SmartGroceries: Wild Harvest Natural Foods

For those of you in New England and living near a Shaw's supermarket, they have a solid, and usually affordable, line of natural foods under the Wild Harvest brand.

You can't go wrong when choosing any of these products because they are sold under the following conditions:

With the highest standards for taste, quality and health, our Wild Harvest department brings you natural grocery, dairy and frozen food sections that are both easy to navigate and chock full of your favorite brands.

• NO artificial preservatives, colorings or flavorings
• NO hydrogenated or cottonseed oils
• NO artificial sweeteners
• NO phosphates or chlorine

Some of the TLN house favorites: Salad Dressings, Tortilla Chips, Cereals, Frozen Pizza, Maple Syrup, Kethup, Mustard, Fruit Juices and Crackers

You can learn more about the Wild Harvest product line at the Shaw's website.

I recommend signing up for their monthly mailer. Not only does it contain informative food and nutrition articles, but the coupons are great. They offer some nice savings on your grocery bill.

Check it out!

Grocery 101: Reading Juice Labels

During a recent shopping excursion, I realized how crazy juice labeling is. You have to look carefully. If not, you will find yourself going home with something you did not intend to buy.

Check out the photo of the three types of Grape products. I was looking for "Grape Juice", but came across:

1. Grape Drink

2. 100% Juice - Grape

3. Grape Juice

First off, anything that contains less than 10% of the fruit juice the product is supposed to be representing can't be called "Juice". It must be labeled as "Drink". This includes the Grape Drink in the picture, Sunny Delight, Hawaiian Punch, etc. They are typically made with sugar, high fructose corn syrup, a splash of juice and the rest artificial or natural flavors. Bottom line: Don't buy "Drinks". They are junk.

Second, it's great that the product is 100% juice. The only problem is that I want Grape Juice. Notice on the second bottle that "Grape" comes after "Juice". That's because the product is 100% juice, just not 100% Grape Juice. They use other juices, most commonly apple, to make the product less expensive (grapes are more expensive than apples). It's nice that the product is 100% Juice, but I want Grape Juice, so let's move on.

The third bottle was what I was looking for: Grape Juice. I double-checked the ingredients list just to make sure and it stated simply and eloquently: "Filtered Water, Grape Juice from Concentrate, Ascorbic Acid, Citric Acid (the latter two ingredients are natural preservatives)." Success!

Notice that even though I found the version of Grape Juice I was looking for, I still read the ingredients. Manufacturers know all of the labeling loopholes. For example, while the front panel says "Grape Juice", they could have very easily added fine print for "with other natural flavors" or "and other fruit juices".

By the way, "from concentrate" is just that: Whatever the juice, it is processed into a concentrated form and put into cold storage until the manufacturer is ready to bottle it. At which time, the fruit concentrate is mixed with the appropriate amount of water, packaged and sent off to your local grocery store.

One more tip on "Light" juices. The term "Light" means that manufacturers have either diluted the concentrate with more water to reduce the calories per serving, or they use an artificial sweetener (usually Splenda).

My recommendation is not to bother with "Light". Avoid watered down juice or artificial sweetener, buy the full version and simply moderate your consumption!

Grocery 101 Intro

Find out from TLN Founder Phil LeClair what's in your shopping cart!

Curious to know whether a grocery item you purchased is a healthy choice? Looking for an alternative to a food item that you know is not a healthy choice? Baffled by a tongue-twisting ingredient or label claim? You came to the right blog! Get your shopping list ready for upcoming Grocery 411 posts!

Grocery 101: Wild Harvest Store Field Trip

It was a great privilege to get a behind-the-scenes look at the Wild Harvest Natural Foods set (store-in-a-store) at Shaw's Supermarket in Waterbury, VT. Store manager Cathy Ladd gave me the VIP tour of her impeccably-kept store; providing me with insights on what Wild Harvest requires for products to be stocked on their shelves.

In a nutshell, products must contain: NO artificial preservatives, colorings or flavorings, NO hydrogenated or cottonseed oils, NO artificial sweeteners and NO phosphates or chlorine.

There is no doubt that the products found in Wild Harvest, or other health food stores for that matter, come with a higher price point. However, being a customer of Wild Harvest myself, there are always rotating sales that allow you to stock up on staple items at excellent prices.

Don't be intimidated by the prices or products at Wild Harvest. Venture in and poke around. Buy a couple of items to try out. They are almost always going to be a healthy grocery choice.

Don't be shy to ask questions. If there is not somebody on hand to answer them, get the website address off the product or feel free to drop me an e-mail at info@TLNutrition.com! You can also checkout all of my posts under SmartGroceries. Many of these items are purchased at Wild Harvest.

Finally, sign-up for the Wild Harvest mailer at http://www.shaws.com/. Along with getting some nice, little health and nutrition articles, there are several dollars worth of coupons. I saved 10 bucks on my last visit!