The shopping list for a healthy kitchen

Mar 4, 2017
3 min read

Filling your pantry, fridge and freezer with healthy, whole foods is incredibly important for maintaining a healthy diet and improving weight loss. Stocking up on these foods encourages you to cook healthier and reach for more nutritious snacks when hungry.

Shopping for "healthy" food can be down right confusing. In the supermarket many foods are labelled "low fat", "low sugar" or even given a health star rating out of 5. TIP: Ignore all of these. When I went into the supermarket a few weeks ago I noticed that a muesli bar filled with sugar and processed fruits was given 5 stars, and some cereals were also given 5 stars when their sugar content was just as bad.

Look at the back of the packaging for the nutritional content and ingredients. How much sugar is there in the product? How many ingredients are there? Do you know what these ingredients are?

My rule of thumb is - if there are more than 5 ingredients, or if there's something I don't recognise - then it's definitely not going into my body! Below is the nutritional content for rolled oats - one of the best breakfast foods you could have in your pantry.

So how much sugar daily?

Research shows that men should consume 150 calories per day (37.5 grams or 9 teaspoons) and women should consume 100 calories per day (25 grams or 6 teaspoons). To put that into perspective, one 330ml can of coke contains 140 calories from sugar, while a regular sized snickers bar contains 120 calories from sugar. Active people can tolerate sugar in moderation as they're likely to burn it off, however, more sedentary people should be trying to avoid processed sugars and limiting fruit where possible.

It is very important to make the distinction between added sugars and sugars that occur naturally in foods like fruits and vegetables. These are healthy foods that contain water, fiber and various micronutrients. The naturally occurring sugars are absolutely fine. However, added sugars are those that are added to foods. The most common added sugars are regular table sugar (sucrose) or high fructose corn syrup. If you want to lose weight and better your health, then you should do your best to avoid foods that contain added sugars.

So, next time you do your shopping try adding some of these to your shopping cart for a very healthy, wholesome kitchen! Each time you do a shop, add a few more to build up your pantry and spice rack.

For the pantry: