Adventures in grocery shopping

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Originally Posted by JaneV2.0

Your friend is absolutely right. Diabetes--and metabolic syndrome* in general--is taken far too lightly, maybe because you don't see the damage it's done until you're in the thick of it, and it's totally or nearly irreversible. (Continuous glucose monitors are an excellent tool to demonstrate how your body metabolizes different foods, though they can be spendy.)

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Since I've known most of my life that I am at high risk for diabetes I once asked my eye doc about the damage from diabetes. She was one of those awesome medical professionals that lives to help people be healthy and was always happy to take time to talk about my concerns. Her response was "JP, it's tragic. You can see the damage in the eye well before it damages their vision but by that point the damage is pretty much inevitable." And then went on to describe what actually happens in detail. I assume that essentially the same thing happens in people's toes, feet, etc. I have supposedly "good" health insurance so hopefully if/when it gets to that point they will pay for a continuous glucose monitor and the sensors that have to be replaced every few weeks. If not I'd likely pay out of pocket because I'd rather not end up like my grandmother. (At least not in that way. She was a wonderful woman who I'd be proud to emulate in plenty of other ways.)

And we shared a birthday, 74 years apart, so her 80th birthday party was, in my mind, my 6th birthday party! I think I've shared this here before but this was the picture of us that ran with the story in her local newspaper about the event. That birthday cake caused a shouting match between my mom and her oldest brother after mom told him "If an 80 year old woman wants a piece of cake for her birthday I'm damn well going to give it to her." Sadly grandma passed away from a heart attack three months later.

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JP, great memory!

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Originally Posted by Tradd

JP, great memory!

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I have o ly a couple other memories of her. One, that she would always give my sister and I a big Hershey bar as soon as we arrived, not one of those stupid ‘fun size’ bars (which I learned as an adult drove mom crazy because then we weren’t hungry at dinner time and wouldn’t eat our real food, to which grandma apparently said ‘ but it makes them so happy!’ And two, a story I heard much later, that she drove herself to her oldest daughter’s wedding on the other side of Kansas in the early 40’s. Grandpa refused to go because my aunt was marrying a Catholic boy (my family was Lutheran) and grandma told him ‘I will be there for my daughter’s wedding’

What a great picture and wonderful memories, jp. Thanks for sharing!

Just came back from the grocery store and have to say it went pretty well. Several - actually good - sales! Got two family packs of chicken legs, two packages of strawberries, lettuce, broccoli crowns, tomatoes, spinach, two bottles of ketchup, several packages of swiss and provolone cheese as well as some deli ham... and I can't remember what else. Final bill was $42!!! Hasn't been that low for one trip to the store in a while.

Can anyone explain to me why the relatively small bottle of Heinz 57 sauce is $7.49? Is it just that there is literally no other product out there that competes against it? Yes there are other steak sauces but I assume that many people are like SO and really really prefer Heinz 57 over the others. (Or maybe other people really really prefer the others and they are also just as expensive. I haven't checked since we won't be buying them.) And also I guess it's likely that people who can afford steak at all will also be willing to pay whatever the cost is for their favorite steak sauce.

I eat steak pretty often and it's pretty pricey. Several years ago I discovered Aldi's Burman's Steak Sauce which I was surprised to find I enjoyed more than my previous fav A1. I now buy it several bottles at a time, I think at about $1.29 per.

Why are the name brands much more expensive? I can't say, but now that I know there's other brands just as good or better, they'll not get my business again.

Thank you. I will have to look for something that SO might like as well. He doesn’t use a lot on his steak but it just seems absurd to spend so much for such a small bottle.

Dinner tonight was a big slab of sea bass that SO got at the farmers market. OMG. I found a recipe that said to pan it for a few minutes on each side with lemon after flipped and microwave some butter with oregano and garlic to dump on it at the end. Cooked it to 120 and it was FANTASTIC. we will definitely be doing this again!

When we eat steak, we just like the taste of the steak and don't put any sauce on it.

I consider beef one of the most nutritionally-dense foods you can eat, by far. That said, I don't like steak and haven't eaten it since I was a child. I like the Aldi steak sauce tip, but we don't have an Aldi yet, unfortunately.

