SCARBOROUGH, ME / ACCESS Newswire / March 4, 2026 / Image by Freepik
Originally published on Guiding Stars Health & Nutrition News
by Kitty Broihier
We cover goal-setting and ways to prioritize health regularly in this blog. But this time the aim is not to give you pointers on how to set health goals. Instead, I'm sharing how to make simple nutritional goals for the grocery shopping trips themselves. This goes far beyond just making a grocery list (although we do always suggest having a list of some sort). An efficient, goal-oriented shopping trip can help you achieve the diet and health outcomes you're seeking.
Results Start in the Cart
Ever arrive home from shopping and still find it challenging to create meals that support your health goals? One big reason for this is probably because of the ingredients you chose. When you make strategic food choices that align with your goals, you're automatically much closer to meals that support them. For example, maybe you're looking to decrease sodium in your diet to support your cardiovascular health. If you already have a wide selection of foods low in sodium, cooking lower-sodium meals is that much easier. We eat what we have on hand, so it pays to choose wisely. Every food item you bring home plays a role in the overall quality of your diet.
One Nutrition Goal per Trip
The key to success with this method of shopping is simplicity-focus on just one nutrition goal at a time. Every time you shop, challenge yourself to choose the products that align best with the nutrition goal you've set. This technique is essentially a way to "level up" your food selections-making the best choice among the options available for each item on your list. For example, let's say you're looking to consume more whole grains. So you'll seek out whole grain options for every food on your list with grains. This includes the obvious food categories like breads, crackers, and cereals, but also the less obvious: pastas, baking and pancake mixes, frozen entrees, and other frozen products that include grains. And don't forget snack foods such as pretzels, chips, and other crunchy snack options.
Use Guiding Stars to Help You Choose
There's no need to scour every food's ingredient list before adding it to your cart (unless you want to, of course). Rely on the Guiding Stars nutrition navigation system to help you make the best food choices for you and your family-without a lot of time or effort. When you select an item that earns Guiding Stars, you know that rating is based on its balance of positive nutritional characteristics against negative ones. Foods that earn one, two, or three Guiding Stars indicate that those foods have a "good, better, or best" nutrition rating. Remember your chosen nutrition goal for any particular shopping trip? There's a good chance that Guiding Stars already takes it into consideration when scoring foods and assigning stars. For general foods, the nutritional characteristics that translate into stars are shown below:
Of course, not everything on your list will conform to your nutrition goal for that shopping trip. But I bet you'll be surprised how often you can make a better choice-especially if you let Guiding Stars help you narrow down your healthy choices.
Staying Flexible With Food Choices
Nutrition goals are valuable to help solidify your health intentions. But it also pays to know when to be flexible about which foods you purchase and the meals you cook. Not everything you eat needs to adhere to a goal. When you're shopping, make the best choices you can with the options and budget that you have. Buying something that doesn't "fit" your goals doesn't make you a bad eater, just like having an occasional treat doesn't discount all your healthy eating efforts. What you do most often counts the most with nutrition, but staying consistent with good nutrition requires flexibility too. That's why leveling up your regular, staple food choices with nutrition in mind makes sense. It's a practice that leaves room for real life.
About Guiding Stars
Guiding Stars is an objective, evidence-based, nutrition guidance program that evaluates foods and beverages to make nutritious choices simple. Products that meet transparent nutrition criteria earn a 1, 2, or 3 star rating for good, better, and best nutrition. Guiding Stars can be found in more than 2,000 grocery stores, in Circana' Attribute Marketplace, and through the Guiding Stars Food Finder app.
*Image by Freepik
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View the original press release on ACCESS Newswire:
https://www.accessnewswire.com/newsroom/en/business-and-professional-services/guiding-stars-focused-grocery-goals-for-big-results-1143541
