Grocers offer advice in meal planning, cost cutting

Mary Beth Faller
The Arizona Republic
Mar. 24 2008 6:15 pm

With grocery stores so big and time so short, it's easy to get into a rut with a weekly list. But stores are stepping in to make shopping easier.

Bashas' supermarkets hold free 45-minute "healthy shopping tours" around the Valley with a nutrition expert to help customers plan meals and shop wisely.

And customers at Whole Foods Markets can arrange free customized tours to shop for lower-priced items or health and beauty products.

Chris Akard, a fitness-and-nutrition expert in Scottsdale, leads the Bashas' tours. "We talk about eggs, low-fat cheese, deli products, grains, and I give them ideas on how to prepare those foods and where in the store to find them."

He encourages people to have a nutritious breakfast.

"People will tend to go for a bowl of cereal or skip breakfast altogether," Akard says. "I tell them to have one whole egg with two to four egg whites, depending on their size, that's scrambled or boiled. They add fresh or frozen veggies to that and do a couple of veggie sausages, and they have a great source of protein and carbohydrates to start the day,"

Promoting breakfast is part of his plan to create a "metabolic shift" in clients. Many people are so busy that they consume most of their calories later in the evening. They're not hungry at breakfast.

. "Metabolic shift occurs when you eat breakfast even though you're not hungry," he says. In two hours, you eat again. You then eat lunch, and a snack. Once done with dinner, you won't be as hungry, skipping late-night snacks, and you will wake with an appetite.

Akard also is not a fan of health bars as snacks.

"They may be low fat, low sugar and vitamin fortified, but at the end of the day, they're still a candy bar," he says. "Some of them have 290 calories." Consider instead low-fat cottage cheese or an eighth of a pound of deli turkey, Akard says

Julie McGough, marketing supervisor at Whole Foods Market in Scottsdale, runs tours for a mothers' group that focuses on value and convenience foods.

"Gluten-free foods is a huge topic for us, and any special needs diets and raw foods," she says.

Call your local Whole Foods store to schedule a tour there. Visit wholefoods market.com for locations.

The next Bashas' healthy shopping tours are Wednesday at 4, 5:30 and 6:30 p.m. at the Litchfield Park store, 5115 N. Dysart Road. Akard will lead tours at the Chandler store, 1920 W. Chandler Blvd., at 4, 5:30 and 6:30 p.m. April 30. For more tour dates and locations, visit bashas.com and click on "What's new."