Do Grocery Stores Have You Saying, “I’m SO confused!”

When I was a kid, things used to be so simple.

In the morning we’d awaken from our slumber, after which we’d make our way to the breakfast table where we’d eat our breakfast of oatmeal and eggs. From there we went to the restroom to brush our teeth and then it was outside to play until we came home for lunch. During our play, when we got thirsty, we would all pile around the water hose and drink our fill of cool clean water.

Ah, the good old days.

Nowadays our very surroundings are making us fat. We drive more, exercise less, eat huge portions and consume more liquid calories than ever before. That last point is what many experts believe is an under rated cause for alarm and reason for weight gain.

Researchers from the Department of Nutrition at the University of North Carolina examined dietary records of U.S. adults from as far back as 1965 to as recently as 2002. What they found sent up more than a few smoke signals.

In 1965, only 11.8 percent of the average adult’s calories came from beverages. By the year 2002 that number had radically increased to 21 percent. An overwhelming consensus believes the problem stems from an increase in the consumption of sweetened (think High Fructose Corn Syrup…or HFCS) beverages.

This stuff is just garbage!

The large scale issue the researchers noted is the tremendous increase in beverage options available. Smart marketers know we’re weak when it comes to sugar, so they provide us with “energy” drinks, sports drinks, sweetened teas, juices supplemented with vitamins and antioxidants, and more flavors and varieties of soda than ever before.

A proven way to reduce your calorie intake and risk of weight gain is to eliminate sweetened drinks from your diet. So stick with unsweetened iced tea, water, green tea, and a small amount of coffee each day to quench your thirst. Avoid all sweetened beverages. Unless you are exercising for more than 90 minutes, forget about the Gatorade and stick to plain water.

Remember the saying, “You are what you eat.”

I know you have, but did you ever really give it any thought?  I saw a sign from a Kentucky health department agency that read “You are what you eat, don’t be cheap, fast, and easy.” Does that reveal anything about your eating habits?

Let’s examine some statistics:

1.  The average teenager eats approximately 90 lbs of sugar every year!

2.  On average, American’s consume about 450 calories every day from beverages. If you’re struggling to drop fat, imagine what eliminating these drinks from your diet could do for your health and physique in a matter of months.

3.  There is an epidemic of diabetes running rampant in America today. This issue alone is easily costing America more than the wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, and the entire fight against terrorism. It also costs more than the damage done from Hurricane Katrina!  In fact, almost 60 billion dollars per year is spent for lost productivity in the workplace because of diabetes.

I could go on and on with these types of chilling statistics. But that isn’t the message I want to convey.

I’d like to encourage you to make just one positive change THIS WEEK, and each ensuing week, until the rest of the year.  Nothing extraordinary… just small steps. Something as seemingly trivial like eating one more fruit or vegetables every day. Drinking only water or tea with your meals.

It may not appear like much, but at the end of the year, when you add up a bunch of small changes you could be looking at quite a different person.

How do you go about making these changes? Well here are a few ideas:

1. The eye-level trick. Recently, in a survey of shampoo products in Northern California supermarkets, it was found that in almost all of the 20 stores visited, the higher-priced shampoos were at eye level. Couldn’t this same marketing tactic hold true for other products as well? You bet! Especially the ones that will bring the supermarket the most profit.  And it doesn’t matter if the product is high in trans-fats or more full of sugar than a tootsie roll, if it brings a high profit, you’ll see it at eye level.
2. End-of-aisle displays. Just because a product is on an end-cap doesn’t mean it is on sale. Look closely; oftentimes these items are near their freshness expiration dates.  Quite often they are food items that are just impulse buys, regardless of fat, sugar and calories. Next time you are at the store, really notice the end-cap displays. My bet is there are lots of cookies, crackers, soda, etc.  Will these things bring you closer to or further away from your health and fitness goals?
3. Kids’ cereals. I hate these things. And unscrupulous marketers use the same tactics on kids as they use on you and place the most expensive and least healthy kids breakfast cereals at their eye level, not yours. Now you know why your kids drive you nuts wanting every cereal box they see when you go down the aisle! And take time to look at the sheer volume of junk in those cereals: double chocolate crunch, super sugar smacks…not one cereal for kids at their eye level is healthy for them.
4. Shelves change constantly. Grocery chains hire marketers because they want to take advantage of your natural human weakness. Therefore they often rearrange shelves, which in turn makes shoppers search for the items they regularly buy only to discover new products in the old, familiar shelve spaces. This is yet another way to try to get you to buy a higher profit food item. They want you to purchase the products that expand their bottom line, regardless of your own bottom.
5. Specialty items grouped together. Special occasion goods (like chips, dips and sodas) are often found together to help increase impulse sales.  In the store where we shop the chips are on one aisle and the soft drinks are directly across the way. The dips are located towards the end of the chip side. This is the aisle to avoid completely if your desire is weight loss.  Make it a habit never to enter that aisle because you are setting yourself up for disaster. My guess we all have a hard enough time avoiding these products on the end-of-aisle displays.
6. If a food has a cartoon on the package, put it back.
7. If you didn’t find it on the perimeter of the store, put it back.
8. If the ingredient list is so long it reads like an Orwellian novel, put it back! The fewer the ingredients, the better.

Here’s an idea for breakfast to start your day:

1/2 cup whole oats, 1 TBS raisins, 1 oz raw walnuts (or pecans), 1 cup non fat milk (rice or almond milk if you prefer), a dash of cinnamon to taste.

Mix all ingredients together in a bowl. Cover and refrigerate overnight. This is ready to eat in the morning without any cooking whatsoever.

And it tastes really good…I promise.

Until next time remember: you are what you eat. Don’t’ be a statistic; put only the absolute best, freshest foods in your body.

Steve

P.S. Be sure to check out the “New Year, New Me” Transformation Challenge if you’re at all serious about making some MAJOR strides in your level of health, fitness and looking really sexy this year!

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Our government thinks you’re a moron, and because of that, as well as the heavy handed nature of this administration and their excessive government regulation, I’m forced to add the following lines of B.S…as if you didn’t know this garbage already:
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