It is advisable to carefully choose
foods and diversify nutrition sources, as our prophet, peace be upon him, urges
us to be moderate in terms of the food we eat; he says "it is enough for Man to
have bites to keep them healthy; and if they are to eat, it is recommended
allocating a third for their food, a third for their drinking, and a third for
themselves."
A path to the sound health and balanced nutrition starts right from the
market, and proper marketing does not entail radical change in terms of all you
buy. But it has to do with substituting some items for other better ones. Have
your family members take part in choosing and highlight the advantages of
marketing based upon health basics for all.
Here are some steps guiding you to the proper
marketing:
First: Before Shopping:
- Plan for your meals weekly, make a list of the main and light healthy meals,
diversify your meals and make them include all the nutritional elements; and
pinpoint their relative amounts; and divide your budget and allocate the biggest
part for the fresh foods.
- Make a point of being on a full stomach and do not do shopping while being
hungry; in order not to get big amounts of foods you are not in need of and are
filled with calories and high carbohydrates and fats.
- Organize your shopping process: get started with vegetables and fruits, then
bread, followed by milk and canned items; lastly meat and frozen items; in order
for ice not to be thawed.
- Get started with the basic commodities such as vegetables, fruits, and meat
which are lined peripherally; and do not get distracted with the consumer goods
displayed by the shopping centers in the middle; to entice you into buying
them.
- Do not fall for the discounts, publicity, and promotions as more often than
not, they are meant for the low-quality itemsor which are soon to be
expired.
- Stick to the list you made, and if some items were out of stock, look for an
alternative of the same category.
- Keep the detergents, insecticides, and other chemicals away from foods while
placing them in the shopping cart, and make sure of their being tightly
closed.
- Pick the freshest food items of all, cut back on sweets, pickles, canned
items, ready-made, processed, or full-of- additives and lacking-fibre
meals.
- Pick small-sized and fresh fruits and vegetables, and make sure of their
being without black or yellowish spots, insects, or putrefaction.
- Get fresh fruit juices; and avoid fruit juice syrups, fruit juice
concentrate and powdered juices as they contain a huge amount of sugar and
additives.
- Meat, fish, and poultry: choose non-fatty, reddish, non-sticky, solid, and
fresh parts to the effect that they are kept in the fridge for a single day; and
remove fat and skin.
- Make a point of getting milk and its low-fat derivatives; and fresh,
non-creamy, and low-salt cheese, and keep away from the kinds to which
preservatives or artificial flavor are added.
- Get the whole wheat bread rather than the white bread; in order to obtain
the fibres, vitamins, and minerals which are lost in the flour-whitening
process.
- Buy the vegetable oil such as olive oil, and avoid the butter, fat,
mayonnaise, sauce, and ready-made dressing added to salads as they contain huge
amounts of fats and salt, as well as preservative and artificial substances for
adding flavor. This is with the aim of cutting back on fats saturated in your
food.
- Read the food nutrition labels fixed onto the canned items.
- Make sure of the expiration date and period each product.
- Do not get the items kept in the fridge if its cooling degree were not
properly set; or if it were not clean or covered.
- Avoid buying swollen or rusty canned items, or the ones which are dented,
faulty, or not tightly closed; or with their contents leaked.
- Put the frozen foods and meat away in the car alongside the air-conditioner,
and keep them in tightly-sealed bags.
Wash your hands well after returning home as the handles of the shopping
carts are filled with the bacteria causing the infection and diseases.
3. Start storing the frozen foods in the fridge after getting them packaged,
and place the expiration date onto them within 30 minutes of your buying for
them.
Food Preservation Methods:
- Fruits and vegetables are apt to get spoiled and their lifespan is too
short. And even in the grocery stores, they lose their freshness and flavor in a
short while.
- In order for huge amounts of foods not to go to waste, here are some tips on
ways of preserving them for longer time; but we have to take into consideration
that all food cannot be stored in the same way. This is due to the fact that
they differ from one another in terms of ingredients. Some contain pigment
affected by light, and some holda higher ratio of fluids. Further, some are
covered with hard peel and others are with thin peel.
- It is important to store each kind of fruits or vegetables in a separate bag
in order to increase their storage life. Fruits and vegetables emit ethylene
gas, which is odorless and accelerates the ripeness process of the other fruits
and vegetables around. And this can cause their premature spoiling.
Some fruits and vegetables needless to be placed in the fridge
It is not necessary to store all the fruits or vegetables in the
fridge for a couple of days; however, they can be kept outside the fridge in a
room temperature, and in a dark place away from the direct sun beams or
heat.
Onions and Sweet Potatoes: there is no need to be kept
in the fridge, and they can be stored in a dry, dark place.
Bananas: they are kept in a fruit bowl during the first
three days outside the fridge, and then they are put in a paper bag and cooled
in the fridge.
Apples: they are placed in the fruit bowl for
the first five days, and then they are cooled in the
fridge.
Grapefruit: they can be stored outside the fridge
for seven days.
Fruits and vegetables in need of being cooled within the
fridge:
Beet, Carrot, and Radish: the green head is cut off and
stored within a paper bag.
Cucumber and Zucchini: they
should be kept dry and stored with a plastic bag.
Peach, Blackberry,
and other stonedfruits: if they are not ripe, you can store them
outside the fridge in a brown paper bag. Then, once they got ripe, they should
be put in the fridge.
Leafy Vegetables: they require a
special care: leaves are cleaned and spread on a paper to get them drained
altogether. Then, they are kept in a plastic bag in the fridge.
Corn: it is kept along its chaff so as not to get
dried.
Mushrooms: it is stored dry without getting washed in
a brown paper bag.
Green Beans: they are kept separately in
a plastic bag without cutting off its ends.
Spinach: it
could quickly spoil the vegetables stored along; therefore, it should be kept in
a separate plastic bag.
Storage Techniques of the Other
Foodstuffs:
Meat and Poultry: they should be stored
in a separate drawer and in their original packages, and they should be put away
in the freezer to be kept for long periods while being wrapped well in a plastic
bag.
Fish: fish have strong odour, so it is improper to be
kept along the other foods, meaning that they could greatly pick up the odour of
fish.
Eggs: they can be left in its own carton or the shelf
where the eggs are kept in the fridge.
Milk: it tends to
easily absorb any flavour easily; therefore, it should be kept away from fruits
and vegetables and other strong flavour foods. And it can be stored in its
original package.
Cheese: it dries fast and it should be
carefully wrapped in a wax paper or plastic cover before it is
stored.
Spices: in order to keep the odour of spices for
longer period, it always should be stored in a glass jar as it is better off
than plastic jar. And the most important is to be tightly sealed and in a
separate drawer.
Beans: they are stored in a dry, dark
place; and tightly closed bags.
