Supermarket Savvy: Learn to shop healthy at the supermarket

Supermarket Savvy is a web-based tool that teaches users how to shop healthy. It is widely recognized that buying healthy, nutritious foods is the first step towards building a healthy lifestyle. A healthy diet can reduce the risk of obesity, heart disease and diabetes.

The web site offers three portals: the Savvy Shopper; a virtual supermarket; advice for a health professionals. The Savvy Shopper section offers resource and tools to help consumers shop for healthy foods. Users can access tip sheets and comparison charts of healthy and commonly purchased foods and sign-up for monthly newsletters, money-saving offers, recipes and menus from which to base a healthy eating program and a grocery list. The virtual supermarket gives users the opportunity to browse the aisles of the supermarket and see thousands of brand-name foods that meet specific nutrient criteria. In this section users can prepare, print, and save a shopping list and read tips on food labels and food safety. The third section offers tools and resources for health professionals that enable them to effectively and efficiently counsel their patients how to shop for health. Practitioners can sign-up for newsletters so that they can easily keep current on new foods, food regulations, health claims and ingredient lists. Moreover, the web site offers teaching tools for health professionals. PowerPoint slides and hand outs are available with speaker’s notes so that health professionals are equipped to educate their patients on nutrition and healthy shopping without creating materials from scratch.

To access all the features of the web site, a subscription must be purchased; the information and resource service membership is available at many levels. Moreover, subscribers can register for a monthly electronic newsletter that includes reviews of healthy new foods with nutrition facts, pros and cons, food category articles with a comparison chart on topics such as Energy Bars, Gluten-Free Foods, Whole Grain, Trans Fat-Free Foods, etc. The newsletter allows subscribers to keep up-to-date on food and consumer trends, FDA labeling issues, educational resources, and supermarket news.

To educate consumers how to shop for health and to make healthy grocery shopping easy and enjoyable. To enable health professionals to educate their patients on shopping for health.

Supermarket Savvy has been using Internet technology to help consumers make healthy food choices that will positively impact their well being for over 20 years.