March 10, 2008
Shopping Around the Periphery
Don’t Eat Anything That Doesn’t Rot, an interview with Michael Pollan
Liked this bit a lot:
“One rule that I found really helpful is to shop only around the periphery of the supermarket. If you look at the layout of the average supermarket, the fresh whole foods are always on the edge. So you get produce and meat and fish and dairy products. And those are the foods that, you know, your grandmother would recognize as foods. They haven’t changed that much. All the processed foods, the really bad stuff that is going to get you in trouble with all the refined grain and the additives and the high-fructose corn syrup, those are all in the middle. And so, if you stay out of the middle and get most of your food on the edges, you’re going to do a lot better.”
I note that my precious Claussen pickles can be found only on the periphery.
March 11th, 2008 at 4:38 am
True — unless you like to bake.
March 11th, 2008 at 6:06 am
igor: People who like to bake tend to be on the chubby side, no?
March 11th, 2008 at 10:35 am
Why do you think that? There’s probably a stronger correlation between chubbies and soda or french fries than fresh baked bread.
March 11th, 2008 at 10:48 am
igor: I base that statement solely on the fact that I used to get a catalog for baking equipment (pans and whatnot) which featured the company’s employees as models (usually not a good idea), and they were all fatties … not soda and french fry fatties, but porkers nevertheless.
March 12th, 2008 at 8:45 am
So true. I’ve noticed this even applies to “healthy” supermarkets like Whole Foods and Trader Joe’s (I started going to those once my job made me too fat…).
January 5th, 2009 at 6:02 pm
Is this true in Chinese supermarkets? I couldn’t see much of an organizing principle in those I visited in China.