Saving Money in Natural Food Stores
Isn't food less expensive at a supermarket? Whether you save money by buying food in a supermarket depends on how you define "food.
" Supermarkets carry vast amounts of packaged and processed food products which they buy in freight-car quantities.
Natural food stores can't compete with the buying power enjoyed by the large chain supermarkets.
If you compare the prices of packaged goods in supermarkets with the prices of packaged goods in natural food stores, you may get the impression that it would take your whole paycheck, a loan, and a stack of credit cards just to set foot in a natural food store.
Natural food stores and supermarkets both sell packaged and processed foods, but items in the stores usually do not contain the sugar, preservatives and other artificial additives and chemicals typical of most supermarket fare.
Additionally, some of the items in the aisles of natural food stores are made from organically grown ingredients, a major plus for both your body and the ecosystems on which our lives so intimately depend.
Shop for real food at a natural food store Where natural food stores outshine supermarkets in terms of price is in the bulk foods section.
Supermarkets usually don't have significant bulk-food sections, and if they do, the products they sell in bulk are not the kind of wholesome and healthful foods to base a diet on, and they are rarely organically grown.
The stores offer all the basic food staples, like cereals and grains, beans and lentils, flours, raisins and other dried fruits, pastas, nuts and seeds, and many other items in bulk, at significantly lower prices than if they were prepackaged.
If a natural food store doesn't have bulk staples, it is probably more of a "supplement" store, and not the best place to shop for food.
Rule No.
1: Buy unpackaged, bulk foods and produce The primary rule for saving money in a natural food store is simple: buy in bulk and buy produce.
Once though the door, pick up your shopping cart and head directly for the bulk bins, and from there to the organic produce.
These are the areas where your dollars will be most productively and healthfully spent.
You will be amazed at how much money you can save by buying beans, grains, vegetables, seeds, and just about anything else by the pound, compared to buying the same items prepackaged.
Rule No.
2: Eat whole foods A corollary to the primary rule of saving money is: Move away from processed and refined foods and toward foods in their more natural state.
By eating this way you take in fewer chemicals and more natural nutrients.
This means eating more baked potatoes and fewer potato chips, more homemade cookies and fewer of the packaged variety, more soups made by you from fresh vegetables and fewer soups made by multinational companies from the cheapest things they can find.
It also means saving yourself the expense of paying extra to have the food you eat mangled by corporations that try to make up for their lack of skill in food preparation by dosing almost everything they sell with excessive quantities of salt, sugar, fats, and chemical additives.
" Supermarkets carry vast amounts of packaged and processed food products which they buy in freight-car quantities.
Natural food stores can't compete with the buying power enjoyed by the large chain supermarkets.
If you compare the prices of packaged goods in supermarkets with the prices of packaged goods in natural food stores, you may get the impression that it would take your whole paycheck, a loan, and a stack of credit cards just to set foot in a natural food store.
Natural food stores and supermarkets both sell packaged and processed foods, but items in the stores usually do not contain the sugar, preservatives and other artificial additives and chemicals typical of most supermarket fare.
Additionally, some of the items in the aisles of natural food stores are made from organically grown ingredients, a major plus for both your body and the ecosystems on which our lives so intimately depend.
Shop for real food at a natural food store Where natural food stores outshine supermarkets in terms of price is in the bulk foods section.
Supermarkets usually don't have significant bulk-food sections, and if they do, the products they sell in bulk are not the kind of wholesome and healthful foods to base a diet on, and they are rarely organically grown.
The stores offer all the basic food staples, like cereals and grains, beans and lentils, flours, raisins and other dried fruits, pastas, nuts and seeds, and many other items in bulk, at significantly lower prices than if they were prepackaged.
If a natural food store doesn't have bulk staples, it is probably more of a "supplement" store, and not the best place to shop for food.
Rule No.
1: Buy unpackaged, bulk foods and produce The primary rule for saving money in a natural food store is simple: buy in bulk and buy produce.
Once though the door, pick up your shopping cart and head directly for the bulk bins, and from there to the organic produce.
These are the areas where your dollars will be most productively and healthfully spent.
You will be amazed at how much money you can save by buying beans, grains, vegetables, seeds, and just about anything else by the pound, compared to buying the same items prepackaged.
Rule No.
2: Eat whole foods A corollary to the primary rule of saving money is: Move away from processed and refined foods and toward foods in their more natural state.
By eating this way you take in fewer chemicals and more natural nutrients.
This means eating more baked potatoes and fewer potato chips, more homemade cookies and fewer of the packaged variety, more soups made by you from fresh vegetables and fewer soups made by multinational companies from the cheapest things they can find.
It also means saving yourself the expense of paying extra to have the food you eat mangled by corporations that try to make up for their lack of skill in food preparation by dosing almost everything they sell with excessive quantities of salt, sugar, fats, and chemical additives.
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