A Guide to Help You Navigate the Grocery Aisles

In a world where food choices abound, making informed decisions about what goes into our bodies is paramount for our health and well-being. From fruits and vegetables to animal products and grains, each food category offers a spectrum of options with varying nutritional profiles. Here's a guide to help you navigate the grocery aisles and make smarter choices that promote your health and the health of the planet.

Produce 

Best choice: organic produce, even better if it is locally sourced and in-season.

Good choice: nonorganic produce on the clean fifteen and stick with organic on the dirty dozen. If conventional produce is the only thing available, peel the skins where applicable (apples, pears, cucumbers, etc). 

Pro-tip: Organic products typically have a special code that begins with the number 9. This code is known as the PLU (Price Look-Up) code, which helps identify organic produce at the grocery store checkout. So, if you're shopping for fruits or vegetables and you see a PLU code that starts with the number 9, you can be confident that it's organically grown.

Beef, Chicken & Eggs

Best choice: organic, locally sourced, 100% grass-fed & finished beef, organic pasture-raised chicken & eggs.

Good choice: locally sourced free-range beef, chicken & eggs. 

Lanby favorites: Force of Nature, Butcher Box, Pasture Bird, Vital Farms. 

Seafood 

Best choice: wild-caught fish, even better if it is locally sourced.

Good choice: sustainably farmed fish. 

See the Environmental Working Group's Consumer Guide to Seafood to learn more.

Lanby favorites: Vital Choice, Wild Planet Foods.  

Dairy

Best choice: organic, locally sourced, 100% grass-fed whole milk, yogurt, kiefer, & cheese.

Good choice: organic milk, yogurt, kiefer, & cheese. 

Lanby favorites: Good Culture.

Dry Goods 

Best choice: USDA organic.

Good choice: Non-gmo. 

Also opt for whole grains like brown rice, quinoa, millet, buckwheat, oats and items made with better flour alternatives like almond or cassava flour. 

Lanby favorites: One Degree Organics, Eden Foods, Lundberg Family Farms, Siete Foods, Food for Life.

Oils 

Choose minimally processed oils such as cold-pressed organic extra virgin olive oil, avocado oil and unrefined coconut oil. Avoid refined and industrialized seed based oils such as canola oil, soybean, corn, safflower, sunflower and grapeseed oil. Note: avocado oil is the best and only oil to cook with a high heat. All other oils are less stable and can create more free radicals at high temperatures.  

Lanby favorites: Primal Kitchen, Brightland. 

Other Tips

• Have a list prepared with ingredients for recipes/meals you want to make for the week so you don’t overbuy items.  
• Stick to the perimeter of the grocery store for a majority of your shopping (whole foods vs. packaged foods).
• Look for USDA Organic and Non-GMO labels on the items you are purchasing. 
• To save money buy organic frozen fruits & vegetables. 
• Utilize local farmers markets whenever possible and ask vendors about their pesticide practices.

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