“Grocery”: How you change the health of your country every day.

5 min readSep 30, 2017

This week I read

Grocery: The Buying and Selling of Food in America by Michael Ruhlman

I had different expectations about the book. I thought it was all about the process of buying and selling, what’s behind it, what’s really going on in the supermarkets, how we get all the different products on the shelves of our corner grocery shop, who is in charge, who makes the decisions and why.

And it is all there. But not exactly what I expected it to be.

It might come as a surprise to you (it was to me), but people who own supermarkets, people in charge of making buying decisions at a grocery store, very often, in most cases, do not care that much about food, they don’t even think about it. They know less about food than their average conscious consumer does. What do we expect, when even nutritionists can’t agree on one thing, and doctors know less about nutrition than a lot of their educated patients?

People behind the design of most stores, especially the smaller ones, care about one thing and one thing only: what sells and what doesn’t. (The healthy, better quality, more expensive foods, are actually better for the business. But they are not selling all that well compared to all the junk, sadly.)

Most buyers would go to industry specific expos, would go to other stores to see what’s popular and what sells. They would get the products to sell, try them, and, if it sells well, they’ll buy more, if it doesn’t, and you, the consumer, never make a choice to buy certain products — the product will go off the shelf. At the end of the day grocery stores are just another business.

Nothing personal. No agenda. No conspiracy against public health.

Just business. Just choices. Your choices.

That’s why and how your buying choices, your dollar vote, build the health of your country and people around you.

It’s just business. And your choices.

Except, groceries, food is a different kind of business.

That’s why we take it so personal.

Food is essential. Latest designer jeans are not.

Food changes our health, our energy, our whole being and living. Even our personality! — Well, jeans, especially “skinny jeans”, can do that too sometimes.

We can’t avoid food. It’s vital.

And that’s why many of us want our suppliers, our grocery stores, to be responsible, to be more educated, to care more, because… well, because it IS their business.

And many store owners do care.

Take Whole Foods, take Trader Joe’s, take Fairway Market, take Westerly to name a few in NYC. And there are many more everywhere. Many many more every day.

Nutrition and health geeks like me wish they cared more, they would be more transparent and wouldn’t allow “healthy” junk foods, like healthy organic cereal that is just another form of sugary candy, on the shelves. But at the end of the day, they got to survive as a business. They are not in a non-profit sector. And if they sell those sugary cereals, well, we are buying them. Thriving chains like Whole Foods wouldn’t display anything in such huge quantities, if it wasn’t selling well.

It’s just business.

And your choices. Our daily choices.

Some other fascinating facts I learned, stories that made me think.

We don’t buy foods anymore, we buy names, designs, the story.

Take-out of prepared food and meals is the future of our grocery stores — nobody has the time to cook anymore.

The best and easiest diet plan that works without thinking: Cook It Yourself.

Breakfast — the most dangerous meal of the day. The way it’s eaten by the most of US population

Any sugar is sugar — made from beets, cane, agave, honey, coconut… It’s all sugar, it all comes from plants, just like fructose in your fruits and juices.

Words on food products and packaging: we think they are there for us to understand what’s inside better. BUT packaging is for manufacturer to sell more.

Food is NOT healthy. We are. When we eat nutritious (full of nutrients VS calories) foods.

Final thoughts?

Food, sadly, is still a business, in a capitalism system.

Selling food is NOT a non-profit organization on a mission to educate you and me, the consumer, NOT on a mission to keep us healthy.

Selling food is just business, done by people who do not know much about nutrition and health, so it’s your job to educate yourself, demand better products, make better choices and vote with your dollar for better products, products that care.

[Speaking about cereals, don’t forget to check out my new episode of A Better Self Daily podcast, that is all about sugar and grains — your favorite breakfast. How those are exactly the foods that keep you fat, sick and nearly dead]

2 Foods to ditch forever for Simple Weight Loss, More Energy, More Health

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