Grocery Store Extravaganza

I spent the better part of my first day off after my vacation at the grocery store reading food labels.  It was pretty tiring, I have to admit, reading each of the boxes to figure out which was a "home-run" (was gluten-free, dairy-free and yeast-free).  I was planning on hitting up Whole Foods, thee one and only grocery store that I treat as my medicine cabinet, but my mom was on her way to Wegman's and I figured, I'd hitch a ride and check it out.  

Boy was I surprised.  They had specialty isles just for gluten-free alone, dairy-free and special shelves and signs, more so than I have ever seen in any Trader-Joe's, Whole Foods, nothing!  It was great.  Of course there was no cell service, so the minute my mom left my side to find her goat cheese, it was like entering into a whole new world.  

All in all I found a handful of products that met the majority of my needs, some scary, some acceptable, some even familiar.  I was put at ease when I realized I had filled up an entire cart with food for me to eat.  

The key thing that I had to keep in mind was that even though it has the stamp approval for dairy-free, gluten-free and even no refined sugars, is it good for you?  That is the question that as a future Registered Dietitian, I had to ask.  Alot of times people get caught up in gluten-free, dairy-free, no trans fat, added amino acids, probiotic hoopla that they don't remember to pay attention to the point of eating this food.  Is it something you would eat?  Is it something you would include in your normal diet?  Are you just buying it because it hits a "homerun?"  

example review #1:  Glutino Pretzels, gluten-free, dairy, casein-free, blah blah blah, great taste, minimal salt, as it appears, but if you look at the serving size, 8 pretzels and then follow the list to the sodium!  You would be flabbergasted to know that 8 pretzels has approximately 400 mg of sodium!  YIKES!  Ladies and gentlemen of the non-nutrition, non-hyper into healthy eating world, let me tell you that 400 mg of sodium in any serving is not really ideal, especially if it's just a snack, and only consisting of 8 pretzels.  In a day you should have maximum 2300 mg of sodium, most of the population has over 3000 mg daily.  So if you figure you eat three meals a day and perhaps 2-3 snacks.  Break that down into 2300/3= 750mg per meal.  Allow for snacks, takes about 7-800 out of the mix.  For an entire day we would say about 500 mg of sodium per meal in it's entirity, 2-300 per snack, having 2-3 snacks for day, leaving you with consuming anywhere from 2200-2400 mg of sodium per day.  In an ideal world that is an ideal intake of sodium for a healthy individual.  

P.s let's stay away from Glutino pretzels for now and figure out another healthier snack option out there that fits the "homerun" criteria!

Glutino Pretzels: 1 bad carrot