Outside the aisles

send2steph

I've been dieting on and off my whole life since I was 10 and I'm 40 now. My whole family just started last Sunday on a new eating plan - whole foods, severely limit processed foods, no caffeine, no artificial sweeteners, and with macro nutrients somewhere between to South Beach and the Zone.

Years ago, when the low-fat diets were all the rage (Ornish, and that "Stop the Insanity" lady), I can remember the grocery stores having lots and lots of low fat friendly foods available.

Then, in the late 90's, early 2000's, my husband and I were doing low-carb. We were a little ahead of the curve on that bandwagon and watched the foods come and go from the grocery store. And there were a LOT! Not, it seems there are a few specialized things left in our "normal" grocery store, but not many. And if they are there, the packaging talks of low sugar rather than low carb.

So, the last several years, we've been eating out a lot. Or, if buying groceries, we run in at the last minute and buy specifically what is needed for a particular meal. We were last minute shoppers, no planning, and, honestly, usually we were eating out. So, I hadn't paid attention to the store shelves much and the changes going on there.

On Sunday, we started our new eating plan. We're eating at home and going to the grocery store more often. For the first part of the week, and because of our goals, I was mainly staying in the outer aisles - meat, dairy, produce. But the other night, I was by myself and could take the time to go up and down each aisle and really have a look around. Here is what I've concluded.

The grocery store shelves are now confused and offer no help when it comes to picking out things that are healthy for a family. It's like the shelves are in an eat-whatever, feel good about it, free-for-all sort of mode! There isn't a prevalent lean toward low fat or low carb stuff. The vast majority of what's in the grocery store is just horrible junk, quick-prep, "better not think about it" stuff that people are buying to fill themselves. Sure, there are some sugar free items, and gluten-free seems to be the catch-phrase now (for it's little 15 feet of an aisle). But for the most part, it's all about "if it tastes good, eat it!"

There were a few years there where we were eating junk (mainly out of stress and laziness)... but at least we know how to feed ourselves healthily and are now putting the effort in to prepare good food. But when I look at those aisles at the store, it just makes me sad. I mean, if a family is eating the "junk" from those inner aisles, thinking they're doing well by their families by eating at home - they're not really doing better for their bodies than if they would get fast food drive through.

I guess what really struck me was how large of a percentage of the "food" in the grocery store was actually over-processed and over-marketed stuff that wasn't even meant to be healthy. The food is more about the product than the nutrition.

I understand that the grocery store has been this way forever... at least a portion of it has been. But with no consensus on how to diet, it's like the food processors have pulled out of producing healthy food all together.

I'm sticking to the edges of the store from now on - outside the aisles.