Shopping & Nutrition Questions & Answers
by Leah McGrath, RD, LDN – Ingles Markets – Corporate Dietitian
1. Dear Leah, what is the best diet for a pre-diabetic person to be on? Low-carb or low-fat? ~ Karen
Karen, probably a combination of both, i.e., moderate amounts of carbohydrates, focusing on “good” or complex carbohydrates like fruit, starchy vegetables, beans and whole grains, and low in overall fat content. Primarily getting your fat calories from monounsaturated fats like olive oil, canola oil or nuts.
2. Dear Leah, we will be visiting Waynesville, NC this summer and wanted to know if we could get a list of organic products that are stocked at that store so we know what we need to bring from home. (Hopefully we can buy it all there!)
~ Tina
Dear Tina, I think you will be pleasantly surprised at the wide
selection of certified organic products we carry at Ingles; in fact
there are too many to mention here! We have more SKU’s of certified
organic products than most other supermarkets! Off the top of my head:
Amy’s, Melissa’s, Stonyfield, Horizon, and Organic Valley. The last time
I did a list it was three 3 pages front and back! We also have our
store brand of certified organic – Harvest Farms. You will find
Natural/Organic sections on virtually every aisle of the store. The
Waynesville store manager is Jeff Henderson, and I am sure he and his
staff will be happy to help you find products. The Waynesville store is
quite large, has a Starbucks and is one of Ingles’ busiest stores!
3. Dear Leah, I would like to know what kind of food should I eat to
lose at least 20 pounds in a month?
~ Maria
Dear Maria, trying to lose 20 lbs in a month is neither a safe or
realistic goal — sorry. If you lose that fast it will be primarily water
weight and you will gain it back just as quickly. At most I would
expect you could lose about 10-12 lbs in a month with the first couple
weeks being the most weight loss of 4-6 lbs. Losing weight is still a
matter of cutting calories and increasing activity; so it is not so much
“what kind of food (you) should eat” but instead cutting back on your
calories and exercising more. To lose weight you need to exercise about
90 minutes each day. This can be broken up into segments of 20-30
minutes.
4. Dear Leah, my son is allergic to milk. Does Ingles have a list of
foods without milk like they do with gluten free products? ~ Cynthia
Dear Cynthia, I understand your challenge! Milk is one of the Food and
Drug Administration (FDA)-identified common allergens that are supposed
to be listed (like wheat, nuts, eggs, etc.), so therefore we do not have
a list of “milk-free” items. Gluten can be in products that are
wheat-free so we chose to have a gluten-free list.
5. Dear Leah, I need help fixing meals for my husband, he is on Coumadin
now. I have a hard time fixing things for him. Could you please make
some suggestions?
~ Jessica
Dear Jessica, there really shouldn’t be any big issues in cooking meals
for your husband. While it used to be that many doctors would tell
patients to avoid foods with high amounts of vitamin K if they were on
coumadin – this is no longer the case. As you will see in this article,
it is more important that you are CONSISTENT in the amount that he eats.
For example, if he normally has one cup of dark green leafy vegetables a
day like kale or spinach he should stay at that amount and not increase
that to 2 or 3 cups per day. Visit www.drugs.com/coumadin.html
Leah McGrath, RD, LDN
Corporate Dietitian – Ingles Supermarkets
Phone: 800-334-4936
e-mail:
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
Ingles: www.ingles-markets.com/ask_leah
Twitter: www.twitter.com/InglesDietitian
Facebook: www.facebook.com/inglesmarkets
