My Healthy Food Shopping List: The Essentials I Always Have In
Over the years I’ve followed meal plans, written endless shopping lists and spent more time wandering around supermarkets than I’d probably like to calculate. When I was losing weight, my food shop was particularly important to me because I liked knowing that I had everything I needed for the week ahead.
My approach to shopping has changed quite a bit since then.
I used to buy far more products simply because they were low calorie or fitted whichever plan I was following. These days I’m less interested in filling the trolley with foods that have diet written all over them and much more interested in having ingredients at home that make it easy to put together something decent when I’m hungry.
I don’t think there is a perfect healthy shopping list that everyone should follow. What you buy obviously depends on what you like eating, how many people you’re feeding, your budget and what you actually know you’ll use.
There are, however, certain foods I find myself buying again and again because they’re useful in so many different meals. If you’re trying to make healthy eating a little easier, these are the things I’d start with.
The cupboard ingredients that save me when I’ve forgotten to plan
I love meal planning and will happily tell anyone who’ll listen how much easier it makes life, but I would be lying if I pretended I always follow my meal plan perfectly.
Plans change, ingredients get forgotten and occasionally I reach teatime and realise the meal I had planned requires something I definitely don’t have.
That’s when a well-stocked cupboard earns its keep.
Tinned tomatoes are probably one of the ingredients I use most. They’re cheap, last for ages and can become the beginning of pasta sauce, chilli, curry, soup or any number of meals where I’m essentially throwing things into a pan and hoping dinner emerges.
I usually have several tins because apparently I have a strange fear of running out of chopped tomatoes!
Beans and pulses are useful for the same reason. Chickpeas, kidney beans, butter beans and lentils can turn a fairly basic meal into something much more substantial, and because I’m vegetarian I use them regularly for protein too.
I wouldn’t suggest buying every variety simply because somebody has put it on a “healthy shopping list”, though. If you’ve never knowingly eaten a butter bean and don’t particularly fancy starting, having six tins of them gathering dust in the cupboard isn’t helping anyone.
Rice and pasta are obvious staples for me because they give me the basis of so many easy meals. I generally choose wholegrain versions sometimes for the extra fibre, but I eat white rice and pasta too. I’ve moved a long way from feeling that every food choice has to be the nutritionally perfect one.
Having food you’ll actually eat matters.
Noodles are another thing I like having around because a stir-fry can rescue an evening when I need something quickly. Add some vegetables, tofu, Quorn or whatever protein you prefer, along with soy sauce and a few other flavours, and you’ve got a meal without needing a complicated recipe.
Herbs and spices make a much bigger difference than “diet” foods
One thing I would absolutely keep from the original version of this article is my love of herbs and spices.
Paprika and cumin are probably two of the spices I use most, but my cupboard has expanded considerably over the years. Garlic granules, chilli, turmeric, curry powder, oregano, basil and mixed herbs all get used regularly.
If you’re trying to cook more meals at home, I think building a collection gradually is much more useful than buying a trolley full of products marketed specifically for weight loss.
You don’t need to buy twenty jars at once either. Start with whatever appears in the recipes you already enjoy and add others as you need them.
Stock cubes are another permanent fixture in my cupboard. They’re useful for soups, casseroles, risottos and sauces, while soy sauce, balsamic vinegar and various other vinegars can add loads of flavour without needing a complicated list of ingredients.
When I first started losing weight, I think I concentrated much more on what I needed to remove from meals. Over time I’ve become much more interested in making food taste good.
There’s only so much enthusiasm anyone can summon for a plate of vegetables if they’ve been boiled into submission and served without seasoning!
What I usually buy from the fruit and veg aisles
This part of my shopping changes much more according to the meals I’ve planned because fresh produce is exactly where you can waste a fortune if you buy everything with good intentions and then don’t use it.
I nearly always have onions because they seem to find their way into half the meals I cook. Peppers, mushrooms, carrots and tomatoes are regulars too, although exactly what I buy depends on what’s planned for the week.
