No. I seldom look in other people's carts, mostly because I'm tired after a day of work, or a day of housecleaning, and I just want MY stuff rung up and bagged and carried out to my car. *Yes, I always let them carry it out for me.*

But sometimes I'm on the other end of this rant. I'm buying for a party or for snacks or just when I'm at the end of my rope, and I will look at my stuff as I load it on the conveyor belt.....
Chocolate chips and nuts and brown sugar and Rum and Wine and sodas and Beer and icecream and a magazine and butterscotch topping and chips and dip and dog treats.

Wow! What am I thinking???

Red

I'd hate to see you behind me. lol

I go out once a month for soda, bottled water and snacks; (Target lately) plus other essentials; it's usually all I will get during that trip; depends on the sale.

My usual trip is running into the local super Walmart for fruits & veggies because that is the closest store. I used to shop only at Acme (Albertsons) but won't return after the way a cashier treated me when I spent over $300.

I do not have small kids any more; the coke is for me.
I buy meat in bulk; I always have veggies on hand whether it's fresh, frozen or canned. Our usual dinner always includes a veggie. Making stuffed peppers tonight.

I know what you mean about the kids these days always seeming to have sugary stuff. None of my kids drank soda until they were almost teens, if they had a soda at a party it was caffeine free.

My cashier always asks what I'm cooking. I shop at a locally owned grocery store and I usually have the same cashier. Through the years we've become 'friends'. He says my cart is always interesting. I don't know if he's like that with everyone. Maybe he is.

Once I told him that I am a celery rescuer, so now he always looks to make sure I haven't forgotten my celery. LOL!

I don't usually look in other people's carts either. I'm an in and out as fast as I can grocery shopper. That said, we live in an area where people eat pretty healthy. Lot's of organic 'health-food' based eateries, etc. (California)

As I don't buy supermarket fruits and veggies, I could be a guilty party. I used to worry about this stuff, now I don't care. Don't pay attention if they're paying with a food stamp card, don't care if they're buying enough Sudafed to run a meth lab.

People might have periods of time where they buy more junk, who knows ?

I buy my fresh food, f & v, at a farmer's market, so my basket could only have the other stuff most of the time ; diet coke, popsicles , etc...

I think it definitely should be a concern to cut down on pre prepared food and processed products ; I've cut down a lot on those but my basket might have a frozen Oetker pizza or two.

No I don't care what anyone around me buys. Sometimes I stopped at the fruit stand the day before and loaded up on the good stuff and now I'm stopping at the grocery store for the bad stuff. And yeah, I feel a bit embarrassed when my cart has too much bad stuff in it.

"Anyone else shocked at the grocery store?"

Only when the cashier tallies up my bill. Gadzooks! It's expensive to eat healthy.

Thanks, Mrsmarv... that's exactly what I was thinking when I saw the title of this thread. Like when the little box comes up and says "Your total is $X. Is that okay? Yes/No" I always think NO are you kidding? That's preposterous! I look for the 50% off button but there is none. :(

"Gadzooks! It's expensive to eat healthy."

LOL, Mrsmarv, know what you mean!

There is only one store here so I know it isn't a case of going somewhere else. Okay, here is the deal... often times our weekly grocery shopping coincides with that of another woman. More often than not, she is shopping at the same time we are. Her cart is crazy with unhealthy things. No fruit/veggies/or even frozen veggies. Only frozen pizzas, colas, cookies, candy, you name it, all piled in her cart, almost to the point of filling it completely.

I guess I have seen her so often that I notice more, but every week it is crazy unhealthy like that. I just worry so much about the health of people who eat like that. If it is their choice, I can live with that, but often times I fear it was just a lack of education about food.

Before they release a flood of high school students into the world, I wish they took them through classes for basic finance, healthy eating, and childcare. Knowing about the food pyramid isn't enough. They show videos of what happens when one drives drunk, but they don't show the effects of bad food choices on the body, what I would think would be a more universal problem than drunk driving.

