[cj]

The only way I’ve found (that works for me) is avoiding regular grocery stores at all costs and only shopping at health food stores.

The same stores will have more brands of granola than they do brands of regular cereal. They most often don’t carry things like Oreos, and many won’t carry nation-wide brands at all. (You won’t find Heinz ketchup, for instance)

I find it extremely difficult to shop healthy at regular grocery stores where 90%+ of the items stocked are heavily manufactured and processed.

The downside to health food grocery stores is they’re out of reach for anyone other than upper class income since the food prices tend to be… insane.

Edit: insane as in the same can of soup at a health food store can easily be $6 while costing $3 at a regular grocery store for the same exact product.

[Jtsummers]

My "trick" at regular grocery stores is to stick primarily to the perimeter: produce, dairy, meat. The only aisles I regularly go down are for spices, grains of some sort (typically rice), beans, and stocks (too lazy to make my own).

I've never had to bother with health food stores, though I guess it has the benefit of removing temptation. Whenever I've visited one, the prices made no sense to me for the things they were selling.

A better option to remove the temptation is some of the smaller grocery chains (Sprouts, Fresh Market). They have reliably had good produce and meat at reasonable prices (Fresh Market's meat and produce prices, when I lived near them, were reliably better than Kroger and Publix with better quality). Bulk items are a bit difficulty, Fresh Market sold rice at a terrible price so I'd still hit Kroger for that (the local one to me at the time had produce practically rotting on the shelf, spoiled by the next day if I ever bought any, but rice and dry beans are hard to screw up). Sprouts' rice and beans and lentils are priced reasonably, a bit high but not bad.

But the canned goods, chips, and other things at both of them are priced at twice what the regular groceries sell them for, and about 4x (or more) what Walmart has for the same items. Easy to walk past them and not spend that money.

[ds_opseeker]

> the same can of soup at a health food store can easily be $6 while costing $3 at a regular grocery

yes, maybe because the regular store can buy in much higher volume, and will have faster turnover of stock?

[jeffbee]

You can find real food at any grocery store. You just have to keep walking past the froot loops. You can buy a bag of lentils, some onions and carrots, some potatoes, some oranges anywhere.

[cj]

I think the problem is I don’t have the self-control to just keep walking past those things!

[mupuff1234]

Where are you located? Most grocery stores probably have at least frozen veggies and fruit and I assume some selection of fish/meat.

And btw granola really isn't that healthy.