Flowchart: How To Find Real Food At The Supermarket

Image credit Darya Pino. Click to enlarge

Darya Pino of Summer Tomato prepared this terrific flow chart to help navigate the supermarket.Marion Nestle of Food Politics liked it, noting:

I particularly like it because it's just what I used to say in lectures after What to Eat came out in 2006. My What to Eat rules say never to eat a food with:

* More than five ingredients (too processed)
* An ingredient you can't pronounce (ditto)
* Anything artificial (ditto)
* A health claim on the front (these are always about marketing, not health)
* A cartoon on the package (it's being marketed to kids)

Michael Pollan chimed in on the subject in his Food Rules.

1: Eat Food.
6: Avoid food products that contain more than five ingredients.
7: Avoid foods containing ingredients that a third grader cannot pronounce.
8: Avoid foods that make health claims.
12: Shop on the peripheries of the supermarket and stay out of the middle.

There appears to be a consensus among the three.

More on Food and Shopping:
How to Buy Green Produce w/Marion Nestle
TreeHuggerTV: How to Buy Green Milk w/Marion Nestle
Michael Pollan's Dietary Rules To Eat By
Michael Pollan: Read it and Eat!

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