I pay a lot more attention to store fliers, particularly loss leaders and bogo sales, and it helps that all our stores are all within a mile strip of highway in my small town. I can hit Aldi's, Wal Mart and 2 major grocery stores in a short period of time.
Aldi's had blueberry pints for .99 this past week and I stocked up.
Otherwise, yes, things cost more but I don't think I spend that much more because now I put great effort into shopping sales and really stocking up.
And I've cut out frivolous stuff like gourmet cheese and better wines.

Guilty. It's actually helping me to stay on my weight loss journey. I remind myself that if I don't want to look like the obviously unhealthy people with the carts loaded with crap, that I need to buy fresh, un-processed food.

Sorry to say, but it's very true. And I can't help but think how unhealthy these people are (as I was that way once). My SIL & my brother eat nothing green. For salad, they use iceberg. White bread, corn, chicken, mashed potatoes...that's typical for them. And she's got high BP, cholesterol, etc and is on tons of meds and she's just now 40. My brother is not healthy either..not to mention that their kids are too heavy for their age.

I want to shake people and say 'try an apple, you might like it!'

I really do not often pay any mind to what others are buying unless they have a buggy full of one thing and then I surreptitiously check out the price to see maybe it is a great sale and I should go get some too :)

I don't look anymore either. I shop at several stores, buying specific things at each. We have a local farmers market, and that's where I get all of our produce and veggies.

Once when my daughter was 3 I found her raiding the sugar jar after which she was spinning in the living room for an hour. That was back in the late 70's when we were just learning about how sugar affects the body and was a wake up call for me! No more sugar in the house. After that, even the Easter bunny would bring her huge baskets filled with fruits, juice, carob, crackers & cheese, trail mix and nuts. She never felt cheated and still has fond memories of her beautiful but health(ier) baskets.

I did notice the groceries of the man ahead of me last week... Fresh fish, some really good cheese, a nice bottle of wine, fresh berries and veggies, Indian curry paste (He wasn't Indian) and several other interesting and delicious items. If I were single and looking, I'd have had to strike up a conversation, just because of his groceries.

I notice when things seem extreme but usually don't pay much mind.
Last summer while I was shopping the produce mgr passed by, looked in my cart and said, "No produce??" in a mock horrified way. I told him I grow my own. :) True. Fresh fruit is plentiful at the farm stands - and so good. So, I am the one with the nacho chips and ice cream in my cart!

That would have been me today! I hit the grocery store, and when I got to the checkout, the clerk commented that I had all "fun" stuff in my cart. She was right. The only veggie was a lone head of cabbage, and the only fruit was a pound of Ranier cherries that were on sale (yummy!). However, I was at the farmers market yesterday stocking up on produce. My DH and sons had spent the day outside digging up part of the back yard and moving 1 unit of bark around the yard. I bought some fixings for a great milkshake for them and also chips for hubby.

I generally only notice what other people are buying if I'm stuck in a slow-moving line.

There are other people at the grocery store?

I go in with a mission and more often than not a time limit. I need to get in, get the goods and get out.

I know my sister's cart never has anything green in it . . .she gets all of her produce delivered, and it all comes from organic farms, local when possible!

I am concerned at the level of obesity in our country, esp. among children. I saw a woman recently at the store who was obese, and her daughter, who was no more than 3, was obese. I don't mean chubby, fat, or round, I mean obese.

When I was in Japan, I could see how the lifestyle of a typical Japanese urban adult (I was in Tokyo for most of my time there) would lead to being slim and healthy . . .food portions were small and healthy (minus maybe too much salt), dessert was more of an occasional thing and delicate, and most importantly, due to many factors, walking was a necessity of daily life. Also, presentation, was so important, as is the idea of quality, not quantity.

SO different here . . .huge portions, very few vegetarian options (and those usually have MORE fat than the non-veg ones) unless one eats a place that serves cuisine from another country, and exercise as something added (which most do not do) vs. being a natural part of the day. For many people, cooking using whole foods requires them to learn how to cook in an entirely different way because the role model of how to do it (from parents, eating out) isn't there. I think it's different in other parts of the US (esp. the exercise part), but in the Midwest, even in Chicago, this is how I see it.

