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Business & Tech

Kroger Shoppers Get Nutrition Tours

Learning to read labels a big part of the tour organized by the grocer and Decatur Active Living.

 How much sodium is in chicken broth?  What’s the difference between free-range and cage-free eggs? 

You can learn answers to these and other nutrition questions at your downtown .  The grocer has partnered with the City of Decatur Active Living Department to offer free nutrition tours.

According to nutrition tour guides, Ben Xie and Christi Cannon, the most important thing for a grocery shopper to know is how to read nutrition labels. 

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“You need to watch for sodium, cholesterol, fat, fiber and carbohydrates,” Xie said. 

He added that the first thing a shopper should start with on the nutrition label is the serving size. 

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“The sodium, cholesterol, etc. are for one serving size, but most people eat more than one serving,” he said.

Xie and Cannon base their tips on the new FDA Dietary Guidelines that suggest fruits and vegetables make up half your plate.

So naturally the tour starts out in the produce section of Kroger, where participants learn what the term “organic” means: meat, poultry, eggs, and dairy products that are given no antibiotics or growth hormones; plants are produced without most conventional pesticides; and fertilizers are made without synthetic ingredients, sewage sludge, bioengineering or ionizing radiation. 

There were also tips on washing fruits and vegetables.

“Don’t think that peeling the skin off keeps you from having to wash the vegetable," Xie said. "For example, as you use the scraper to peel carrots you’re scraping any pesticides onto the inside of the carrot, so you still have to wash it."

Added Cannon: "Some people soak their vegetables to clean them, but if they do it for a long time the vegetables can lose their nutrients – especially if the water changes color.  It’s also important to wash pre-washed greens again."

The tour mostly follows along the outer isles of the supermarket, which have the healthiest and freshest foods. Here are more tips from the tour: 

  •   When buying fruits, the darker the fruit the more cancer fighting antioxidants. Blackberries and blueberries have the most.
  •  When buying poultry, beware of chicken that is injected with chicken broth to keep it moist – it contains a lot more sodium. 
  •  Turkey bacon has more sodium than pork bacon. Canadian bacon is healthier.
  •   The color of the egg shell means nothing for nutrition, but the darker the yolk, the more nutritious the egg.
  •  Frozen veggies have less sodium than canned.
  • Look for breads with at least 10 percent of your daily allowance of fiber. Cannon recommended “La Tortilla Factory” soft wraps because they have 100 percent of your daily value of fiber in one wrap at only 100 calories.

In the seafood section Xie discussed the Omega 3 benefits of fish like salmon and tuna, but noted shoppers should eat swordfish and tuna no more than twice a week to prevent ingesting too much mercury.

He also shared a small pamphlet from the Monterey Bay Aquarium called “Seafood Watch,” which lists the fish to watch for mercury.  You can get your own free pamphlet at http://www.montereybayaquarium.org/cr/cr_seafoodwatch/download.aspx

The one-hour tours are held the second Saturday of the month.  Participants also get handouts on Reading Nutrition Facts Label, Understanding Organic and Other Terms, A Shopper’s Guide to Pesticides, and healthy recipes to try. 

Xie and Cannon are required to put in hundreds of hours of time in the community in order to receive their registered dietitian degrees from Georgia State in 2012.

 “I’ve been wanting to do one of these tours for a while, especially to educate myself on food labels," said Decatur resident Janice Doloski. "I’m already pretty aware of nutrition but I learned that I’m not getting enough calcium by not eating dairy – even though I try to get calcium through vegetables.”

One of Kroger’s general managers, Dale Whitener, concluded; “We’ve been doing this for six months and hope to do it indefinitely.  It’s one of the things people like about this Kroger – the small-town feel and the things we do for the community.”

For more information and to RSVP for the last tours of the year, on Oct. 8 and Nov. 12, contact Cheryl.Burnette@DecaturGA.com or call 678-553-6541.

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