Frozen vegetables have become just as important to me as fresh ones. They’re brilliant for the days when the vegetable drawer is looking rather sorry for itself, and I don’t have to worry about using them before they go off.
Things like frozen peas, sweetcorn, spinach and mixed vegetables can be added to meals straight from the freezer, which is particularly handy when I haven’t planned particularly well.
Fruit is much more personal because there is no point buying whatever a healthy shopping list tells you is “best” if you don’t enjoy it.
Melon has always been one of my favourites, and I like apples and grapes too. I don’t buy them because I believe grapes are somehow morally superior to chocolate, though. Sometimes I want grapes and sometimes I want chocolate. They’re different foods doing different jobs.
That’s probably one of the biggest ways my attitude towards food has changed.
Fruit is nutritious and a useful part of my diet, but I don’t need to turn it into a punishment for wanting something sweet.
The things I keep in the fridge
Eggs are one of those ingredients that can solve several food problems at once.
They work for breakfast, lunch or dinner, they’re useful in cooking and baking, and when I can’t think of anything else, eggs on toast with some vegetables can become a perfectly respectable meal.
Yoghurt is another regular purchase, although I’m much less interested now in finding whichever yoghurt has the lowest possible calorie count. Depending on what I’m buying it for, I might look at protein, sugar, fat, ingredients, price or simply which flavour I actually fancy.
Cheese is something else I always have.
Years ago, when I was losing weight very rigidly, cheese was one of those foods I felt I had to measure incredibly carefully because it was easy to eat more than my plan allowed. I still think portion size can be useful to think about if you’re trying to lose weight, but cheese hasn’t become unhealthy simply because it contains more calories than cucumber.
It’s a useful source of protein and calcium and, perhaps more importantly from the point of view of enjoying dinner, makes quite a lot of meals considerably nicer!
Milk or a milk alternative is another obvious fridge staple. Which one is “best” depends on what you need from it. If you’re choosing a plant-based milk, it’s worth checking whether it’s fortified with nutrients such as calcium rather than choosing one purely because it has fewer calories.
I also tend to have things such as hummus, cooked vegetarian protein options and whatever fresh ingredients are needed for the week’s meals.
Protein foods I find useful to have around
Protein has become much more talked about in recent years, and while I don’t think everybody needs to start drinking protein shakes and calculating macros, having some protein in meals can help make them more satisfying.
Because I’m vegetarian, my shopping looks slightly different from somebody who regularly buys chicken, fish or meat.
Eggs, yoghurt and cheese can all contribute, alongside beans, lentils, chickpeas and tofu. I also use meat alternatives such as Quorn, depending on what I’m cooking.
If you eat meat or fish, your list might include chicken, lean mince, tuna, salmon or whatever your family enjoys.
The important thing for me is having a few options available rather than getting to lunchtime and realising I’ve bought lots of lovely vegetables but nothing that’s going to turn them into an actual meal.
This is one reason I find meal planning useful. Instead of thinking vaguely that I should buy “healthy food“, I can look at what I’m actually planning to eat and make sure I’ve got the ingredients to make it work.
My freezer is part of my healthy shopping list too
I used to think healthy shopping mainly happened around the outside of the supermarket where all the fresh food lives. I’ve changed my mind completely about that.
My freezer is probably one of the most useful things I have for making healthy eating easier, particularly on busy days. Frozen vegetables and fruit last far longer than fresh, and I can use exactly what I need without discovering half a bag of spinach liquefying at the back of the fridge three days later.
I also like having leftovers and portions of meals I’ve batch cooked. If I’ve made a curry, chilli, soup or pasta sauce that freezes well, making extra means there is another meal waiting for a day when cooking feels like far too much effort. That’s the point where convenience matters.
I’ve learned that if the choice at 6pm is between cooking something complicated from scratch and ordering a takeaway, I’m considerably more likely to make the choice I’d planned if there’s already something easy available.