Trust me, being a "horizontally gifted" woman I get plenty of nosy parkers looking surreptitiously (and sometimes not so surreptitiously) into my cart, unable to MYODB about what is and isn't in there, and having absolutely no clue about the backstory as they peer down their noses. Nope, there's very little fresh fruit and veg in there - I can't digest most of the fresh stuff anymore so no point in spending the premium for something I'll most likely cook to death anyway. Sure, I'd love to eat a nice big salad, but the aftereffects aren't worth it. There are frozen pizzas, canned soups, and processed foods in my cart because if I've used up my spoons on something else (like maybe doing that dadratted grocery shopping in the first place) and DH and I were too busy to do the pre-prep we have been trying to do on the weekend that maybe all I'm up to is shoving one of those in the oven/micro. We had planned on doing our "mise en place" yesterday but instead scavenged a newly abandoned house (with the permission of departing owner who left the foulest mess behind that I nearly vomited several times) for about 5 hours instead - we came out of it with several hundred dollars' worth of tools, a couple of beautiful pieces of wood furniture, a few dozen pieces of crystal glasses, cases upon cases of Italian tile to haul over to the ReStore, all left for trash. We'd have taken twice as much and be Craigslisting like mad if they hadn't had multiple cats with no notion of housetraining - I had to throw away my shoes. We're having supper with Mr. DiGiorno tonight because I'm certainly not standing in front of the grill making fajitas (which is what I'd really LIKE to have!) when I have to think real hard about the walk from the couch to the bathroom. DH earns his treats and then some running 45+ miles a week plus weight training, if he wants some Klondike bars or Doritos he's darn well getting them. So IMO I have absolutely no right to be passing judgement on what's in anyone else's cart.

Oh, and my BP, cholesterol, blood sugar, and all that good stuff are perfect. It's just the stuff no one can really do much of anything about that's a racked-up mess.

Any checkout clerk that makes a comment about what's in my cart other than "hmm, that looks good, have you tried it before?" gets a good case of the hairy eyeball. Ring up the blasted groceries and cork it, twinkie. If I wanted a dietician I'd hire one (and s/he wouldn't be making minimum wage scanning groceries at Wallyworld either).

"Ring up the blasted groceries and cork it, twinkie" that's a gem !!!!!!!

I clicked on the "spoons" link, it's the education/example that cuts to the chase.

I guess we should not judge grocery baskets, or possibly hide our "treats"
under the cereal boxes.

I used to joke with my daughter when I put away groceries; I'd pull out a cake and say "look how lucky I was today, I won this !!"

I agree with anele about obesity in our country. I work in an elementary school and I can tell you that when we see an overweight or obese child, you can bet dollars to doughnuts (no pun intended) that the parents are also overweight or obese.

I am very grateful that I had good role models when it came to food and eating. My parents were very health-conscious, way before it became "popular". Both my parents worked in education so we all had the summers off. We would travel "upstate" to our country place, and spent most days gardening, cooking and entertaining. My mother was an excellent cook and taught me so much, and what wonderful lessons I learned, not only about tending the soil and appreciating nature's bounty, but oh! the exercise we got!

DH and I have always had a vegetable garden, recently expanding it to 20' x 30'. We grow, freeze and can many of our veggies and even sell the excess at the bottom of our driveway. To me, there's nothing like working up a good sweat toiling the earth. DH swears I could be a pioneer woman ;^)

We've become a very complacent society and it's taking its toll, not only on our health but on our health care system...I'll get off my soapbox now and get back to pulling weeds.

Mari ~ I must have been in the midst of typing/composing my above post and did not see yours until I "refreshed" the page. I followed the 'spoons" link and I have to say that I am humbled.

"I work in an elementary school and I can tell you that when we see an overweight or obese child, you can bet dollars to doughnuts (no pun intended) that the parents are also overweight or obese."

