The One New Book That Every Healthy Grocery Shopper Should Have In Their Cart.

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Nutrition, Podcast

Click here for the full written transcript of this podcast episode.

The book pictured above is called “Rich Food, Poor Food”.

If you watched my “Top Fitness & Nutrition Book Recommendations of 2012″ video, then you may have noticed this book made a cameo appearance as the top book I recommend to all my clients and athletes when it comes to getting a healthy grocery shopping list and learning exactly how to compare foods at the grocery store.

For example, it turns out that Baked Lay's potato chips are just as unhealthy as regular Lay's potato chips.

But you wouldn't know that by looking at the nutrition facts label.

Instead, you have to delve in and inspect the actual ingredients, and that's exactly what Jayson and Mira Calton teach you how to do in the Rich Food, Poor Food book.

In today's audio episode, you're going take an adventure through every aisle of the grocery store and learn the biggest dairy  mistakes, whether you can actually find healthy meat at Walmart, how to use the produce numbering system, delicious homemade mayonnaise tips, what to look for when buying nuts and seeds, how to beat a soda addiction, and much more!

Click here to get Rich Food, Poor Food now – and leave your questions, comments or feedback below, as I'm sure Jayson or Mira would be happy to reply!

Ask Ben a Podcast Question

24 thoughts on “The One New Book That Every Healthy Grocery Shopper Should Have In Their Cart.

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  3. blue_cat says:

    Non-pasteurized milk??? People used to die from that – thanks to Pasteur they don't any more.
    Make your own mayonnaise… well you make with raw eggs – are you sure you want to do that and store 4 jars of it???
    You are worried about heat manipulating your pasta? Weren't you planning to cook it anyway??? Or are you eating it raw?
    Get serios people – eat healthy, but don't go to extremes.

  4. Alex says:

    Sounds like a great book to read and a great reference material. I'm wondering though, will it be useful in Australia? Thanks.

    1. mira says:

      yes. even if the brands are not the same the check out checklist and the criteria for buying the foods remains the same!

  5. Kelcey1 says:

    I loved the podcast. I have been drinking Kevita for some time now, it is awesome (especially the coconut). I picked up 3 copies of this book to give to people, my daughter in particular is always asking me for shopping advice. Also liked your clarification on the agave issue Ben, but I usually never buy anything with agave in it, such as ketchup, bar-b-que sauce, etc., as you can't tell which method was used on a product label. I have been making my own mayo, but it is fairly strong in flavor and my family doesn't really like it. I will try the MCT oil suggested by the Carltons. Looking forward to getting the book for other tips!

  6. Gareth says:

    This book is amazing. Thanks for the Podcast.

  7. Keerthi Kumar says:

    Towards the end of the podcast the authors said something about a product which uses stevia in a Kombucha culture and suggested something on the lines that regular Kombucha has sugar in it and that is bad. I thought that sugar is added during the fermentation process so that it can be used as food for the bacteria and once the fermentation is complete all that sugar would have been consumed. I'm not really sure how a bacteria can ferment on stevia. Can you or the authors of this book please clarify this?
    I'm holding GTs regular Kombucha bottle and it says 7g of Carbs out of which 2g is sugar per serving. This doesn't sound like a lot and I'm assuming this is left over sugar from fermentation and not added sugar. Is this bad and something to be worried about for low carb dieters?

  8. Albert says:

    Thanks Ben for hosting this podcast. It was very informative so I went to Amazon and bought the book. Can't wait to read it.

  9. Carol says:

    Ben they mentioned two drinks at the end of the podcast. One was a soda substitute the other you said you found it aSafeway and loved it. An alternative to juice. It had a funny name. Can you tell me what those were please. I enjoyed this podcast and hope you have the back soon. So much more to touch on. Thx.