Opened a jar of green olives today and had a great SURPRISE! They were stuffed with hot peppers! Guess I will have to read labels more closely from now on! Ha! We only had pimento stuffed olives in the north.

It’s been so hot lately I’ve not felt like eating much when I get home from dinner. So, two packets of tuna, a bit of Miracle Whip, and some dill pickle rush for tuna salad. I eat it with some really good whole grain crackers I found on Amazon. I order tuna (lot of packets at once) from Amazon. Same with the crackers. I’m only hitting the grocery store or getting Amazon Fresh delivery every few weeks for product, yogurt, bread, and bagels. Fruit has gotten so expensive I’m generally only buying fresh bananas and Granny Smith apples. I get big bags of frozen cherries and blueberries that I eat with plain yogurt. Strawberries were 99 cents today with a digital coupon from store app (Jewel, Chicago area chain). They were $3.99 without the coupon. Yikes! I’ll eat them sliced with yogurt.

H‑E‑B grocery store has some great deals. Last week got delicious wild caught gulf shrimp for $6.99/pound. This week asked meat department about the t-bone steaks on sale for $4.99/pound and was told they have own US producers and own boats. Prices seem to good to be true. Shrimp were fantastic and will have the steaks tomorrow for DH birthday meal. Fingers crossed.

Most Texans who move to other states miss HEB a lot. It is a very innovative privately-owned store, ie not corporate. If you find yourself in Austin, visit their store called Central Market.

Is Central Market similar to H‑E‑B Plus? See it does catering and has a cooking school!

Had always been told I had to buy special eyedrops as I wear contacts but read the bottles and the active ingredients are the same. Bought the cheaper kind.

My mother, a pharmacist, taught me how to read and decipher ingredient labels when I was young. It is amazing how many health and beauty products contain the same ingredients but marketing convinces the buyer to pay so much more for perceived value.

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Originally Posted by jp1

So, back in April I went for my annual "wellness" visit with the doc. My A1C has been in the low end of the prediabetic range for years. (Thanks mom! Grandma had gone blind from untreated diabetes back in the early 50's but lived another 20+ years and 5 out of 8 kids in mom's generation eventually were diagnosed with it including mom.) This visit my A1C was at 6.5, right on the cusp of a full blown diabetes diagnosis. So I decided to cut back carbs as much as possible and we'll be testing it again in 3 months. Previously breakfast was a bagel and cream cheese and lunch was normally a sandwich made with some sort of leftover from dinner the previous night or just the leftover dinner outright if it was something like pasta. Now I'm having plain yogurt with fresh fruit for breakfast and usually a salad for lunch. Dinner I'm still eating some carbs because SO just isn't willing to go full into the low carb diet thing and I'm not willing to deal with making two separate dinners every evening. We'll see how this plays out when I get my A1C checked again in early August after three months of this new diet. In the meantime it's become clear to me why a high carb diet is so common. Besides the fact that it's easy and tasty, it's also cheap. Replacing all those carb calories with non-carb stuff like cheese or meat to go on salad, or even the fresh veggies that go into salad, is more expensive than what I was eating before. I haven't gone through and tracked the numbers but I feel like my grocery budget has basically doubled because of this change. If it ends up helping my health I'm ok with that, but if I were struggling to make ends meet this would be a really tough situation.

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It's been three months since my a1c test that resulted in a diabetes diagnosis. Just got the results of the a1c test I did on friday. 5.7. Between my dietary changes and the low dose metformin the doc has me taking things are going in the right direction. I've also lost 12 pounds, presumably from the diet changes.

It seems nearly everyone in this country lies somewhere on the metabolic syndrome continuum. It's good that you're headed in the right direction.

JP, metformin causes most people to lose weight. I have known people to lose between 50-100 lbs. They considered marketing it as a weight loss drug but didn’t because of the side effects. Some of the other diabetes drugs doctors are using for weight loss but when my friend inquired her doctor wouldn’t prescribe any of them because they also caused muscle loss. So many people are getting diabetes because of all the crap in our food including high fructose syrup. Many things in food are not allowed in Europe.

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Originally Posted by Teacher Terry

JP, metformin causes most people to lose weight. I have known people to lose between 50-100 lbs. They considered marketing it as a weight loss drug but didn’t because of the side effects. Some of the other diabetes drugs doctors are using for weight loss but when my friend inquired her doctor wouldn’t prescribe any of them because they also caused muscle loss. So many people are getting diabetes because of all the crap in our food including high fructose syrup. Many things in food are not allowed in Europe.

