Today’s article is part 2 on techniques for shopping for fresh food more often (Part 1 is here: 18 perfect excuses to avoid buying good food). Most of us who follow typical Western dietary practices buy a lot of well-preserved, packaged foods all at once, shopping once every couple of weeks in an effort to save time and money. This means that we typically buy foods that don’t spoil in the first few days. The question is, from a health perspective is that always your best bet?

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In my case, shopping infrequently led to trouble. At that bi-weekly shopping trip I would often buy a few fresh fruits and vegetables, but they were either quickly eaten or, a few days after shopping, on the downward slope of a wilted death march in the primordial “crisping” drawer. That left a week and a half, or longer, without anything particularly fresh. Lots of carbohydrates and salted goods were made to last until the next major shopping trip. And while I enjoyed those salty bags of chips and boxes of cereal, my weight gain suggests that I should have been eating more of the fresh stuff.

The second problem for me is I would wind up at a restaurant or worse, the drive-thru, because I was tired of the food I’d bought weeks ago. I am not a good advanced meal planner (though I’d like to be) - I am able to plan meals for a few days, but when it gets into weeks or a month, my plan always breaks down. I don’t know what I’ll be in the mood for in two weeks, and that led to finding alternatives, and usually bad ones.

The irony? I spent that saved time and money eating out, and eating poorly at that.

Based on suggestions from folks like Michael Pollan and Dr. Will Clower, I have made some changes in how I shop, and they’re working out well. Here are a few techniques that I use to get to the store more often:

1. Buy less food! It sounds ridiculously simple, but simply buy less when you go. It means - you guessed it - you have to go back again.
2. If you live in an urban area, use your trip to the store as an excuse to exercise. If your work is near a store, walk there after work for your shopping, and bring your own bags. Since you’re only buying what you’ll eat today or tomorrow, you won’t need more than a bag or two.
3. Shop at the best store in your area, but only for the fresh products. If you want the best produce, shop at the best store you can afford. However remember that you can find many of the canned and dry goods much cheaper, and as healthy, elsewhere. I learned this first-hand shopping at Whole Foods (or Whole Paycheck as a friend calls it) - the trick to Whole Foods, and markets with higher-end products, is to shop the perimeter and only buy what’s fresh. And again, only what you plan to eat in the next few days, or a few things (like meat) that can be frozen.
4. Shop at farmer’s markets when they are in season. Farmer’s markets will provide what’s in season at a reasonable price and at the peak of sweetness for the fruit or vegetable. On whole, the fruits and vegetables at farmer’s markets simply taste better by nature, and are not coated in the preservatives that are used to get foods shipped here from Chile, China, and so forth. Talk to the seller; find out how their products are grown and harvested, and buy what’s in season. That is one of the tricks to navigating a farmer’s market without breaking the bank; if you buy what they have the most of, the price is going to be less.
5. Treat going to the store daily like a zen experience. I use this time in the morning, after dropping my son off at school and before work, as my mental quiet time. Of course, the store I go to is fairly quiet at that time of day, so that helps. But you get the idea. Make that time in the store Your time.
6. Consider shopping for what you put in your body an educational experience. Go to the store for the purpose of learning about what you are actually eating. What is in season this time of year, here? Where does the produce come from? What do I plan to eat today and tomorrow?
7. Occasionally, treat yourself to exotic, sometimes unfamiliar fruits. While I am an advocate of supporting local farmers and buying what’s in season, there is nothing wrong with indulging once in a while in the exotic. Broaden your horizons. If you see something you don’t recognize, go home and check it out online. When you return in the next few days, you can pick it up having educated yourself on what to do with it.
8. Develop a relationship with your grocer. It was not long ago that in our history we actually spoke with the people that we bought food from. This relationship can be restored today too, and you’ll be surprised - if you show an interest in the area of expertise of the person who runs the department, they will often tell you the “real” value in the products they stock. Wine or produce departments in particular.
9. Actually eat the food that you buy. This is particularly true of fruits and vegetables. The reason I mention this is many of us are in the mode of buying several week’s worth of groceries at once, which means we stretch them out across that period of time. With local organic produce in particular, you really should eat it sooner than later - the fresher the better.
10. Track what you spend on groceries - including eating out. If you’re worried about what it will cost, try it, and account for the money that you don’t spend because you’re eating out. For some reason, eating out options that don’t always get factored into our “groceries” budget - possibly because they get rolled into what some consider the entertainment category. However, if you start eating out less because you enjoy what you’re eating at home more, you’ll probably be that you’re saving money. Of course, this takes time to retrain ourselves on making sure to actually buy what we can eat in a day or two, and then actually eating those things. If you don’t eat what you buy, then yep, you will absolutely pay more than you were before. But its all a matter of retraining.
11. Be willing to spend a little more for your health. Particularly in the West we are used to exceptionally cheap food prices. One of the guiding principles of eating real food in moderation is to buy the best you can afford, for your health’s sake. Eating fresh fruits and vegetables may seem to cost more, but in reality changing these habits will save you money in the long run, if not, as I would argue, in the short term as well, if its part of a plan of eating in moderation.

Update: Based on yesterday’s comments, I should clarify one thing (thanks, Joshua, for pointing this out in your comments yesterday):

I’m not suggesting that you should abandon the idea of stocking up on non-perishables. I firmly believe that canned and dry goods are essential to have in the pantry and vital to have in an emergency kit. Absolutely. Staple grains that keep for months, fresh items that can be frozen, canned foods that can endure nuclear winters and global hothouses are a must. In fact, things like canned, stewed tomatoes (organic and low in sodium) are essential to certain recipes unless you want to be cooking for hours on end with likely inferior results.

What I am suggesting however is that if you get in the habit of shopping more frequently for fresh items, and actually eat those items, that it may be a strong contributor to improving your diet in favor or fruits and vegetables in particular.

Of course, I know that when it comes to regularly shopping, I am fortunate - shopping daily is a little easier for me because I live in a relatively urban area and happen to have found a really good store within driving distance of my son’s school. My Mother-in-law who lives in the Southern Oregon mountains can’t make it to the market as often as I do, but she has a simple solution: She grows her own produce if at all possible.

You can’t get a more local source than that.

Do you have time to shop daily? Only you can answer. For me, I didn’t used to think so, but once I chose to make it a priority, it became possible - even enjoyable. Not unlike choosing to lose weight, I might add. At times, it seemed impossible. But in the end, it has become a matter of priorities. I may not have quite as much time before I start work to read about lawnmowers and used hockey pucks on Craigslist, but I’d like to think that my weight loss success so far is a good trade.

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