; we’re feeding our emotions; but it’s really all about balance and finding that right balance for us.” 

Robertson’s public relations person has sent me a review copy of her book, so expect to read more about it here shortly.

In a second book,  Nurture: How to Raise Kids Who Love Food, Their Bodies, and Themselves — Heidi Schauster, a nutrition therapist, provides a guide for parents and caregivers about feeding, eating, and discussing bodies with children and teens.

Schauster writes from her nearly 30 years of experience treating clients with disordered eating, her own experience as a recovered person, and as a parent of two young adults.

“In a culture that has such narrow parameters for what makes a ‘good’ or ‘attractive’ body, it is important that we don’t put too much importance on what the body looks like,” says Shauster. “Accepting and feeling neutral about the inevitable body changes of aging is something that we can teach our kids at a young age and through our example.”

And the third is This Is What You’re Really Hungry For: Six Simple Rules to Transform Your Relationship with Food to Become Your Healthiest Self by Kim Shapira M.S., R.D.— a celebrity dietitian and nutritional therapist.

Shapiro provides six rules to transform your relationship with food:

  • Eat when you’re hungry
  • Eat what you love
  • Eat without distractions
  • Take 10,000 steps every day
  • Drink 8 cups of water a day
  • Get 7 hours of sleep

Simple? If it was we wouldn’t have so many books looking at our curious 21st century relationship with food. Good luck with your dieting in 2024!

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Beware the apple sauce you give your children

Federal authorities are investigating apple sauce packets sold in 22 states that contain elevated levels of lead. the investigation centers around whether there pouches were intentionally contaminated, various sources report.

“The Food and Drug Administration is investigating elevated lead levels in apple cinnamon applesauce pouches sold under three brands — Weis, WanaBana, and Schnucks — and distributed by Amazon, Dollar Tree and other online retailers,” reports Patch.com.

“All three of the now-recalled applesauce brands were made at an Austrofood plant in Ecuador, where FDA officials announced last week they were focusing their investigation. The agency said health officials in Ecuador found that cinnamon from Austrofood’s supplier had higher levels of lead than the country allows. The company, Negasmart, is facing sanctions while officials there track down the source of the cinnamon, the FDA said,” Patch reports.

States where products have been recalled include California, Colorado, Florida, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Minnesota, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Tennessee, Texas, Wisconsin and West Virginia.

I never much liked apple sauce anyway, but here’s one more reason to put it aside for now.

Beware these brands, there’s been a recall for high levels of lead.
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10 worst foods if you have high blood pressure

I’m just getting back to this blog after several months off and what better to start with than foods that cause high blood pressure. I recently came across this video from someone who calls himself TheCookingDoc.

Imagine soups are low in sodium and fat, a rarity for any prepared soup.
If you must buy pre-made soup, read the labels and look for the lowest salt content.

Canned soup is the worst on his list, likely because of all the salt. Cookies are on the list, added sugar, processed meats, candy. It’s a list of what Americans normally eat.

So if you have high blood pressure, watch it and then start changing your eating habits.

ThecookingDoc sounds like a kidney specialist, here the link to his website.

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Five foods that naturally lower cholesterol

A guest post by Elizabeth Klodas, Step One Foods

Most people assume that LDL or bad cholesterol, can only be lowered with medications.  That’s not true.  We have a lot of control over our LDL levels based upon what we eat, especially the types of fats and the types of carbohydrates we choose.

Saturated fats that come from animal sources (think butter, cheese, the marbling in beef, etc.) help raise LDL. This is why some people that go on a keto diet will see their LDLs go through the roof.  On the other hand, unsaturated fats that come primarily from plant-based sources (think olive oil, oils in nuts and seeds, oils in fish, and in avocados etc.) help lower LDL in most people and raise HDL (good) cholesterol while reducing triglycerides – yielding an overall much more favorable cholesterol profile.

Complex carbohydrates (think brown rice, beans, whole fruits and vegetables, etc.) are digested slowly causing small increases in blood sugar and lower insulin levels.  Highly processed or simple carbohydrates (think puffed rice cereal, white bread, sugary soda and alcohol, etc.) are digested quickly causing big increases in blood sugar and insulin levels.  Insulin is a storage hormone so when it’s floating around in our blood stream it pushes our biochemistry into storage mode. 

Continue reading “Five foods that naturally lower cholesterol” →
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Processed foods in a healthy diet? Read the fine print in this report first

Pretty much any doctor or nutritionist you talk to about eating these days agrees on one thing — the fewer processed foods you eat, the healthier your diet will be. So I was surprised to see this headline: Scientists Build a Healthy Dietary Pattern Using Ultra-Processed Foods.

The press release comes from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, wow. It contains this: “The study is a proof-of-concept that shows a more balanced view of healthy eating patterns, where using ultra-processed foods can be an option,” said ARS Research Nutritionist Julie Hess at the Grand Forks Human Nutrition Research Center.” ARS is the Agricultural Research Service at the USDA (full disclosure, early in my career I wrote about the USDA for several small, rural newspapers, starting my days at the press office in the massive USDA headquarters in Washington).

Once my favorites, Hostess HoHos are off my diet today, but I will never forget them.
So the HoHo diet is healthy after all? No, sorry, read the fine print here.

Could all the bad press processed foods get be wrong? Well, not exactly. You need to read down a bit in the release to come across this caveat:  “The menu we developed scored 86 of 100 points on the Healthy Eating Index-2015, meeting most of the thresholds, except for sodium content [exceeded recommendations] and whole grains [below recommendations].” That’s Hess speaking again.

So too much salt and not enough grains? Sounds like the way Americans eat, unfortunately, and it’s not healthy.

I’m thinking this study was either started under the last presidential administration or by appointees in USDA from that admin who feel the government should be friendlier to the processed food business. Sadly, it’s another example of the politicization of food policy.

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