The other day, a thought crossed my mind. Maybe we’re focused on the wrong part of the equation: Maybe the time for constructive decision-making about what we eat is not when it’s time to prepare the food, but when it’s time to purchase the food. Waiting until you’re hungry for dinner is like chasing a horse after it’s left the barn. That’s why I want to start this conversation by examining the standard shopping cart.

There are many different kinds of influences on consumers’ purchasing patterns. Coffee whiteners, for example, do not require refrigeration. Yet they are placed in the dairy section, to make them seem more like cream. Big Food manufacturers spend enormous resources to come up with names like breakfast sandwiches, lunchables, and TV dinners so that consumers know when these newly developed products are meant to be used. The supermarket layout itself has a marked influence on how you shop. And the grocery cart also influences what you buy at the supermarket. 

Notice that the standard grocery cart is designed to be filled not with fresh produce, but with boxes, bags, and cans. We tend to put most, if not all, our produce in the little baby seat section up front. In part, this happens because placing fresh fruits and vegetables deep into the back of a grocery cart increases the likelihood that your carefully selected fruits and vegetables will be crushed under the weight of the other items yet to come. When the baby section is full, therefore, we decide—whether consciously or unconsciously—that we have enough. We push on, and enter the rest of the supermarket.

Recent dietary guidelines stipulate that half your plate should be filled with produce. Using this as a guide, I should also be filling my grocery cart at least halfway with produce. And more, to account for apple cores, carrot peels, corn cobs, and pineapple skins. What I am saying is that your grocery cart should be brimming with fruits and vegetables. Standard grocery carts, however, are designed preferentially to store bags, boxes, cans, and other packages containing products with exceedingly long shelf lives. 

If you want to arrive at the checkout counter with plenty of intact, unbruised fruits and vegetables, grocery carts need a design overhaul.  And this is actually happening. The good news is that things are changing. In the past year or two, first at the nearby health food store, and more recently at the local community supermarket, I’ve seen new carts with broad, shallow, rectangular baskets. The baskets are at approximately waist height, much higher than in standard grocery carts, so the shopper does not need to reach deep into their cart to place or retrieve purchases. The total volume of the shallow basket is somewhat smaller, so people might comment about having to shop more often. But maybe not. Maybe they aren’t buying as many boxes. Maybe less produce is being wasted. 

I think more can be done. In my mind, best-case-scenario grocery carts consist of a broad shallow shelf above, a one-foot deep basket at mid-level, and a shelf below, similar to the one in standard grocery carts. Fresh produce goes on top, bags of potatoes and onions in the mid-level basket, along with packages of fresh fish or meat, a dozen eggs, beets and squash, packages of tofu, a quart of milk, and perhaps a bottle of wine. Large items (a jug of vinegar, pet food, toilet paper) can be shelved below, along with a small case of, let’s say, avocados, on special this week in the produce section.

As the years go by, I find that I am making more soups, especially in cold weather but even in warmer weather, depending on the day. I buy and consume more beans than I used to. There is always a variety of nuts in the pantry and refrigerator. We buy plenty of dried fruit, and we even dehydrate some ourselves when we find ourselves with an overabundance of apples, tomatoes, strawberries, and the like. All of these last a long while, and you don’t end up having to race back to the supermarket the day after tomorrow.

This year, my daughter-in-law taught me to make a green sauce from whatever leaves remain after prepping carrots, radishes, herbs, and so on. I put them into the high-speed blender along with a clove of garlic, a couple teaspoons of lemon juice, and a sprinkle of salt. It adds a bright note and looks beautiful on grains, eggs, and fish, or as a garnish on a bowl of soup,

My own grocery cart is at least half full, if not more, with produce. The rest of the cart is divided evenly among high-quality protein like nuts, tofu, chicken, beef, eggs, and fish; and then beans, whole grains, and dairy, like yogurt and cheese. I can hear the voices of adherents to the Paleo Diet rising up against the voices of those who adhere to Caldwell Esselstyn’s mostly fat-free, 100% plant-based diet. There is more than enough room for individual preferences in my grocery cart. But there is little or no room for ultraprocessed, food-like, manufactured calories.