Live life on the edge (of the grocery store)

Have you ever noticed the layout of a grocery store?  Simply put, all of the bad-for-you items are featured front and center and all of the good-for-you items are around the edge, like this:

I remember after "waking up" to a healthier life and learning about which foods are best to eat I walked into a grocery store ready to do some healthy shopping.  All of a sudden it seemed like the once familiar and comfortable place was full of poison, carefully dressed up and positioned to entice me.  

I challenge you - walk down the front of your favorite grocery store (assuming it's not Whole Foods) next to the cashier stands and look at what you see.  Every endcap will have things like soda, chips, candy, sugary cereal, cakes, cookies, you name it - every toxic food you could eat that will make you unhealthy.  Do you see cherries?  Or lettuce?  Any produce?  Any whole grain food?  Any high protein meat?  No.

Another interesting thing to notice is that the number of ingredients in items goes up as you move from the edge to the middle of store.  So you go from items like "carrots", "eggs", "chicken" to items that contain 20 or 30 ingredients like "high fructose corn syrup", "modified corn starch", "soy protein isolate" and "cellulose gum."  Yum.

So when you go to the grocery store, stay to the edges for 80% of your food needs.  Fill your cart up like you would fill your plate - with plenty of veggies, lean meat, dairy, some fruit and some whole grain foods.  Then venture into the toxic aisles for the other 20%.