« Jamie Oliver: STOP eating frozen foods! | Main | 10 fattest countries in the world: Obesity Statistics » 
10 foods keeping America F-A-T!
As a grocery shopping pro, I strongly believe that if people bought better foods, they automatically eat better, feel better and lose weight effortlessly.
I guess, I must be living on a different planet all together because when I saw the list of top 10 best-selling foods in America, I fully understood how critical the obesity issue is in North America.
This list was compiled by Information Resources, which is a Chicago-based marketing information service firm and it was published in the Chicago Tribune in October. During a recent browsing session I found the list and I thought I’d add my two cents worth of feedback.
Here is the list of top 10 best-selling foods in America ending June 14, 2009:
1. Carbonated beverages ($12 billion in sales)
Krizia’s point of view: In other words, American spent 12 billion dollars on pop-sugary-drinks! OMG!!! That is an insane amount of money to get fat.
I’ve written a number of posts on soft drink consumption in North America and you can catch them here if you’ve missed them:
1) Can soda drinks age your teeth?
3) Can too much soda paralyze you?
2. Milk ($11.2 billion)
Krizia’s point of view: It’s not clear if this is whole milk or 1% milk and it’s also not clear if this includes sales of organic milk. That said, if this number reflects the sales of conventional milk, then that means there is a lot of people consuming a beverage that is known to contain high levels of added hormones.
3. Fresh bread & rolls ($9.57 billion)
Krizia’s point of view: I really doubt this represents the sale of organic bread. This number most likely represents the sale of commercial breads and those breads are baked on the premise at most grocery stores … which in my opinion are low-quality breads made with refined white flour and list of ingredients that don’t need to be in bread.
4. Beer/ale/hard cider ($8.17 billion)
Krizia’s point of view: There is nothing wrong with a little beer or ale, but when you combine these numbers with the first three top purchases in America, you can quickly see how the pounds are adding up.
5. Salty snacks ($8.09 billion)
Krizia’s point of view: This is a simple category to figure out because we’re talking about chips, popcorn, pretzels and the like. All of which are packed with salt and hydrogenated fat unless you buy those salty snacks at the natural healthy food shops or at the natural health section of your grocery store. The End of Overeating: Taking Control of the Insatiable American Appetite
6. Natural cheese ($7.64 billion)
Krizia’s point of view: I buy cheese from a cheesemonger because it’s much cheaper than buying cheese at the grocery store and I get a better variety. If I do buy cheese at a grocery store because I’m stuck, I can assure you that I’m quite careful with the list of ingredients because some of those packaged cheeses prepared by the big food manufacturers are so engineered there is not much that resembles cheese. You won’t hear me advocate solely eating organic cheese because it’s not possible for everyone and I’ve yet to taste a good organic brie or camembert. All that to say that certain types of cheeses are not made from organic milk. There are a lot of “cheese products” (which are not really cheese) sold at the grocery store and I’m wondering how much of those sales figure in this number.
7. Frozen dinners/entrees ($6.13 billion)
Krizia’s point of view: Honestly this number leaves me speechless because it speaks volumes as to why America is so fat. Frozen dinners are a poor food choice and when $6 billion of that food is being purchased and consumed it’s no wonder there is an obesity crisis in America.
> If you’ve not read the post I wrote on Jamie Oliver’s crusade to help curb people’s appetite for frozen dinners, you can read it here: Jamie Oliver: STOP eating frozen foods!
PLEASE LINK TO THIS POST: Jamie Oliver: STOP eating frozen foods!
8. Cold cereal ($6.11 billion)
Krizia’s point of view: When I read that number I can only think of one thing: sugar, sugar and more sugar. Don’t get me wrong. I do eat cold cereals, but I exclusively buy cereals from the natural healthy food shops or at the natural health section of my grocery store because the list of ingredients is cleaner and I won’t find ingredients like corn syrup, hydrogenated fat or other products that don’t support my health. I also eat a lot of hot oatmeal and other whole grain cereals that you have to cook on the stove and contain very high levels of fibre.
9. Wine ($5.49 billion)
Krizia’s point of view: Well there really isn’t anything wrong with a little wine as long as you keep it to two glasses a day! This actually might be one of the foods that is good for you if Americans were buying red wine and limiting it to the two glasses per day limit.
10. Cigarettes ($4.63 billion)
Krizia’s point of view: Hmmmm, this is NOT food! I guess this number shows that a lot of Americans are smokers and the sales of cigarettes in the U.S. rival that of foods.
Note (this note came from the Chicago Tribune Web site): The IRI data is based on UPC scan sales at retail. Thus data isn’t collected on perishable produce, meat and other categories, which hopefully explains why fruits and vegetables aren’t on the list.
Krizia’s final word: Now, I know that in the coming weeks and days most of us will be living off of pops, drinks, salty snacks and frozen appetizers while the party season is underway. That said, I think it’s important to take stock of these figures because once the clock passes midnight on December 31st a lot of people will be panicking and trying to understand why they’ve gained so much weight and what they can do to lose the weight.
The healthy eating rule to better health is quite simple: if you shop in the perimeters of your grocery store you are less likely to buy junk foods. That said there are a lot of great foods that you can find inside the grocery store, but you simply need to know what to buy and how to select them.
I will create a short how-to-shop-at-your-grocery-store tutorial soon to help all of you who are having a hard time at it. It’s not complicated, but then again … nothing is complicated when you know what you are doing.
I guess the obvious answer is to buy better quality foods!
You can read the original post where I got my inspiration for this post on the Chicago Tribune Web site here: The top 10 best-selling grocery items
Top photo by The Suss-Man (Mike)
Photo of bread by yomi955
Photo of Fruit Loop cereal by XNAHandkor
© All copyrights reserved to http://www.eatsmartagesmart.com in all countries.
>>>> If you’re viewing this healthy eating or healthy living tip as part of an aggregated content stream from different sites, or as a re-blogged post, please check out the content on the original Web site at www.EatSmartAgeSmart.com
Deli.cious
Reddit
StumbleUpon
Digg This
