Healthy eating focus of store tour in Bethel Park
Laura Maydak, Giant Eagle regional dietitian specialist, discusses healthy options for one of her favorite foods: peanut butter.
Laura Maydak discusses healthy options in the produce section.
Dr. George Sokos, Allegheny Health Network cardiologist, shares some healthful insight during the store tour at Giant Eagle’s Market District in Bethel Park.
Participants in the store tour check on the ingredients in various loaves of bread.
In the days of the corner grocer, your choice of, say, what to use for a salad, was limited to the relative size of the iceberg lettuce heads.
In the days of the mega-supermarket, it’s a bit more complicated.
“Who has heard that the darker the fruit or the vegetable, the more nutritionally dense it is?” Laura Maydak asked the group of people following her around the vast expanse of Giant Eagle’s Bethel Park Market District store. “We are going to look into that and see if it is actually true.”
Maydak, regional dietitian specialist for O’Hara Township-based Giant Eagle Inc., was leading a store tour of heart-healthy food selections, and she asked participants to choose their favorite leafy greens from among the wide variety available. Along with iceberg, they came up with the likes of romaine, arugula, spinach and Maydak’s selection, kale.
“Sorry, I picked the winner,” she said, as the rest of the group examined the respective nutritional facts panels on the packaging to learn that, if you can adapt to the taste, kale is clearly the green of choice for a healthy amount of Vitamin A, Vitamin C, iron and calcium.
As for that corner grocer’s traditional salad staple:
“If the only lettuce you’ll eat is iceberg, you can still eat it. It’s not a bad choice,” Maydak said. “But we like to think of good, better, best. So maybe try some of these darker vegetables, some of these dark, leafy greens, to get an extra boost.”
The learning experience continued as she led her nutritionally-minded group through the store, explaining about what to look for on labels and how to make tasty, healthy meals and snacks while answering a variety of questions in a friendly, informative manner.
“It’s really great to show those better-for-you options and also talk about how to make it simple, because we have some really easy ways that you can add those into your diet,” Maydak said at the tour’s conclusion.
Along with relevant information, participants also received plenty of mouth-on experience, so to speak.
”We did a lot of sampling along the way, which is one of the absolute best things about being in the store,” Maydak said. “It’s kind of intimidating to try something without ever having tried it before. You might not be as inclined to go and buy it if you’ve never had it. So we’re able to show them that these better-for-you options really do taste good, and it’s not as intimidating as it might be to have a heart-healthier diet.”
Speaking of intimidating, try making heads or tails of the ingredients itemized on food products.
“I’m not the only one who thinks bread can be a little bit confusing,” Maydak admitted as she led her entourage to the applicable aisle. “Packaging can be confusing because what is says might make you think one thing, but it’s a little iffy.”
She advised to keep an eye out for the primary ingredient being listed along the lines of “enriched flour.”
“The base of that bread is a refined grain, because ingredients are listed in descending order,” she explained.
Refined grains, in turn are ones that have been significantly modified from their natural composition. So perhaps a better option, she said, would be to seek out whole grains.
Maydak, a Peters Township resident and licensed dietary nutritionist, is one of a corps of dietitians employed by the supermarket chain with the goal toward a healthier customer base.
“I also do one-on-one counseling with clients, which is an excellent resource,” she said. “We can actually do a store tour during those consultations, but it’s a time that we can sit down and focus on what are you needs, where are you now and how can we help you get to that next, better step.”