I hope my above statement didn't come off as "holier than thou"...my point is that most of the time, obesity or being overweight is something an individual has control over, especially in the case of children because parents hold the reins to a child's health. As a parent you have a respnsibility to keep your children safe and healthy. When a parent chooses to aide them on the path of obesity, they're not parenting positively. Sometimes it's a lack of knowledge, sometimes it's a lack of time, and sometimes it's a case of the lazies. When it's a case of being sick and having no control over your body, I understand that sometimes you can't follow a healthier lifestyle because you're just trying to get through the day. A dear friend has Lupus and I see what she goes through, day after day after day. I wouldn't wish it on anyone. Neither would she.

Add me to the list of folks who are appalled at the costs of eating healthy these days! :( I just wonder how folks afford to eat when I look at their carts! I am overweight too.

We are going through interesting economic times here -- and we TRY to buy healthy items but sometimes the choice is between buying a cooked chicken at Costco v.s. buying raw chicken and heating up the oven when the outdoor temperature is close to 100 degrees!

As I have mentioned before -- the main farmers market here in Dallas is downtown. Way too hot AND far too much gas to get there and back! And the fancy stores like Whole Foods or Central Market are out of the budget right now.

Of course cheap wine is still stocked here at Rosemary Cottage (it was never out of fashion here! LOL!)

Jan

I feel sorry for those who have to feed a family on a budget, these days.

Simple fact is that soda, chips, candy, hot dogs, sugary cereal, frozen pizza, white breads and anything made with corn, are the cheapest things to buy.

DH wants a nutritious lunch, to eat at the office, so I pack it for him. Three fruits, yoghurt, whole grains, and a few other goodies. A lunch at McDonalds would be much cheaper. Most of our food budget goes for produce and lean protien (with the occasional chocolate cake and some ice cream :) ). If I had to multiply what we spend, to include a family with kids, the cost would be prohibitive for most families.

School lunches are becoming more balanced than they were when I was young. Candy and ice cream machines are disappearing, thank goodness. It may be the one place that these children will get a balanced meal.

I have learned to NOT look into the carts of parents with obese children, of which there are, sadly, so very many. I also keep my head averted at fast food joints, where my kids are having grilled chicken sandwiches, no mayo, and water, while all around are dining on on fries and coke. Toss 'em a pack of cigs, I'm thinking. Wouldn't be much (any?) worse. I'm not a judgmental type....oh, except maybe when it comes to kids and animals. For the most part I realize it can be blamed on ignorance...a socioeconomic and cultural difference. But not always. There are those cart pushers and soda buyers I do wonder about. I wonder if they were fat children, and if so why they are encouraging the same unhappy, unhealthy path for their children. Small children and dogs are at the mercy of their caregivers for their nutrition. So why are there any fat dogs or children ( with exceptions, of course)? Okay, I'm stopping now, 'cuz here's where my panties DO begin to bunch a bit :>/ From here I go into the "you don't need a license to etc. etc, but any idiot can have a child"...and neve mind the plight of poor animals.

I listened to The Splendid Table (APR radio show) this weekend, and a guest said that grocery stores are reporting higher sales of ingredients, by which they speculated that more people are cooking at home. I thought that was interesting.

I've always been a cook and many times have to hold up the line while the check-out person tries to identify the more obscure herb or fruit or vegetable in my cart. So I'm sometimes self-conscious about what I buy, and seldom notice what others are buying.

Oh, there ARE people I'd wish this on... health insurance company execs, for one thing. Aggressively clueless relatives/neighbors/pseudofriends (you know, the ones who say "oh, just snap out of it" or "if you did XYZ - go jogging, eat this diet, drink this tea - you'd feel great in no time"). *evil, EVIL grin* Okay, maybe just for a week or so. I'm not that horrible. Just slightly horrible. ;-)

Anyway, I'm thrilled that some of you read the Spoons Theory and "got it" - it's just about the best explanation I've ever seen about handling a chronic illness that drastically limits one's energy. The first time I read it I bawled shamelessly. (butyoudon'tlooksick.com is an amazing site all around for any of you who have family or friends struggling with an invisible chronic illness or disability as well as those of US who are.)

