I'm Stacey Zawacki, director of the Sargent Choice Nutrition Center. The first step in
cooking well is shopping well, so I'm gonna give you some tips for stocking your healthy
kitchen here at the Whole Foods in Cambridge.
Here we are in the produce section. Take a look around at all these beautiful colors.
They all represent nutrients that we can't make.
If you want to go food shopping once a week and not worry about your food spoiling,
then we'll plan a mixture of ripe and unripe, fresh and frozen.
Let's start with something local. Here we are in the apple section and as you can see
apples are grown all over the country.
This week our best pick is a Macintosh apple, locally grown and at its peak of freshness.
So he we are in the stone fruits section. These are all fruits that have a pit.
Unlike apples these aren't always ripe and ready to eat the same day.
Don't hesitate to ask a produce manager about buying these fruits.
Dave, can you answer a couple of questions about this?
Sure.
I'd like to know how to choose a nectarine at the right time.
When you're buying a nectarine, which is in season right now, you want to give it a little
touch, and if there's a little give to it just like the back of your hand, that's ready to eat now.
Now yours that you have there it's a little hard and crunchy. It will be a little more
tart, but if you put it on your counter for a day or two it will get as soft as this
and it will be ready to eat.
Unlike stone fruit, the way you tell if a cantaloupe, or a melon, is ripe is by smelling the stem.
If it smells like fruit it's ready to eat, and this one is.
When fresh berries aren't in season you're gonna want to take them home and eat them
within a couple of days.
Or you could try frozen.
Hey, Rhett, what are you doing here?
Oh, just randomly piling frozen berries here.
Well, actually, Rhett, you're helping me make a great point. Frozen berries are always in season
and they're just as nutritious.
So let's talk about vegetables.
Vegetables are something that we want to aim to eat three times a day.
Where do we start? Let's start with orange vegetables. Carrots are a great example.
You can also do sweet potatoes in the microwave and butternut squash.
So for green vegetables don't forget green beans, asparagus, brussel sprouts, cauliflower,
and my favorite, broccoli.
Broccoli lasts a long time in the refrigerator so you've got all week to work with it, and
it's rich in Vitamin C.
Leafy greens are more perishable than broccoli, and so when you bring home your lettuce or
your spinach, you want to make a salad tonight.
If you don't get a chance to do that, then tomorrow add it to your pizza. Any meal with
leafy greens is gonna be healthier.
In the meat department we're all familiar with ground beef. It's easy and affordable,
but lean alternatives include ground turkey breast, chicken breast, and select cuts of
meat like round and sirloin.
Salmon's a great choice for a heart-healthy dose of Omega-3s, but just like any fresh fish,
if you're not gonna serve it right away, you may be better off with frozen.
Hey, Rhett! What do you have here?
Oh, I just happen to have some frozen fish.
Oh, and I see you also have some canned tuna and salmon. That's gonna be convenient for
later in the week. What else do you have?
Oh, just a variety of proteins. Let's see here. I've got some nut butter, some beans,
hummus, and oh, I have tofu.
That's great. Meat-free is good for your wallet and the environment.
And it's super tasty. A lot better than dog food.
Thanks so much for all those healthy shopping tips, Stacey. Can't wait for the next video
where we'll learn about the tools we'll need to cook with.
You're welcome, Rhett. And don't forget to visit the Sargent Choice website to download
your own healthy shopping list.
Yup, see you around.
See you around.