The surprising food you should be buying at the supermarket

If the foods comes straight from the earth, eat it. If it has a label, question it. Photo / Getty Images

When you walk down the aisles of a supermarket, how many of the thousands of foods you see would you expect to be healthy to eat?

In Australia, researchers from the George Institute for Global Health recently investigated a total of 40,664 packaged products that are common on Australian shelves.

They found only one-third are healthy, six out of 10 packaged foods are highly or ultra-processed and more than half are discretionary/junk foods.

"Our supermarket shelves are full of products that are making us fat and making us sick. Our research shows that Australia's packaged food environment is full of foods laden in added sugar, fat and salt that are also highly processed," lead researcher Michelle Crino said.

Of course, "healthy" means different things to every person, and that's totally fine.

But knowing what makes a food truly nutritious is key.

So, next time you're trying to figure out some quick ways to determine if your food is nutritious, pay attention to the following factors to save your waistline (and time).

Health Halo

Most of us aren't nutrition experts, which can makes interpreting food labels no easy feat. Misleading terms such as "natural," "organic," "sugar-free," "fat-free" and other labels leave out integral information about what is actually in the product.

In order to make an informed decision on whether or not a product is healthy, turn to the ingredient list.

The sequence of ingredients is in order of prominence. So, if sugar, vegetable oil, or enriched wheat flour, is listed first, the product contains those ingredients the most.

As always, unpronounceable and unrecognisable ingredients should be a major red flag, likewise with an ingredient list so long you don't even have time to read it.

Where are you?

With approximately 8000 products available in a large New Zealand supermarket, the fight for stomach share is fierce. This is translated into the strategies behind where stores place their products.

We all know that fresh and unrefined foods are the best for us, so spend the majority of your time on the outer perimeters of the store and have your list ready when you shop in middle to avoid impulse buying and hours of label reading.

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Love chatting to the local growers 🤝 You learn so much and they do more for the community than you think! Indeed choosing produce from your local farmers’ market is healthier and more sustainable by reducing the natural resources used to transport your food to you. Bonus: you’re doing your part to help the environment, too 👌 #meetthegrowers #farmersmarkets #paddocktoplate #healthylifestyles #organic #sustainability #sustainablefood #

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Check the sugar content

When it comes to sugar consumption, it appears Australians are simply not getting the message.

As a nation we're consuming an average of 60g of sugars each day, or the equivalent of 14 teaspoons of white sugar.

Sugar itself carries empty calories, meaning it has little or no nutritional value.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) recommends adults and children limit their intake of "free sugars" (sugars added to food, as well as sugars naturally present in honey, syrups, fruit juices and fruit juice concentrates) to less than 10 per cent of their total energy intake.

Below 5 per cent is even better and carries additional health benefits.

Avoid foods high in added sugar, and most importantly, watch out for other words that are used to describe added sugars, such as sucrose, glucose, fructose, maltose, maple syrup, agave and rice malt, to name a few. (FYI: there are over 50 words to disguise sugar.)

Types of fats

A lot of times we put down a product because it's high in fat, but it's the quality of fat that makes it a more healthful choice.

Choose products with higher amounts of 'unsaturated' fats, and avoid products that contain trans fats or higher amounts of saturated fats.

Focus on fibre

Regular consumption of fibre and in particular, wholegrains (oats, high fibre cereals, brown rice, barley), vegetables, fruits, beans, nuts, legumes and seeds has been associated with reduced risk of weight gain by feeling more satisfied with fewer calories.

If a product contains 3-6g of fibre per serve then this is a "high" fibre product and helps eliminate a lot of refined-carbohydrate, high-sugar food versions.