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Perhaps if various institutions, including the government, weren't encouraging inadequate and frankly dangerous diets, we wouldn't be so far down the road. https://forums.mixedmartialarts.com/...eating/3755003

Remember the famous Food Pyramid that told us we could eat eleven servings of whole grains every day, among other prescriptions? :0!

I was prescribed metformin years ago and after researching everything I could find on it decided it was not the way to go. I am sure you did your due diligence and not just relied on the person prescribing! YLMV

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Originally Posted by JaneV2.0

Perhaps if various institutions, including the government, weren't encouraging inadequate and frankly dangerous diets, we wouldn't be so far down the road. https://forums.mixedmartialarts.com/...eating/3755003

Remember the famous Food Pyramid that told us we could eat eleven servings of whole grains every day, among other prescriptions? :0!

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are you suggesting that The Science promoted by the government and Rachel Maddow is often flawed!?!!?

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Originally Posted by iris lilies

are you suggesting that The Science promoted by the government and Rachel Maddow is often flawed!?!!?

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I don't know what Rachel Maddow supports--I've never heard her hold forth on food science--but nutrition findings as promoted by various government agencies are seriously flawed, if not criminally corrupt. A minor hero of mine is Dr. Marcia Angell, who was an editor of the NEJM. She said the following:

"...Similar conflicts of interest and biases exist in virtually every field of medicine, particularly those that rely heavily on drugs or devices. It is simply no longer possible to believe much of the clinical research that is published, or to rely on the judgment of trusted physicians or authoritative medical guidelines. I take no pleasure in this conclusion, which I reached slowly and reluctantly over my two decades as an editor of The New England Journal of Medicine ."

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Originally Posted by JaneV2.0

I don't know what Rachel Maddow supports--I've never heard her hold forth on food science--but nutrition findings as promoted by various government agencies are seriously flawed, if not criminally corrupt. A minor hero of mine is Dr. Marcia Angell, who as an editor of the NEJM. She said the following:

"...Similar conflicts of interest and biases exist in virtually every field of medicine, particularly those that rely heavily on drugs or devices. It is simply no longer possible to believe much of the clinical research that is published, or to rely on the judgment of trusted physicians or authoritative medical guidelines. I take no pleasure in this conclusion, which I reached slowly and reluctantly over my two decades as an editor of The New England Journal of Medicine ."

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Does anyone seriously think watermelon and Lucky Charms are more nutritious than meat and eggs? For God's sake, people!

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Originally Posted by Teacher Terry

JP, metformin causes most people to lose weight. I have known people to lose between 50-100 lbs. They considered marketing it as a weight loss drug but didn’t because of the side effects. Some of the other diabetes drugs doctors are using for weight loss but when my friend inquired her doctor wouldn’t prescribe any of them because they also caused muscle loss. So many people are getting diabetes because of all the crap in our food including high fructose syrup. Many things in food are not allowed in Europe.

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Woah! If I lost 50-100 lbs I'd be skinnier than a holocaust victim. I was 155 before I started metformin and am 143 now. I'm happy at this weight and don't particularly want to lose any more. And probably won't. It's been steady at 143 for a couple of weeks now. I have no idea if the loss is from metformin, the reduction in carbs, or the fact that I'm also trying to shrink portions in general, which is a standard diabetes management strategy. Whatever the case I'll take it.

Obviously the people that lost that much weight were overweight but they all ended up skinny including my ex husband. I couldn’t believe that he was so skinny but I have known many people with the same experience.

Aldi has a number of items on sale though the end of the year. Butter is $2.99/lb locally. Limit 6. I’m going to be there when they open at 830

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Originally Posted by Tradd

Aldi has a number of items on sale though the end of the year. Butter is $2.99/lb locally. Limit 6. I’m going to be there when they open at 830

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Was just at Aldi's yesterday. Butter not on sale, but I did notice lower prices on the yogurt, cheeses, and a few other items. I'll have to keep an eye out on the butter prices.

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Originally Posted by happystuff

Was just at Aldi's yesterday. Butter not on sale, but I did notice lower prices on the yogurt, cheeses, and a few other items. I'll have to keep an eye out on the butter prices.