I'm also glad to see that some of you "got it" about maybe thinking about there being a reason why things might be in someone's cart, or why someone might be bigger than the Powers That Be think they "ought to be". It can be awfully hurtful to have someone just assume you're just a disgusting pig. I'm castigating myself because I'm considering not putting in my hour at the pool today - DH will kill me if I go, but if I don't, well...

A few hundred years ago being fat was a sign of incredible wealth and success. Now it's a sign of poverty and unless you can raise your own food thinness is very often a sign of wealth, because as others have pointed out, the nutritious foods cost a fortune and you have to a) have the facilities and tools to cook the cheap healthy stuff (which is still mostly the evil carbs) and b) the skills and time to cook them. When DH and I were first married 14 years ago, our grocery budget was $25 a week. We went through the grocery store - only had access to one small one, poor urban neighborhood captive-audience problem, and no vehicle to get to another - with a calculator in one hand and the list in the other and when we reached $24.00 (someone tell me WHY toilet paper is taxed? it's not like it's a luxury!) that was it. Since frozen mixed veg was 3 lbs. for $1, hot dogs 2 8-packs for $1, and mac and cheese was occasionally 10/$1 as a loss leader (!!), that's what we ate. I could feed the two of us on a box of mac and cheese, two hot dogs chopped up in it, and a cup of veg. Not what you'd call healthy or slimming by a long shot. Of course we also ate plenty of ye olde beans and rice but you could have powered the building on the methane :-) (and in a Jan, back when I could drink what my dad jokingly called "essence of moldy grape" :-) I remember Eastern European wines as being very tasty wines for ridiculously low prices. I mean you-gotta-be-kidding-me-the-bottle-had-to-cost-more-than-this prices. Most of the ones I got were white wines from Bulgaria and the former Soviet countries. Of course true oenophiles are likely to turn their noses up but it's worth taking a look at if wine is an inalienable part of your budget. :-)

There are sometimes when there are fresh, healthful things in my cart; there are others when I'm PMSing or am having a horrible time at work or, like this week, just not feeling like cooking or eating much of everything (lost a pet suddenly about a week ago) and have Little Debbie Nutty Bars and some canned pasta and ice cream and chips. It happens.

But then I turn and see the makings of a great meal in the cart behind me and realize I yearn for that. And then my cart the next week usually has that stuff.

So I don't really pass judgment, but it's a wake-up call to remind me of the stuff that is really good for me long-term, not just for the moment. (And, yeah, I know--eating is not the solution to soothe the bad moments. The scale has told me that all my life!)

Also, I notice that a lot of the bad-for-you processed and sugary foods are just the things that are featured in stores' sales circulars, so for many harried parents, those are the things that are easier and less-expensive to buy, I think.

"And recently we actually shocked a cashier with all of our fruits and vegetables"!

"Last summer while I was shopping the produce mgr passed by, looked in my cart and said, "No produce??" in a mock horrified way."

"When I got to the checkout, the clerk commented that I had all "fun" stuff in my cart."

"Any checkout clerk that makes a comment about what's in my cart other than "hmm, that looks good, have you tried it before?" gets a good case of the hairy eyeball. Ring up the blasted groceries and cork it, twinkie."

Clerks are suppose to be trained not to comment on the purchases of customers. They would get more than just a hairy eyeball from me.

I remember well the clerk who surveyed my load of veggies and cheese, who exclaimed with shock and disdain "Do you eat this stuff?!?!?!"

I told her "No. Of course not. I am using this for a tablescape. My trunk is filled with Hot Pockets and Ding Dongs." I think she went deaf after I said it loud enough to embarrass her in front of everybody.

I recently had a customer in line right behind me who LOUDLY proclaimed "Lady don't you think you're taking this vegetarianism too far?!?" when he scanned my load of fruits veggies and cheese on the check-out conveyor. I really blasted him because it was none of his business what I was buying. He wanted to make me look like some kook who didn't know that I should be buying what "everyone else buys" because that is what the television commercials tell us to buy - Popscicles, Fritos, GummieBears, oh and 'power drinks' to keep from feeling "run down" from a poor diet. (And BTW I am not a vegetarian. I just don't buy my meat at that particular store.)