Healthy eating becomes much simpler when you make the easier choice genuinely easy. I love the freezer for storing ready-cooked meals!
What about snacks and treats?
They go on my shopping list too. This is something I would have approached very differently when I first started writing about weight loss.
I used to think a good weight-loss shop should contain lots of fruit, low-calorie snack bars, yoghurts and whatever products fitted neatly within my plan. Chocolate, biscuits and other foods I considered “bad” felt like things I shouldn’t really be buying.
The trouble is that not buying a food doesn’t necessarily mean you stop wanting it. These days I’d rather plan for snacks and treats than pretend I’m suddenly a person who never wants them.
That might mean fruit, yoghurt, popcorn, nuts or something else that makes a useful everyday snack, but it can also mean chocolate or biscuits. What I buy varies according to what we fancy and what else we’re eating.
For me, a realistic healthy diet has to have room for foods chosen simply because I enjoy them. I spent too many years believing every item in my trolley needed to prove it deserved to be there.
Things I no longer think are “essential” for weight loss
The original version of this article included products such as Frylight, Alpen Light bars, low-calorie flavoured coffee and quark.
I still use some products like these occasionally, and there’s absolutely nothing wrong with them if you enjoy them, but I don’t consider them essential for losing weight or eating healthily.
That’s an important change for me. You don’t need a special diet trolley. If you’re trying to lose weight, ultimately you need an overall way of eating that allows you to consume less energy than your body uses over time. How you achieve that can look completely different from one person to another.
Some people love low-calorie swaps because they allow them to have a larger portion of something they enjoy. Other people would rather have a smaller amount of the original product.
Neither approach automatically makes somebody better at losing weight.
I’d much rather spend most of my shopping budget on versatile foods that I can turn into proper meals than fill the trolley with expensive products simply because the packaging looks vaguely diet-friendly.
My basic healthy shopping list
If I were starting with an almost empty kitchen and wanted enough food around to make healthy eating easier, I’d think about categories rather than trying to copy somebody else’s exact list.
I’d want some carbohydrates I enjoy, such as potatoes, rice, pasta, oats or bread, along with several sources of protein. I’d add fruit and vegetables I know I’ll actually eat, some dairy foods or suitable alternatives, ingredients for adding flavour, a few useful freezer foods and enough snacks and treats that the week’s food feels like normal life rather than a seven-day endurance test.
Then I’d build the actual shopping list around the meals I’d planned.
That’s far more useful than deciding every healthy person apparently needs kale and buying a bag that will spend the next fortnight slowly dying in the fridge.
If you’re trying to save money, check what you already have before you shop too. I am terrible for assuming we’re running low on something, buying another one and discovering three unopened packets when I get home.
Tinned tomatoes seem particularly capable of reproducing in my cupboards when I’m not looking.
A healthy food shop should make your life easier
After years of losing weight, regaining weight, following different approaches and writing hundreds of healthy recipes, I don’t think there is one definitive shopping list I could hand you and promise it would sort out your diet.
I could tell you what I buy, but you might hate half of it. The NHS Eatwell guide has lots of healthy ideas too, but unless you will actually eat it you shouldn’t buy it!
What I do think helps is having enough useful food at home that making a meal doesn’t require enormous amounts of thought every time you’re hungry.
That’s what my shopping essentials are really about now.
They’re not magical weight-loss foods, and I don’t buy grapes because they’re “better” than chocolate or almond milk simply because it has fewer calories than cow’s milk. I buy ingredients that work with the meals we actually eat, keep a few reliable things in the cupboard and freezer for the weeks when my planning goes completely out of the window, and try not to buy fresh food purely because Healthy Jen imagined on Monday that Friday Jen would definitely fancy a salad.
Friday Jen can be surprisingly uncooperative.
For me, a good healthy shopping list isn’t the one that looks most impressive when you unpack it.
It’s the one that still helps you make something you actually want to eat several days later.
