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It is interesting to reflect on how we shop for food. Do we buy foods because they are on offer? or are being advertised on television and hence out of temptation? or rather on impulse because we happened to be hungry at the supermarket? Whatever the reason, it is important to reflect and be mindful of what we are filling our pantry and refrigerator with.
One aspect of mindful buying is reading labels. Food labels provide you with important information on the contents of a food package. When we read food labels before dropping a food package into our shopping cart we are being mindful of what we are filling our trolleys with. Getting into the habit of reading food labels makes us more aware of what goes on our plate and eventually stomach.
Another factor of mindful purchases, is to understand how to interpret and compare food labels and hence make informed choices. Food labels can be confusing, and the font size surely doesn’t help make it easy. Ever thought of purchasing a magnifying glass small enough to fit your marketing bag/purse/pouch? Well if you haven’t already done that, it would be a useful tool for reading food labels. When you can read, and understand the information on food labels you are more likely make mindful purchases. Visit a Dietitian who can help make sense of food labels if you need to.
Mindful purchases begin with picking up a food product, reading the label and making informed choices. Then we reflect if the product of choice is the ‘better option’. By ‘better option’, what I mean to say is that the choices we make directly affects our health in the long term and If we are mindful about buying food products that are low in total and saturated fat, contain no added sugar and salt and are high in fibre, we are choosing the better option.
A mindful purchase provides us the opportunity to nourish our bodies with nutritious food.
Try to make a mindful purchase the next you are at the supermarket and fill your pantries and refrigerators with mindful purchases.