"Simple fact is that soda, chips, candy, hot dogs, sugary cereal, frozen pizza, white breads and anything made with corn, are the cheapest things to buy."

That is absolutely not true at all. It is NOT a "simple fact".

Soda has zero nutritional value just like plain water. If you wish to "quench your thirst" - Drink water.

The cheapest things to buy are always going to be unprocessed foods. Things like dried legumes, and cruciferous vegetables, grains. Fruits and berries 'in season' are reasonably priced. Buy canned when they are out of season, and it is still better than buying CANDY BARS. Paying a buck-fifty for a candy bar for lunch, is not the cheaper option. You were kidding about the candy bars, right?

Instead of eating potato chips, just cook a potato. Waaaay cheaper, and a microwaved potato will retain most of the vitamin C and nutrition. You can buy ten pound of potatoes for what one little bag of chips cost.

Hot dogs are $3.99/lb in the store. You can instead buy decent meat for that price. You can get chicken for $.79/lb and even taking into account the bones in the weight you are still better off both monetarily and healthwise.

Sugary cereal is cheaper than a bowl of cooked oatmeal?? Your kidding right?

anele I don't know what part of the Chicago area you're in but it's very different in my area. When I pay attention, the people I see at the stores are buying organic, very little processed, tons of fish (there's always a wait at the fish counters), and read labels like crazy on packaged products. I know this because they are always blocking the aisles! There is a tremendous emphasis on healthy eating in the schools (beginning in pre-school) and the kids carry the message home. That's not to say every single person is on that path but it does seem to be a mindset here.

I'm one of those nutjobs that makes a project out of grocery shopping! Certain things are bought at certain stores because I prefer the chicken at one place, the produce at another, fish at another..... it really shouldn't be this hard but it is! So at any given store my cart could look odd if someone is paying attention. However, I don't buy junk - no soda, no Cheetos, no Twinkies. Dark chocolate I buy in massive quantity, though ;-)

Mari -- thanks for recommendation -- I'll ask about them at the local wine store (we can finally buy wine and beer here -- it WAS a dry county! LOL!) I tried some bottled mead from Washington State -- a bit sweet so I may have to stick to cider! BTW -- will your group be gathering for the New Moon and Solar Eclipse? :) Brightest blessings! :)

I usually drink pinot grigio (PG) and savingnon blanc (SB) I only drink white wines BUT my DH and our next door neighbours drink reds too ....)

My Cheap-and-Cheerful Recommendations:

Barefoot
Sutter Home -- excellent PG!! :)
Beringer
Bogle

and -- for a cheap-and-cheerful BUT special occasion -- I HIGHLY recommend Domaine Ste. Michelle Brut Sparkling Wine!!! It is wonderful! Very drinkable on its own and brillant to mix too! This would be a great pick for a party -- even a wedding!

This sparkling wine won the No. #1 pick in "The Wine Trials - 100 Everyday Wines Under $15" -- a GREAT book by Robin Goldstein. Worth buying this book!

I have bought many of their picks for red wine -- and have been delighted at my DH and friends reactions.

Cheap-andCheerful Red wine:

Avalon Cabernet Sauvignon (the No. #1 pick from the Wine Trials)

Osborne Solaz Tempranillo Cabernet Sauvignon

Jan at Rosemary Cottage

Dilly, I certainly wasn't recommending a diet of candy bars. Don't know what Kohl's or Sentry (is that store still doing business?) charge but, around Chicago, I can find candy bars 3/$1.00, where DH's apples are running about a buck and a half each. Hot dogs are much cheaper than that, too.

