Raise Your Food IQ: How to Be a Better Grocery Shopper

Grocery shopping will no longer feel like a chore after this online class! This food education and grocery shopping workshop is designed to give you all the information you need to make the best food choices at the supermarket.

Before you cook a meal, you must go grocery shopping, so this is where the most valuable food education begins. The modern supermarket is stocked with an overwhelming array of choices, so this seminar is the first step to making the best food choices in all the departments: produce, dairy, meat, eggs, cooking oils, and packaged foods.

This is not a class about calorie-counting or low-fat foods. A good food education goes well beyond that. Today’s well-informed food shoppers and cooks know that keywords like local, organic, sustainable, grass-fed, humanely-raised, wild, GMO, and extra-virgin all tell a much clearer story about the food we eat than its packaging.

A robust Q&A is included, so everyone’s burning questions will be answered.

What you'll learn

• How to shop for produce
• Organic vs. conventional; what produce you should always buy organic; why small local farms are often better than “organic”; how do you store produce for the best shelf life?
• How to shop for meat, eggs and dairy
• Understanding the vast differences between your choices: grass-fed vs. corn-fed beef, pasture-raised vs. free-range chickens, commercial animal husbandry vs. small-scale, antibiotic-free/hormone-free. We’ll decipher all those terms and show you how to find the best-quality animal products in your supermarket.
• Good fats vs. bad fats
• What fats and oils to buy, which to avoid, and why. How is skim milk made and why low-fat processed foods the wrong choice. How to choose a good-quality cooking oils.
• All About Sugar
• Understanding the glycemic index of foods and how your body processes sugar. How carbohydrates = sugar. Understanding the difference between complex vs. simple carbohydrates.
• Understanding Food Labels
• How to read a package label: the nutritional information, the ingredients, and manufacturers’ claims. What are GMOs and why should I care?
• Eating Locally
• Why are local produce and locally-produce meats better, how to find it, and how to get it delivered right to your front door. What should you always buy at the farmer’s market vs. the supermarket
• Menu Planning
• How to organize your weekly shopping and make-ahead cooking habits so you can maximize the number of home-cooked foods your eat; how to shop economically and best store your food, so you can avoid throwing away food at the end of the week.
• Recipes
• We include a whole bunch in your information packet to get you started on the right foot