10 Steps to Smarter Food Shopping

In an enticing palace of eating designed to lead you astray, here's how to stay on track.

You came, you saw, you shopped. But then you got home from the supermarket and started unloading fatty snack items and deli meats. What went wrong? You fell back into the habit of shopping like an average American rather than a person with a dietary purpose. In an enticing palace of eating designed to lead you astray, here's how to stay on track.


1. Make a list.
Before you shop, write down what you need -- to reduce the chances of buying what you don't.

2. Limit your trips.
Make your shopping list long so you have to make only one or two trips to the store per week. Besides being more efficient, this provides less opportunity to make impulse purchases.

3. Avoid shopping on an empty stomach.
When you're hungry, you're more likely to grab high-fat snacks and desserts.

4. Follow the walls.
Limit browsing to the perimeter of the store, where you'll find the freshest, most healthful foods: raw produce, low-fat dairy products, fresh lean meats and fish. Venture into the interior aisles only when you're after specific foods such as pasta and dried beans, to avoid picking up extra items not included in your diet plan.

5. Pay attention to portions.
Those cookies look great -- and hey, eating them only costs you 75 calories. But check the serving size: 1 cookie. Eating "them," say three cookies -- brings your calorie count up to 225.

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