A lot of people ask me "how do you shop?" -- "is there anything you actually buy?" -- "if so, how do you choose?", and so on. Well, first off, I am never perfect and am always in learning mode. I leave myself open to suggestions and advice and know it is seriously difficult to have so much conflicting information and then try to apply it to everyday life without feeling overwhelmed.
I will share some pointers and do my best to provide as many product comparisons as they are available. Also, If you have any product suggestions or information you feel I've missed, please send my way! :) Or, if you are a company looking for more visibility, I will review. If my beliefs align with yours, we can collaborate!
Let's get started!
I am walking down the aisle and I really want strawberries, but the organic ones are double the price... hmm... I could think negative, "ugh organic is so expensive". Or, I can look a couple rows over and notice organic pears are on sale! Organic ming because it is usually smaller farms and more expensive to run. Okay...back to the pear. Yum! I will take those today and look in the frozen aisle for frozen strawberries as a possibility. By just switching my fruit choices that day helped save money. Who -needed- strawberries anyways!
Now, I am in the "middle aisles" where it gets a bit trickier. When I am buying staples in my home I stay away from not organic, and ALL polyunsaturated fats (canola, vegetable, flax, sunflower, safflower, corn, fish, seed oils). But, if we are at a restaurant or at someones house I don't sweat about it and just up our vitamin E and C for the day to help protect our cells. What do I look for? Products cooked in saturated fats like coconut oil and ghee/butter. I will go into oils on a whole other post! It is a lot of research and information!
I always try my best to buy from smaller companies such as local farmers markets and sometimes those companies are in the stores as well.
Meat-
Beef/Bison/Lamb: (we buy mostly red meat) Pasture raised, grass-fed
Chicken: Pasture raised (no soy if you can find)
Dairy: Local farm grass-fed RAW milk (goat is best IF you like flavor) raw grass-fed cheese, and local (NO SOY) chicken eggs. If I need cottage cheese, kefir, sour cream or any other dairy products I make sure they are organic, but more important labeled "grass-fed".
EXAMPLE: THIS or THAT?
Ingredients: Organic blue corn, organic coconut oil, real salt brand sea salt.
Ingredients: Organic blue corn, expeller expressed canola oil and/or safflower and/or sunflower, sea salt.
...See both are organic, but Jackson's Honest is cooked in the better oil! Nachos anyone? Of course, when on sale I STOCK UP!
