Turn a Junk Food Kitchen Into a Healthy Kitchen

Junk Food

Sort your food supplies into different groups such as Junk Food, OK Food, and Healthy Food. Go through all the food and cooking ingredients in your kitchen, and identify everything as Junk, OK, or Healthy.
Junk Foods have very little nutritional value, a lot of calories, and include ingredients like high fructose corn syrup, hydrolyzed vegetable protein, sugar, processed meats, fats, or are cooked in fats. Some examples are:

• candy
• hot dogs
• ice cream treats
• sugar coated kids' cereals
• processed cheese in cans
• high fat lunch meats
• frozen corn dogs
• high fat potato chips
• high fat corn chips
• soft drinks
• frozen french fries
• packaged dessert items
• packaged cookies

Junk Foods can also include any packaged or canned foods that have passed their expiration dates.
Once you have identified all the junk food in your kitchen, get rid of it. If you don't have the heart to waste food, then please don't replace these items with more junk food after they are eaten.

 

OK Food

OK Food includes items that aren't super healthy, but maybe not so bad for you either. Keep in mind that health food stores often have healthy versions of many of these items. Here I would include foods like:

• most canned soups, stews, and pasta meals
• white bread
• breakfast cereals that are not sugar coated, but not whole grain
• sugar-sweetened yogurt
• most salad dressings
• condiments like ketchup and mayonnaise
• jellies and jams
• dry mixes like macaroni and cheese
• boxed dinner mixes
• pasta and noodles made from regular white flour
• red meats

These OK Foods are fine to eat occasionally, but they shouldn't make up the bulk of your daily menu.

 

Healthy Food

The third group of foods would be the Healthy Foods. These are foods that are good for you, such as:

• fresh vegetables
• fresh whole fruit
• fresh greens
• lean meats and poultry
• fish fillets, steaks, or chunks of tuna or salmon
• frozen vegetables
• whole grain bread
• whole grain pasta
• low fat marinara sauces
• olive oil
• low fat dairy or soy products
• whole grain cereals
• frozen fruits
• frozen juice bars with no sugar added
• a variety of nuts and nut butters
• fresh eggs
• 
  

These are the foods that should make up most of your meals. You can also include most convenience foods purchased from health food stores.

 

Clean Your Kitchen and Remove the Clutter

 Now that you have all your food sorted out, it is time to tidy up the kitchen:

• clean all the cabinets and shelves before returning the foods you are keeping
• clean your refrigerator, including any removable racks, trays, and drawers
• clean and sanitize your silverware and utensil holders
• clean and sterilize cutting boards

It is also a good time to remove the clutter from your counter tops which only serve to get in your way and decrease your working space.

 

Restock Your Kitchen With Healthy Foods

When you go grocery shopping, use a grocery list of healthy foods. Make sure that 80 percent of the foods you buy come from the Healthy Food category, and avoid the junk foods as much as possible. Buy a variety of the healthy foods to be sure that you have ample ingredients to make tasty healthy meals. Use recipes that feature healthy ingredients, and keep a supply of herbs, garlic and any of your other favorite seasonings. Buy your convenience foods from heath food stores so that the ingredients will be healthier than conventional frozen and packaged meals.

By Shereen Jegtvig,