The other day, a thought crossed my mind about the USDA’s new MY HEALTHY PLATE — we’re focusing on the wrong part of the equation. I have spoken before about my impression that the time for constructive decision-making about what we eat is not when it’s time to prepare the food. It’s when it’s time to purchase the food. MY HEALTHY PLATE is trying to capture the horse after it’s left the barn. In my humble opinion, we will get better results from learning to fill MY HEALTHY GROCERY CART. Let’s take a look at the standard shopping cart.
What first occurs to me is that the standard grocery cart is designed to be filled not with fresh produce, but with boxes and cans! Most of us use only the little baby seat for produce, and when it’s full, we unconsciously decide that we’ve purchased enough, so we move on to other parts of the store. That’s because placing fresh produce into the deep part of the cart is a problem; it increases the likelihood that our carefully selected fruits and vegetables will be crushed under the weight of all the other stuff.
MY HEALTHY PLATE stipulates that fully half of our plates should be filled with produce. So if we use MY HEALTHY PLATE as a guide, that means we need to fill at least HALF of the cart with produce (to account for waste, like apple cores, carrot peels, and pineapple skin). Our grocery carts should be filled mostly with fruits and vegetables. But standard grocery carts are designed preferentially to store boxes, cans, and other items with similarly long shelf lives. If we want to arrive at the checkout counter with loads of unbruised, intact fruits and vegetables, grocery carts need a design overhaul.
I recently saw a cart with a shallow, though broad, rectangular basket at a nearby health food supermarket. The basket is set much higher up than in standard design carts, so the shopper need not reach deep into the cart to place or retrieve purchases. Of course, the total volume of the basket is somewhat smaller, so people might complain that they have to shop more frequently. I say, make more soups. Buy more beans. Buy nuts. Buy dried fruit. You can tuck them between the lettuce and kiwis. They last a long time, the great-grandparents would have recognized them as food, and you won’t have to race back to the supermarket tomorrow. Plus, the blackberries won’t get squashed.
In my mind, the new grocery cart will consist of a new broad shallow shelf above, a new approximately one-foot deep basket at mid-level, and a shelf below, like on the standard grocery cart. Fresh produce will be placed on top, bags of potatoes and onions can be tossed into the mid-level basket, along with a package or two of fresh fish or meat, a dozen eggs, beets and squash, containers of plain yogurt and tofu, and a bottle of wine. Large items (like a half-gallon jug of vinegar) can be shelved below, along with a small case of, say, avocadoes, on special this week in the produce section.
MY HEALTHY GROCERY CART will be filled at least half-way, if not higher, with produce. The rest of the cart will be divided evenly between high-quality protein like nuts, tofu, chicken, beef, eggs, and fish; and then beans, whole grains, and a few dairy items. I can already hear the voices of adherents to the Paleo Diet rising up against the voices of those who adhere to Caldwell Esselstyn’s virtually fat-free, 100% plant-based diet. There is room for individual preferences in MY HEALTHY GROCERY CART. But there is no room for processed, food-like, manufactured calories.
Next week: The War Between Health and S
helf Life
What first occurs to me is that the standard grocery cart is designed to be filled not with fresh produce, but with boxes and cans! Most of us use only the little baby seat for produce, and when it’s full, we unconsciously decide that we’ve purchased enough, so we move on to other parts of the store. That’s because placing fresh produce into the deep part of the cart is a problem; it increases the likelihood that our carefully selected fruits and vegetables will be crushed under the weight of all the other stuff.
MY HEALTHY PLATE stipulates that fully half of our plates should be filled with produce. So if we use MY HEALTHY PLATE as a guide, that means we need to fill at least HALF of the cart with produce (to account for waste, like apple cores, carrot peels, and pineapple skin). Our grocery carts should be filled mostly with fruits and vegetables. But standard grocery carts are designed preferentially to store boxes, cans, and other items with similarly long shelf lives. If we want to arrive at the checkout counter with loads of unbruised, intact fruits and vegetables, grocery carts need a design overhaul.
I recently saw a cart with a shallow, though broad, rectangular basket at a nearby health food supermarket. The basket is set much higher up than in standard design carts, so the shopper need not reach deep into the cart to place or retrieve purchases. Of course, the total volume of the basket is somewhat smaller, so people might complain that they have to shop more frequently. I say, make more soups. Buy more beans. Buy nuts. Buy dried fruit. You can tuck them between the lettuce and kiwis. They last a long time, the great-grandparents would have recognized them as food, and you won’t have to race back to the supermarket tomorrow. Plus, the blackberries won’t get squashed.
In my mind, the new grocery cart will consist of a new broad shallow shelf above, a new approximately one-foot deep basket at mid-level, and a shelf below, like on the standard grocery cart. Fresh produce will be placed on top, bags of potatoes and onions can be tossed into the mid-level basket, along with a package or two of fresh fish or meat, a dozen eggs, beets and squash, containers of plain yogurt and tofu, and a bottle of wine. Large items (like a half-gallon jug of vinegar) can be shelved below, along with a small case of, say, avocadoes, on special this week in the produce section.
MY HEALTHY GROCERY CART will be filled at least half-way, if not higher, with produce. The rest of the cart will be divided evenly between high-quality protein like nuts, tofu, chicken, beef, eggs, and fish; and then beans, whole grains, and a few dairy items. I can already hear the voices of adherents to the Paleo Diet rising up against the voices of those who adhere to Caldwell Esselstyn’s virtually fat-free, 100% plant-based diet. There is room for individual preferences in MY HEALTHY GROCERY CART. But there is no room for processed, food-like, manufactured calories.
Next week: The War Between Health and S
helf Life
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If you’ve never been on “Your Health is on Your Plate” before, and you’re not sure where to start, visit Let’s Start at the Very Beginning to get a jumpstart on preventing diabetes and obesity in yourself and the ones you love!!
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