Nutritionist Marion Nestle tells you how to keep junk food from sneaking into your cart.
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- Always shop the periphery. Don't go into the center aisles.
- If you do go into the center aisles, don't buy anything with more than five ingredients.
- If you can't pronounce the ingredients on the package label, don't buy it.
- Don't buy anything with a cartoon on it.
- If you don't want your kids eating junk food, don't have it in the home.
What kind of changes would most improve mainstream grocery stores?So all this parsing of this vitamin vs. that vitamin -- you're basically arguing is not as important as generally eating a bigger variety...
- I would like to see a complete restriction on health claims on food packages. I think that they confuse customers. They're misleading.
- I would also like to see a complete cessation of direct marketing to children. That means no cartoons on food products. Period.
- I would like to see some restructuring of stores to make it easier for people who are seeking healthier products to find them. Start by putting healthier products at eye level.
- Have occasional cut apples out to taste so you could tell what the differences are before you buy them.
- Make cooking instructions available for the more exotic things that people do not know what to do with. Show customers how easy it is to cook.
- I'd also like to see country-of-origin labeling on produce so that people can have an idea of how far it has traveled. In November, a store near me in Manhattan had four ounces of blueberries for $6. They came from Patagonia. I thought that there was something quite strange about that.
...of healthy food. Yes, and not worrying about it so much. Just enjoy it.
Read the rest of the interview with Marion Nestle.
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