8. Gluten-free foods
Unless you have been legitimately diagnosed with celiac disease or gluten intolerance, there is no reason to buy gluten free foods. They are not necessarily even healthier than standard fare, as they still contain artificial ingredients and a ton of sugar to make up for the missing gluten.
You’ll also be forgoing necessary dietary fiber and the vitamins that fortify many regular products, so an effort must be made to compensate for that. To top it off, you’ll be spending twice as much on a gluten-free version of something. It’s not a smart choice unless you actually need to forgo gluten for your health.
9. Bottled water
Bottled water is a bad buy for several reasons. First of all, it is very expensive compared to your tap water, and not necessarily of better quality, either. Many bottlers get their water from the same municipal source as serves your home.
Bottled water is also an environmental disaster – making and shipping all those bottles consumes a lot of fossil fuel, and many tons of the discarded plastic ends up in landfills and oceans every year.
Even with the cost of at-home water filters, you will come out ahead financially if you fill a reusable bottle, and you’ll do the environment a favor as well.
10. Pre-formed meat patties
It can be convenient to buy pre-formed meat patties, but you sure pay a huge mark-up for the few minutes you’ll be saving.
It really takes next to no time at all to form burgers, and you have the added bonus of being able to season them creatively. If you’re still tempted to be lazy about this, you should know that there is evidence that pre-formed meat patties contain more E. coli than regular ground beef; most of the recent beef recalls have been for pre-made frozen patties.
So whether you do it for your health or the health of the planet, try cutting these 10 items from your shopping list for good. We all want to make purchases we can feel good about, and it is so frustrating to be taken in by deceptive or incomplete information about a product.
Whole foods, made fresh at home, can be a real lifesaver in this regard – there is no way for them to masquerade as something they’re not.