Some moms are lazy, some are harried, some are poor, and some just don't know any better.

mrsmarv: I used to be a teacher, too. I worked in Chicago in a predominantly Mexican school. The parents were generally NOT obese or overweight-- they were 1st generation. However, their children were. Why? Because it was a high-crime area, so going outside could literally be life-threatening, even during the day. We would hear gunshots during the day . . .our outdoor Hallowe'en parade was cancelled after bullets went through the windows of some cars parked right by the school. Parents often had to work 2 jobs-- both time and money were scarce. While whole foods ARE cheaper (though organic is not), they definitely take more time to prepare than processed foods. So, I don't think overweight kids automatically = poor parenting choices. I think it can be a symbol of a difficult life.

dlm: True, it does depend where you live. In an affluent area like Lincoln Park or Old Town, you will definitely see more of an emphasis on healthy foods (esp. if you shop at TJs or Whole Foods) and exercise. Or, some pockets, like the Polish areas (NW side) are more focused on health/exercise. However, even then, I know very, very, VERY few people who do not own cars . . .with the exception of one family with children, every family I know with children has a car and uses it for everything. Again, exercise is not just built into the day-- it's in the form of a class (if you have the $) or a trip to the park (if you have the time and a safe neighborhood), increasing the likelihood of less exercise . . .or the danger of an overscheduled child.

When you count calories, it doesn't matter what you eat as long as you stay under the limit. I've been doing this for 30 years and it works fine.
Eventually you learn that whole grain, unprocessed foods make you feel full longer and control energy levels better, in addition to contributing to overall health.

anele ~ I hear what you're saying. But we live in a suburban/countrified area. Our school district (I'm not an educator, *just* a secretary) is large but not in or near a city, and most of our families are "middle class". I see the parents, the cars they drive, the houses they live in, the clothes they wear, the manicures/pedicures, up-to-date hairstyles they have. So in most of the cases I'm referring to, it is poor parenting choices. I'm certain it's just easier, and that's what our society is based upon...making everything "easy". Let's not have to worry about taking the time to read to little Johnny, let's just plop his butt down in front of the TV and feed him crap so he'll stay out of our hair. Unfortunately, I see it far too often. Their ELA and Math test scores will validate that. Thank goodness those parents are in the minority.

Mari, don't assume that people who notice carts judge you as a person. I totally don't think that anyone who eats chips is bad or any other negative stereotype. When I notice, it is healthy/unhealthy.

I think the disconnect for me is that I (imo) don't believe that all foods are equal. 100 calories of steamed veggies does not have the same value as 100 calories of fried foods. I have known thin women who ate small portions of the most horrible foods and larger women who ate vibrant living foods. Neither woman was bad, just made different choices. But if it were up to me to choose, I would rather be larger eating quality foods. Dress size isn't my ultimate goal, ingesting healthy fuel is.

---
The strange thing about foods is that there are not always immediate results. One might feel ill after eating something that doesn't agree with your system, but generally it is the lifetime exposure to foods that often reveals itself though health and quality of life issues.

If people choose their foods, I don't care what they eat. But if they are harming their bodies simply because they had no education on the subject, that is a problem for me, not because I regard them as uneducated, but because it is another symptom of a broken school system that is failing to prepare young people for life.

I don't have time to look at anyone's stuff. I am often hurriedly placing my stuff on the belt and if I get that done in time, I am prepping myself to watch everything as it scans.

I have to say that I generally find eating with my family's health in mind more expensive. A pack of Lil Debbie snack cakes is $1.49. A bunch of bananas certainly cost more than that. You can almost here a buzzing ka-ching when frozen berries are rung up (we won't even talk about the cost of fresh ones, even on sale). Eggplants are more than $1.50 each. The itty bitty bag of dried wild blueberries for our oatmeal was $6. Maple syrup is $15 for a pint, whereas HFCS syrup is $7 for 2 very large bottles. There is no cold cereal in our house but as a mother who works until 1 a.m., I sure do miss its convenience in the morning. And nuts, excellent food for developing brains, let's not even go there. The only thing that shocks me is that I have not lost more weight because I can barely afford to eat (I am honestly still looking for that deflation that everyone talks about, it is definitely not happening in my world).