Shop smart

A healthy diet means a healthy shopping list. If you find yourself throwing the same old things into your trolley week after week, try these shopping tips:

• Each week, aim to buy at least one fruit or vegetable you haven’t tried before. As a general rule, the brighter the colour, the better it is for you.
• Try to stick to your shopping list. Impulse buys are often the worst and the cost of them adds up too!
• Try online shopping. It’s easier to avoid temptations and if you get your food delivered, you’ll have more time to prepare home-cooked meals (and maybe put your feet up for five minutes before they get back from school).
• Look at labels. Watch out for foods that are high in sugar, salt (sometimes called sodium) or fat. (As a rough guideline, 0.5g or more of sodium per 100g is a lot of sodium, 10g or more of sugars per 100g is a lot of sugar, and 20g of fat or more per 100g is a lot of fat.)
• Don’t assume that products with added vitamins are healthy. They may contain unhealthy ingredients as well.
• Avoid going shopping when you’re hungry (for obvious reasons!).
• Try out local markets and vegetable stalls. They often sell local produce which is fresher and cheaper. Getting to know the stallholders may mean you’re offered bargains more often too.
• Make shopping fun. Try cutting out pictures of healthy foods, give them to your children and ask them to find them in the store. For older kids, try supervising them while they do their own shopping for their favourite meal, making sure there are plenty of healthy ingredients on the list first, of course.