    1. Zevia was the soda substitute and “Kevita” was the coconut kefir drink.

  10. Hillary says:

    Great podcast! I work as a supermarket dietitian and will definitely read this book and pass along the valuable information to those who participate in my stores! Thanks Ben :)

  11. Dianna G says:

    Just bought the Kindle edition and haven't even finished listening to the podcast yet. Can't wait to get home and start reading it (and sharing it with my family). I am a Paleo athlete and always looking for the best choices in nutrient-dense foods. Thanks for the veggie wash recipe! Looking forward to trying the grain-free cereal and the probiotic ketchup. Hopefully I can find them here in Hawaii. Aloha!

    1. mira says:

      let us know how you like it!

  12. This looks like an amazing read. I look forward to picking it up and sharing it with my readers as well!

    1. mira says:

      thanks.. we hope you love it! important information we know your readers will love too!!!

  13. Val says:

    This book is excellent but what has me concerned is a product called Natural Vitality Energy 28 promoted by Ben that is loaded with some of these very bad ingredients listed and would not get a stamp of approval by the Carlton's. I was shocked at reading the label even before I read the book.

    1. which ingredients in particular?

      1. Val says:

        Natural flavors are anything but natural, so I would not doubt natural colors would be much different. Why would you have to add color anyways. Potassium sorbate and sodium benzoate are known to be bad perservatives, the second one being the worse of the two. And the last two gums, not going to kill you by why eat things with not one but both in them? Most people who buy coconut milk are even trying stay clear of ones with guar gum added. Then there’s agave nectar, so what if its organic is has a higher fructose content than HFCS. If you drank or ate these things a couple times a year or had to because your eating out your not going to die but to promote it as a healthy supplement to be taken on a daily or even every other day just seems totally against what I have been following from you.

        1. Notice that I only recommend Energy28 during RACING, and definitely not as a DAILY SUPPLEMENT, so the agave is a moot point as you are metabolizing it during activity! As far as other ingredients in this, I agree that guar gum, xanthan gum, sodium benzoate and potassium sorbate are not ideal. I will speak with the company about this ASAP!

        2. Here is the response I got from Energy28 so far…

          "Potassium sorbate and sodium benzoate are both GRAS (Generally Recognized as Safe) and approved by the FDA as an ingredient to extend the life of products such as this. As there are 24 organic fruits, vegetables and super-fruits in this product there has to be something to check the natural growth of mold, yeast, and bacteria otherwise the product would spoil before it even arrived on the shelves in stores. Interestingly enough, sodium benzoate itself occurs naturally in nature and is found in many fruits such as apples, plums, cranberries and even in some sweet spices including cloves and cinnamon (which may account for cinnamons natural preserving attributes). Sorbic acid (sorbate) and potassium also occur naturally in fruits."

          1. Possibly this person knows of a better ingredient to use to prevent the natural growth of mold, yeast, and bacteria in a fruit-based product and while we are very active in R&D, I will gladly pass on to our research and development department any scientific information, references etc. that they have for our future consideration. We are always looking to improve our products and want to select the best and most effective ingredients possible.

            While I do realize that this person hasn’t actually said anything specific as to why they avoid guar gum and xanthan gum I will comment that both of these ingredient are also GRAS approved by the FDA. They are an inert ingredient that is used to keep all the ingredients in suspension in a fluid such as this product. Without this ingredient the heavier ingredients would fall to the bottom (settle) and one would get dramatically out of ratio amounts of the different ingredients in each serving, plus the product could clump together and have very poor consistency.

            While I can appreciate this person’s view on agave and the fact that agave can be processed so it loses all of its nutrients and ends up being not much better than other sugars, this doesn’t happen to be the case with our agave. Additionally the main “research paper” and whole foundation of the attack on agave is flawed as it is on the basis that it is a starch like HFCS, which ironically happens not to be true at all. There is no starch in agave. All plants store energy in one of two ways, either as starches or fructans. All agave plants create fructans as their method for storing energy.

            I am sure that if this product tasted nasty this person would be as equally upset as they are now for it containing agave; however it does have to be somewhat palatable to be consumed as a liquid. Us knowing full well that the over consumption of any sweetener is not good for health, we actually use a very small amount of organic agave, less than a ¼ of a teaspoon per bottle, which is typically considered a negligible amount considering that there are 30 servings per bottle.