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Check their online flier for the week. I love their Brie. When I saw the best by date was early January I got three. One is for Thanksgiving. The butter at Jewel, our major grocery chain here is at least $4. I don’t use margarine at all.

Speaking of brie, I bought the most horrific “brie spread” this week at our little grocery store. UGG it is awful. Our dog will see it as topping of his regular food for the next few days.

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Originally Posted by iris lilies

Speaking of brie, I bought the most horrific “brie spread” this week at our little grocery store. UGG it is awful. Our dog will see it as topping of his regular food for the next few days.

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What was the brand?

Made my first visit to out to Virginia since my middle dd's family moved there a couple of years ago. I had seen so much talk about Aldi's on this website, it was on my list of things to do.
The whole quarter lock for shopping carts is quite smart - there were no stray carts in the parking lot. We found most everything we needed. It was much smaller than what I had imagined. Was surprised to see the checkout lady sitting in an office chair! There was only one person doing the checkout, but it looked like all the stations were set up that way? I am use to shopping in big grocery stores. We live within about a mile of a Target, Walmart, Fred Meyers (Kroger), Safeway, Winco, and Albertsons. While their selections are huge, sometimes they are just too big. If I lived near an Aldi's I could see myself shopping there more often.

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Originally Posted by Greg44

Made my first visit to out to Virginia since my middle dd's family moved there a couple of years ago. I had seen so much talk about Aldi's on this website, it was on my list of things to do.
The whole quarter lock for shopping carts is quite smart - there were no stray carts in the parking lot. We found most everything we needed. It was much smaller than what I had imagined. Was surprised to see the checkout lady sitting in an office chair! There was only one person doing the checkout, but it looked like all the stations were set up that way? I am use to shopping in big grocery stores. We live within about a mile of a Target, Walmart, Fred Meyers (Kroger), Safeway, Winco, and Albertsons. While their selections are huge, sometimes they are just too big. If I lived near an Aldi's I could see myself shopping there more often.

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Aldi is based in Germany. I’m told the German locations are very similar size wise. A lot of grocery stores are just too big. I appreciate the lack of choice at Aldi. Yes, their cashiers sit down. Why not?

I love that Aldi lets its cashiers sit down. Humane thing to do. Small stores with basic supplies. We used to get a small rolled turkey roast there.

Only reason we do not go is that we try hard to limit our processed food and find that a SMALL local Kroger is our favorite for sales prices and a deal my husband uses. Since we do Chewy for our expensive cat food and Amazon for many of his tool needs, we buy gift cards at Kroger and get a $1 per gallon discount on gas. Our city is covered by Krogers so we have a lot of gas stations to use.

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Originally Posted by Tradd

What was the brand?

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Sorry, I don’t remember and the container is now out in the garbage.

Just avoid anything brie “spread.”

We had a successful trip to Aldi's. A pineapple for $1.89 and it is delicious. (husband cut it up in 10 minutes we have Lots to eat), butter for $1.99 lb. and walnuts for $4.99 I think a pound. But the best is the bratwurst!!!! As soon as my husband said Aldi's was on the list, I salivated for brats! They are pale and wonderful fully cooked, just heat in the microwave in a bed of sauerkraut!

I just got home from shopping. I was asked to bring a cherry pie for Thanksgiving. Aldi had no cherry in the baked goods section and no frozen ones. I went to a smaller family run grocery store that I’ve shopped a lot at in the past. Great international stuff. Anyway, they had Sara Lee frozen pies on sale for $5 (usually $8.50). So I got a cherry one for Thanksgiving and some frozen cherry turnovers for me. I also got some shrimp there. I’ve been eating a lot of that lately. Orthodox Advent began on Wednesday (40 days before Christmas) and we try to go at least meat free. My Moroccan shrimp dish is very easy. I got some yogurt and canned goods at Aldi, as well as crackers to go with the Brie I bought last week for Thanksgiving. I’m now done with grocery shopping until after the holiday.

The last couple of weeks, I've been shopping at both Aldi's and my regular grocery store. I have been pretty consistent with having the bill about $80 for the week combining the two. Heading out again today, so hoping for the same results. Anyone else seeing a reduction? Or making a reduction happen?