Supermarket sweep: A path to healthy eating

When not working as an Aurora BayCare interventional cardiologist, Dr. William Witmer loves to cook.

As he gathers the ingredients for his recipes, he follows a rather specific path around the grocery store.

“Stick to the outer aisles,” says Witmer, who sees patients in Green Bay and Sturgeon Bay. He practices with Aurora BayCare Cardiology.

“There, you’ll find whole grains from the bakery, then fresh-cut meat or fish, then fruits and vegetables in the produce section.”

That’s a savvy strategy for ensuring that you’re eating healthy, author and food writer Michael Pollan says.

“Go to the produce section. The healthiest food in the store is in the produce section and there are no health claims,” Pollan says during “In Defense of Food,” a PBS documentary produced in the wake of his best-selling book, “In Defense of Food: An Eater’s Manifesto.”

“You go to the middle of the store, where the food is just screaming about its whole-grain goodness and the cereals that are going to, like, save you from heart attacks,” Pollan says in the PBS documentary.

“They don’t talk that way over in the apples and the broccoli. Why is that? Well, they don’t have packaging, they don’t have big budgets. The quieter the food, likely, the healthier the food.”

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