            We do, however, feel that agave is a great alternative to sugar (and certainly dramatically better than artificial sweeteners) as it has a GI (Glycemic Index) value of 11 (compared to 64 for white sugar) according to the Glycemic Index Foundation. This is great news for diabetics, and for the rest of us it means that you don’t get the sugar highs and crashes as you do with sugar and many other sweeteners. Also agave is around 1.5 times sweeter than table sugar, so less is needed to sweeten a product; in our case it allows the product to be closer to 100% of the other nutrients.

            Now not all agave is even produced from the same species of agave, in fact there are over 200 distinct species of agave in the genus. And it isn’t all produced in the same manner and thus won’t contain the same properties. Ours happens to be sourced from the salmiana agave species.

            There are three ways to convert complex sugars into a simple sugar sweetener such as agave syrup. It can be done thermally, chemically, or enzymatically, ours is through enzymatic action. Similar to how a bee introduces an enzyme to a flower’s nectar to make honey, the agave used in our product is converted gently using a natural organic vegan enzyme, and thus there are no chemicals whatsoever involved in the production of it, nor is it cooked. It is gently warmed to no higher than 118F to evaporate the water content.

            Compare that to genetically modified corn syrup, over processed with heat and chemicals and there is little comparison.

            The other studied advantages of the agave plant and why we love it as a natural, plant-based sweetener is that it contains saponins and fructans, both phytochemicals associated with antimicrobial, anti-inflammatory and immune-boosting capabilities (Journal of Ethnopharmacology, 1996; 52:175-7). One of these fructans is known as inulin, a natural plant sweetener with an extremely low impact on blood sugar and cholesterol levels. The ancient Aztecs even used the nectar as a healing salve for wounds. Moreover, compounds derived from agave have been studied for their potential utility for treating colon diseases like ulcerative colitis, irritable bowel syndrome and Crohn’s disease (Plant Foods Hum Nutr 2007; 62:133-8). Research indicates that minimally-processed agave does provide nutrients to the human body, and may even have a positive effect on chronic disease (Nutr Rev 2004; 62: 439-42).

            So in our view, it was an obvious healthful choice for our products.

            Kind Regards,

            Matthew Simons
            Product Specialist"

  14. Alan says:

    Great podcast, and just went onto Amazon to look for the book. Found this review and was curious if she had really missed it, or it wasn't in the book, and if they wanted to comment on it:
    One thing was glaringly absent (at least, I missed seeing it in the book.) A lot of meat in your grocery store has been filled with water and msg and salt. This is the "enhanced" broth. If you check the package, you will see "up to 15% enhanced broth" on some packages of poultry and pork. That's paying for one ounce out of six as WATER, and sodium and msg-filled water, at that. This is more prevalent in big box store grocery sections because the broth acts to "enhance" the amount of time that meat can stay out for sale. AVOID it. I was surprised I didn't find this warning in the book but I might have missed it.
    Thanks!

    1. mira calton says:

      We mention water in meat 2 or three times in the book. However, you are the second person that said we should have called it “enhanced broth.” WE are going to reprint and this is the first thing we will consider, and the only real issue anyone has had. Here is how we put it under deli meats..”Also, unless you want to be paying the same price per pound for water as you are for meat, avoid meats that have water included in the ingredient list.” and in chicken we wrote, ” Under pork we wrote. “Watch out if buying conventional pork products. Ninety percent of supermarket pork is up to 40 percent water.” And under chicken we wrote , “This term only guarantees that there are no artificial colors, flavors, or preservatives and that the bird has been “minimally processed.” This does not mean that the poultry isn’t pumped up with a salt solution. Federal law allows water absorption in poultry of up to 12 percent. You pay the same amount for that water as you do for the bird. That is some expensive aqua!” But we can see that you and another wanted to see the magic word. We are on it! thanks for your input. We should make it clearer that the water is often filled with hidden msg too!
      Mira

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