Eat This, Not That! Supermarket Survival Guide Thousands of easy food

616 Pages·2021·41.37 MB·English

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

This book is the product of thousands of hours spent in supermarket aisles and test
kitchens; hundreds of conversations with nutritionists and industry experts; and the
collective smarts, dedication and raw talent of dozens of individuals. Our underlying
thanks to all of you who have given your time, energy and enthusiasm to this project.

A special thanks to those who have played a vital role in this adventure since the

very first edition of Eat This, Not That!, in particular George Karabotsos, Stephen
Perrine, and Tara Long.

—Dave and Matt

Check out the other bestselling books in the EAT THIS, NOT THAT!® and COOK
THIS, NOT THAT!® series, and make sure to follow us on Facebook and Twitter!

WHAT'S INSIDE

Front Cover

Acknowledgments

Social Media

Introduction

PLUS: Inspiring Eat This, Not That! success stories

CHAPTER 1
Anatomy of a Supermarket

Make the most out of every trip through the aisles

CHAPTER 2
Your Save-Money Shopping Guide

Learn the secrets for slimming down your grocery bill

CHAPTER 3
The Produce Section

Elevate your meals with these fat-burning superfoods

CHAPTER 4
The Meat & Fish Counters

Build a leaner body with the smartest protein choices

CHAPTER 5
The Refrigerator Section

Keep your cool—and never feel hungry again

CHAPTER 6
The Pantry Aisles

Stock your kitchen with the healthiest building blocks possible

CHAPTER 7

Ahashare.com

The Snacks & Sweets Aisles

Master the art of the healthy indulgence

CHAPTER 8
The Freezer Section

The best pizzas, entrées, and ice creams in the supermarket

CHAPTER 9
Drink This, Not That!

Learn how to cut out the calories that hurt you the most

Index

Credits & Copyright

Back Cover

INTRODUCTION

There’s a wonderful world where all you
desire and everything you’ve longed for is at
your fingertips...

—Bruce Springsteen,

“Queen of the Supermarket”

NO WONDER BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN SANG of “aisles and aisles of dreams” in
his ode to checkout girls. In an interview with Britain’s The Observer Music
Monthly, he even declared, “They opened up this big, beautiful supermarket near
where we lived....[A]nd I thought, this place is spectacular. This place is… it’s

fantasy land!”

We can be as appreciative of its bounty as The Boss and still be wary of the

supermarket’s dangers. As with every other sensory-rattling funhouse, in the grocery
store, nothing is as it first appears. Friendly characters entertain our children while
peddling junk that will blow up their waistlines and make them susceptible to
diabetes. Words like “healthy” and “lite” are often meaningless phrases coated with
fat and sugar.

Even the lowest-priced supermarket in your neighborhood is brimming with

complete rip-offs—“health” foods that aren’t healthy, “gourmet” foods that aren’t
gourmet, specialty items that just aren’t that special. Yet the supermarket is a fact of
everyone’s life. The average American makes about 1.7 trips a week, and each one of
those trips is a chance to gain weight, or to lose it. To save money, or to waste it. To
set yourself and your family up for a lifetime of better health, or to deprive you all of
the vital nutrients your bodies need to stay strong.

You make hundreds of health and financial decisions with each trip, yet there’s not

a lot of help to be found: The people stacking the boxes know where everything
belongs, but they don’t know what’s actually in anything. Managers are seldom trained
to do much more than settle coupon disputes, and at the checkout, you have the choice
of a robot telling you to place items in bag, or a robotlike teenager swiping your
family’s food along a grimy scanner. Once you enter a supermarket, you’re on your
own.

And we’re victims of that lack of helpful information: Only 27 percent of shoppers

can correctly identify monounsaturated fat as a healthy fat, and nearly one in five
people don’t know whether trans fats are good or bad. (They’re worse than bad.
They’re ugly.) No wonder two-thirds of the American population is overweight or
obese. No one is telling us the truth about what’s in the foods we’re eating!

Well, that stops now. The Eat This, Not That! Supermarket Survival Guide is

designed to make shopping faster, easier, cheaper, and, most important of all,
healthier. And along the way, it’s going to show you how to start losing weight fast—
without dieting, without exercise. These pages are packed with thousands of simple
grocery-store swaps that can save you 10, 20, 30 pounds or more—this year alone!

Now, I know what you’re thinking: Eating healthy is expensive. It doesn’t have to

be. You don’t have to buy costly “health food” to get the weight-loss benefits of the
Eat This, Not That! Supermarket Survival Guide. The simple swaps you’ll find in
this book will show you how choosing between two seemingly identical—and
identically priced—products can save you hundreds of calories, and dozens of
pounds, without impacting your wallet—or your taste buds. Consider this: