Health

4 Tips for Staying Health-Focused While Shopping and Cooking for Your Family

As a parent, you know that grocery shopping for the family comes with some responsibility. You are in charge of picking foods that will best feed everyone. Plus, you want to do your best to buy healthy items. If you are able to stock up on healthy foods in the house, everyone in it is more likely to eat well. A healthier grocery list will cut down your bill in the long run too.

But the average store has hundreds of different options, so how do you know what’s the healthiest?

We’ve compiled 4 tips for healthy food shopping and meal preparation. Read on to learn more!

1. Look for Organic and Humanely-Raised Meat/Meat Products

For many families, meat is an important part of their diet. It is a good source of protein, vitamins and minerals. When it comes to the type of meat you buy, you shouldn’t settle for low quality options. Often the cheapest meats on the market come from animals that are inhumanely-raised on farms that use unsustainable farming practices.

Look for options like the Seven Sons farm store, a family run farm that produces grass-fed beef and other animal products like dairy, eggs, and more. Places like this are also better about their farming practices than larger agriculturists. This means they do less damage to the environment.

2. Know Where in the Store to Shop

Do you know the strategy for how to shop for healthy food? It’s all about the the perimeter of the store. This is where you will find most of your healthy essentials, like fresh produce and dairy. The inner aisles are typically where you will find the less healthy foods. For example, that’s where a lot of the junk food resides, like your favorite chips, cookies, candies, and more.

There are important types of dry food in the inner aisles that you should look out for however. These include things like whole grains, beans, and nuts. If you avoid the worst junk food aisles, you’re less likely to make impulse purchases and stick to the good stuff.

3. Increase the Number of Fruits and Vegetables on Your List

You’ve heard it before and you’ll hear it again: eat your fruits and veggies! They are packed full delicious and nutritious vitamins and minerals. There are easy recipes that you can try that utilize fruits and vegetables. Although fresh produce is always best to get when shopping, buying some canned and frozen produce is also a smart move. They can be opened and prepared without too much trouble.

Pro snack tip: throw some frozen fruit into the blender to make a smoothie. This is an easy, healthy snack or even breakfast for the kids.

4. Plan Your Meals Out for the Week

Another great technique for healthy eating is planning ahead. Before your week gets too busy, take a minute to sit down and plan out your meals.

Planning out your meals allows you to make healthy choices and add variety into the mix. Once you have an idea of what you need, you can buy it all at once. If you don’t have time to cook a new meal every night, consider meal prepping. Make one or several meals at once. Then, refrigerate or freeze the leftovers.

Going into the week with a plan makes you less likely to go out to eat or grab fast food as a more convenient option.

Conclusion

We hope these tips will lead you to healthier meal planning for your family. Sometimes it may take a little more time, but in the long run, the change is worth it! You will feel better and so will those you love.

2 thoughts on “4 Tips for Staying Health-Focused While Shopping and Cooking for Your Family

  1. I can’t tell you how tip #4 is so important. Before planning out our meals for the week we would easily order take-out because we just couldn’t figure out what to eat.

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