The goal for the pantry is to stock it with real, whole foods that do not need refrigeration. What is a whole food? A whole food is one that is not processed or had ingredients added. Some will argue that “whole foods” are foods that are 90% plants. For my purposes, a “whole food” is one that has been minimally processed with no added ingredients. It might be processed a bit, like nut butter (as opposed to raw peanuts) or avocado oil, but at least it’s all real, not a “food-like substance”!
As noted author of Food Rules, Michael Pollan puts it, “If it came from a plant, eat it; if it was made in a plant, don’t.” That’s a good general rule, but some processing is unavoidable (for example, canned salmon).
Steps to Transforming Your Pantry
Some will advise baby steps, but I think you should try to go cold turkey if you can afford to. If you can’t do it this way, put an X or a colored sticker on anything you know you need to throw out, but want to use up and add it to a running list of “replacement” items. Be sure and toss it when you get the replacement.First, plan a couple of hours and get your kids involved if you have them at home. Make it a game and come up with a reward. It’s great nutrition education for kids!
- Get your materials together:
Magnifying glass (ingredient lists can be very tiny…for a reason!), trash can, black marker, adhesive labels (colored are good), clear tape, scissors and a clip board.
- Move any non-food or other household chemicals to another area.
- Read the ingredient labels on the back of all items. IGNORE the front of the package, box or container. This is advertising! If there are more than 5 ingredients, (unless they’re things you recognize), be careful. Ingredients your grandma wouldn’t recognize are also very suspicious-you should be somewhat afraid of these! If sugar is one of the first five ingredients on any label, this is a very bad sign!
- Take out items you want to replace right away (items that you are low on), have strange ingredients, lots of sugar or are highly processed convenience foods. Either toss them and add to the “buy now” or put a sticker on them and add them to the “buy later” list.
- Food items with the following words should be filed in round file (AKA trash can). Many of these chemicals are only “food-like substances”:
Trans fats
Hydrogenated or partially hydrogenated
Soybean oil, vegetable oil (try to avoid sunflower and safflower also-they hide in processed foods!
Canola oil (hard to avoid, but it’s very inflammatory. Ditch it if you can.)
Interesterified oils (commonly found in baked goods like cookies, crackers, biscuits, cakes and icings, dairy fat replacers, pie crust, popcorn, flatbread and tortillas.
Artificial sweeteners: Splenda (sucralose), aspartame, saccharine
Artificial anything: colors, preservatives (tocopherol is really vitamin D, grapefruit extract, citric acid are natural preservatives).
Monosodium glutamate (an excitotoxin. These kill brain cells per Dr. Mark Hyman, “What the Heck Should I Eat?” Don’t trust the FDA to keep unhealthy chemicals out of your food. More on the FDA later)
Sugar (and many aliases-see post titled “Sugar, by any other name”):
Dextrose, maltodextrin, corn syrup, high fructose corn syrup, etc. If sugar is one of the first five ingredients, that tells you that there is a lot of it! This is a tough one to get rid of completely but be aware of the sugar aliases and where they fall in the ingredient list. The goal is to get rid of added sugar completely! If you’re having any of these sweeteners, definitely avoid sugar that is not “cane sugar” (it would come from sugar beets and is a GMO crop) and avoid “high fructose corn syrup” (metabolized different from sugar and can damage the liver and the gut, according to Dr. Mark Hyman.)
Good News! Nutrition labels now require grams of added sugar to be listed.One teaspoon=four grams. The American Heart Association recommendation is no more than 6 teaspoons per day for women and no more than 9 teaspoons per day for men. It adds up fast!
Sodium: A word about salt (sodium chloride). The Dietary Guidelines for Americans recommends limiting sodium to less than 2,300 mg a day-this is a little less than a teaspoon. Processed foods are notorious for adding way too much salt. Read the nutrition label will give you a clue but take a look at the serving size listed on the nutrition label. You may be shocked at how small the serving is. Most Americans get more than 3,000 mg per day. You do need sodium but controlling it with your own saltshaker is a much better idea. If you find that something in your pantry has 800 mg of sodium, remember that this is more than one-third of the total sodium allowance for the day! Caution!
Look for an upcoming post on food additives: what they are and what to know about them.
Packaging Guidelines
- Packaged Goods (boxes, bags, etc.)
Watch out for bags/boxes that might have split and been taken over by bugs (technically weevils). Opened packages should be put in containers if they’re still OK. Toss anything else.
- Canned Goods:
Read labels on cans and look for “BPA Free.” More companies are ditching BPA and will almost always tell you if the can is free. BPA (Bisphenol A is known to be an estrogen mimic in the body and is to be avoided if at all possible.) This is the material often found in plastic water bottles that’s been in the news with a link to breast cancer. It’s released when exposed to high heat. You really never know how much heat a product has been exposed to during processing or in transit to the store. If your plastic container has a “1, 2, 4, 5, or 6, you can comfortably assume the bottle or jar is BPA free.”
- Plastic containers- more about BPA
Many pantry items, such as condiments and syrups, come in plastic containers. While many are BPA free, the best container is glass. It is inert (doesn’t react chemically with food or other chemicals) and is recyclable. If you have a choice, toss the plastic and choose glass. I buy a lot of pantry items through the Walmart grocery app, but they usually don’t say whether the item is packaged in plastic or glass. This seems to be a negative for all online grocery shopping I’m familiar with.
- Expired items:
High-acid canned goods, like tomatoes and citrus fruits, will keep for up to 1½ years (USDA)\. Low-acid canned goods (mostly everything else) including vegetables, meat, and fish—will last for up to 5 years.
Throw out any cans that are dented, swollen. cracked, bulging, leaking or that spurt liquid when opened. Of course, there’s no way to find out whether a canned food has gone south unless you open it, so if you can’t remember when you bought it and want to err on the safe side, throw it out.
“Most shelf-stable foods are safe indefinitely. In fact, canned goods will last for years, as long as the can itself is in good condition (no rust, dents, or swelling). Packaged foods (cereal, pasta, cookies) will be safe past the ‘best by’ date, although they may eventually become stale or develop an off flavor. You’ll know when you open the package if the food has lost quality. Many dates on foods refer to quality, not safety. See FSIS Shelf-Stable Food Safety Fact Sheet for more information.”
- If any item that you want to be sure and use up is about to expire, mark the date on it and put it near the front of the pantry.
- If you have containers to store food items in, cut package labels, front and back, copy if you’re not discarding, and tape on the outside of the container. It might be helpful to note where you bought the item if you shop at several stores or online retailers. You will want to keep all opened packages in containers eventually. Do this gradually so you don’t break the bank! In the meantime, use zipper plastic bags to contain the bag or box.
- Organize the shelves on a first in /first out basis
Summary
- Plan a time to clean out.
- Get your materials together.
- Read ingredient labels on the back only.
- Get rid of items that are not “whole” if you can afford to.
- Make a list of those to “replace now.”
- List items you want to “replace later.”
- Mark expiration dates if an item needs to be used up soon.
- Use containers or plastic bags to protect food items.
- Throw out questionable cans and open packages.
- Organize by first in first out. Put items about to expire near the front.
You’re on your way to creating a healthier pantry, eating better and saving money by not accumulating things you don’t use! Next, in my post Building the Healthy Pantry, we’ll stock the REAL FOOD pantry.