Ever walked into a grocery store and found yourself dazzled by shelves of brightly packaged foods and colourful drinks that seem impossible to ignore? Clever branding and eye-catching labels are designed to grab your attention, often nudging you to add products to your trolley without a second thought. But if you're trying to eat healthier, it's worth looking beyond the flashy packaging and focusing on what really matters: the ingredients.
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Dr Jeremy London, a cardiothoracic surgeon with over 25 years of experience, shares a simple approach to grocery shopping that prioritises ingredients over marketing claims. His method encourages shoppers to focus on what is actually in their food, rather than what the packaging promises. In an Instagram video shared on July 14, the heart surgeon highlights, “It's important that you know how to read labels when you're in your grocery store. Now, I'm going to break it down into three buckets.”
Bucket 1: Produce
Dr London’s first stop when grocery shopping is always the produce section, where the healthiest choices are found – fresh fruits, vegetables, and raw meat. These are foods that don’t come with labels, single-ingredient items valued for their natural nutritional benefits rather than packaging claims. He explains, “The first one's kind of obvious. Produce. No front label, no back label, single ingredient. The nutritional value sells itself.”
Bucket 2: Packaged whole foods
This category includes whole foods sold in packaged form, such as eggs, meat, nuts, and milk. Dr London says these can still be healthy choices, but recommends checking the ingredient list on the back to ensure they don't contain unnecessary additives, so you know exactly what you're buying.
The heart surgeon highlights, “The second is whole foods that come in packages. Nuts, ground beef. Now, these are likely healthy for you, but it's important that you read the back label to make sure there aren't added sugars, fillers, or preservatives.”
Bucket 3: Canned, jarred and packaged foods
The final category on Dr London’s list includes canned, jarred, and packaged foods that dominate the middle aisles of most supermarkets. These products are often covered in bold claims designed to catch your eye and sell the item. However, the heart surgeon advises looking past the marketing and reading the nutrition panel and ingredient list on the back, as they reveal what is actually inside the package.
He notes, “The third bucket is the one you need to pay attention to. These are the canned, jarred, and packaged foods that live down the aisles. The front label is the marketing piece. This is where they're going to try and sell you something. It's important that you turn the packages over and read the back label so you know exactly what is in the package.”
Easy rule of thumb
According to Dr London, a simple rule of thumb when grocery shopping is to spend about 80 per cent of your time around the supermarket's perimeter, where you'll find fresh produce and other whole foods, and only 20 per cent browsing the middle aisles, which are typically stocked with more processed and packaged products.
The heart surgeon emphasises, “Spend 80 percent of your shopping time around the perimeter of the grocery store and about 20 percent down the aisles. Read all of the labels, but try to look through the marketing piece. Look beyond what they're trying to sell you. Read the back labels so that you know what you're actually buying and what you are actually putting into your body.”
Note to readers: This article is for informational purposes only and not a substitute for professional medical advice. It is based on user-generated content from social media. HT.com has not independently verified the claims and does not endorse them.
Dr Jeremy London is a board-certified cardiovascular surgeon with more than 25 years of experience. He has an MD from the Medical College of Georgia at Augusta University, and his focus is on the intersection of lifestyle, preventive medicine, and evidence-based longevity.