Shopping Sense & a $100 Grocery Card Giveaway

Did you know that March is Nutrition Month? Just in time for the end of it, I've got a great grocery card giveaway for you, as well as a fabulous new online resource recently launched by Healthy Families BC. The website is called Shopping Sense & it was developed to help shoppers learn the how to make healthier, budget-wise options for their families.

Shopping Sense is really easy to use. It includes fun virtual tours of grocery store departments led by Global TV’s Registered Dietitian Melodie Yong, full of great shopping tips. What I love about it, is that it gives you great tips on how to feed your family great healthy food without breaking the bank. I was lucky enough to get the live version of the tour with Melodie at our local Marketplace IGA store a few weeks back.

Melodie toured us around the perimeter of the store--generally all the healthiest things are on the outside aisles of big supermarkets--learning some great tips along the way. Here are five for you, all about nutrition labels:

Registered Dietitian Melodie Yong leads the Shopping Sense tour

1. Always read the label on packaged foods. Avoid buying products with ingredients you can't pronounce or huge long ingredients lists. Numbers in the ingredients? Stay away from it!
2. Look at fibre on the nutritional info charts. Adults should aim for at least 25g of fibre a day--check how much there is per serving of bread or crackers, for example, & if you're comparing, remember to check how many slices/pieces are in a serving. It's not standardized.
3. How much sodium is in it? 1500mg is the recommended daily maximum for adults & for children it's much lower. It's surprising which foods have a lot of sodium sometimes--bread can be a bad one.
4. Is it high in fat, & if so, is it trans fats, saturated or unsaturated? The first two are bad, basically, so avoid them when you can. Again, watch the serving sizes when comparing.
5. How much sugar is in it? Sugar is a sneaky one like sodium. Things that don't necessarily taste that sweet can have tons of sugar, like ketchup. To get a sense of what X number of grams of sugar really means, keep in mind that 4g is the equivalent of a sugar cube. In some pops like Coke, there can be TEN or ELEVEN sugar cubes per serving.

Another thing Melodie highlighted on our tour is something you can use too: a simple printable meal planner and shopping list. It allows you to plan your meals for the week, make a coordinating shopping list, and have everything organized in one place, so you don't end up coming home with a ton of stuff that won't work together to make decent meals. 

While I'm sure you're pretty excited about the Shopping Sense site & all the resources there, you're probably wondering what this giveaway is all about. I've got a $100 grocery card (valid at Save-On, Overwaitea, Pricesmart or Cooper's) to give away to one lucky winner. This contest is open to BC residents and the winner will be chosen at random on Thursday, March 28th at midnight. If you've won, I'll email you with the address you provided to Rafflecopter. You'll have 48 hours to respond, otherwise I will ask Mr. Random Number Generator to choose again. :)

You've got four ways to enter--the more you do, the better your chances. Don't forget to do the action (follow me on Twitter or FB, etc) & then click 'I did it' so Rafflecopter counts your entry as valid. As always, please contact me if you have any issues with Rafflecopter: lisa.corriveau AT gmail.com. Good luck!


a Rafflecopter giveaway


Disclaimer: I received a $100 grocery card as compensation for writing this post & hosting the giveaway.

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