BASIC NUTRITION GUIDE: LEARN HOW TO MAKE A SHOPPING LIST

YOUR SHOPPING LIST SHOULD NOURISH YOU

Before telling you how to make a healthy shopping list, we want to teach you two concepts:

We define "food" as any product, natural or industrialized, that once consumed provides assimilable materials that fulfill a nutritional function. And the concept of "nutrients" as chemical substances, present in food, that serve as a source of energy and as raw materials for the formation and regeneration of all the cells of the body, being necessary for the growth, development and maintenance of life. and health.

That is, you may be nourishing yourself when you have breakfast, lunch and dinner, but not providing the necessary nutrients that your body needs for its proper functioning. The body needs macronutrients (carbohydrates, proteins and fats) and micronutrients (vitamins and minerals), without ever forgetting the intake of water.

An extreme example, so that we understand each other, would be to wake up and have a muffin for breakfast with a cup of milk or coffee, then at lunchtime you go to McDonalds and order a hamburger with extra fries and ketchup, in the middle of the afternoon a Nutella crepe and to finish the job a processed pizza. Well, as you will understand, you have not given your body the necessary nutrients, you have practically only provided it with a high amount of simple carbohydrates (sugar) and an excess of trans fat.

So, you may think that you are eating, but if you follow a diet that is high in processed foods and loaded with sugar and trans fats, you are eating but you are not nourishing yourself in the correct way that your body needs for its performance, since Following an unbalanced diet with poor nutritional density is a direct cause of the appearance of current chronic diseases, such as obesity, diabetes, cardiovascular diseases and cancer.

Health depends on an optimal supply of both macronutrients and micronutrients. Since insufficiency or excess in the consumption of any of them can cause problems.

You decide, either make a shopping list that provides you with all the nutrients to have energy and physical and emotional well-being or find yourself tired, fatigued and at risk of developing chronic diseases.

That is why following a healthy diet always begins with making a conscious purchase. Since what you end up buying is what you are going to keep in your pantry, therefore, it is what you will end up eating and this is what makes a big difference.

ADVANTAGES OF A HEALTHY SHOPPING LIST

When we learn to buy and prioritize healthy foods in our shopping basket and be aware of what product we are buying, we gain HEALTH , TIME and MONEY.

• You will gain health: Knowing the products you will need to prepare your weekly menu, you will make good choices to design your healthy and balanced meals.

• You will save money: by knowing what you are going to eat during the week, you will buy only what you need, avoiding buying other products that are not so necessary or buying something that you already had in your pantry and did not remember, surely this has happened to you more than once .

• You will save time: you will not waste time nor will it be a headache for you to have to think about what you are going to eat that day. It is true that on the same day of shopping, it is a bit of work to organize the frozen meat and fish in packages or tupperware with the week's food, but it is worth it to know that you can forget about shopping at the market for 2 weeks. . You'll just have to thaw it the next night or in the morning, and that's it!

When we go to the supermarket, without realizing it, we are controlled by the food industry. This studies our emotions and behaviors when purchasing, so it places the products strategically so that you “fall” into purchasing that product. Unfortunately, they do not usually include foods such as fruits and vegetables or others, but rather processed products loaded with saturated fats and sugar.

Processed foods are those that have been produced in industrial processes that are made up of incomplete ingredients. In addition, they contain a large amount of artificial compounds to improve texture, smell, flavor and conservation. The less processing our product requires, the better. The word itself tells us that they have undergone processing that leads to the loss of nutrients and accompanied by sugars, refined oils and fats to enhance the flavor and be palatal, and this is precisely what takes away our energy (and health) because They provide absolutely nothing to our body, causing chronic inflammation, and unfortunately, this is the cause of the vast majority of current chronic diseases, such as diabetes, cardiovascular diseases and cancer.

Keep all these details in mind every time you go to the supermarket, and at the very least, pay attention and be aware of them. Accept it, and decide for yourself whether you want to buy it or not, but not because the industry tempts you to buy it.

GUIDE TO MAKING YOUR HEALTHY PURCHASE

We have prepared a Basic Nutrition Guide that will help you know the necessary nutrients that you should ingest in your day, as well as help you plan a weekly menu and fill your pantry without realizing it. You can download it a little later.

In this guide we want you to prioritize and increase the consumption of vegetables, fruits, whole grains, legumes, nuts... in your daily life, replacing other precooked and processed foods.

Incorporating superfoods into your daily life will provide you with extra nutrients, vitamins, minerals and antioxidants to your diet. There are many easy and quick recipes to prepare so that you don't have a headache and you don't even have to think about how to add them, we have a smoothie guide and several recipes in our profile.

In this Nutrition Guide, we talk about each macronutrient, its functions, and what foods are abundant in it, also telling you the benefits of different types of foods.

Select one or two foods that you like the most from the list we propose, so that without realizing it, you are filling the shopping basket and being able to create a healthy menu.

It is a tool to buy healthy products that will help you eat and have the healthiest pantry possible. But this does not mean that you cannot adapt it to your taste with the foods you usually buy. But remember, that for your list to be healthy, you must prioritize real food such as vegetables, fruits, whole grains, legumes, proteins of high biological value and sources of healthy fats.

Oh, preferably consume local and seasonal products!

STEPS TO MAKE A HEALTHY PURCHASE

• Download the guide , and depending on how you design your weekly menu, highlight what you need to buy.
• Go to the supermarket without hunger. To do this, before leaving home, rate your hunger level from 1 to 10. If your hunger level is greater than or equal to 7, I recommend that you have a healthy snack to avoid temptations. An ideal option would be a piece of fruit or a handful of nuts.
• Leave room for some whim. Within a healthy diet there is also room for certain foods that you do not normally consume. Plan a day or two a week to enjoy them without regret.

Both when you buy and eat, be aware of the benefit that your body obtains after eating foods that nourish you to have more vitality and energy. The same when you buy, look carefully at each nutritional label and ask yourself, How do these nutrients affect my body?

Download our guide to save it on your phone or print it, so when you go to the supermarket, go group by group, selecting based on your tastes.