Grocery Store vs Trader Joe's vs Super Target vs Wholesale Club

[randyman65]

If you have access to imported French or Irish butter, you'll find them to be grass fed as well. Also incredibly tasty.

[GatorBuzz]

I just saw that Organic Valley has a grass-fed butter that is only going to available in the warmer months. Haven't tried it and don't normally buy Organic Valley products, but it may be a lot cheaper than ordering online and will be available at many grocery stores. Not sure about quality, but maybe worth checking out...

[al_bundy]

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Originally Posted by tmm99 I am not a food snob. (At least I don't consider myself as one.) I do, however, try to shop with some rules. No products with high fructose corn syrup (it's getting easier to find things without it more and more. It used to be almost impossible.) since I read some time ago that high fructose corn syrup makes you insulin-resistent (make you more susceptible to getting diabetes.) No products with partially hydrogenated oils Restricted polyunsaturated oil (most veg oil) consumption (high in Omega-6) Buy butter made from grassfed cattle (I cannot find these even at Whole Foods, so I get it at a reasonable price online - the taste is superb and more nutritious (more VitA/beta-carotine) - the taste reminds me of the butter I used to eat/use when I was a kid. Do a taste test with some non grassfed butter. The difference is huge IMO.) Avoid farmed salmon (they feed grains and such that wild salmons won't eat, so the composition of the farmed salmon is full of Omega-6 and some dye to make the color pink. I heard farmed salmons in some countries like Norway are feed algea and such that wild salmons eat, but not in US that I am aware of.) No hormone injected beef and no antibiotic pumped chicken. Having said all this, I still eat out and I never ask any questions regarding their ingredients. MSG, hydrogenated, etc, etc all go into my system and I am OK with it. (I don't eat out a whole lot anyway.) I wonder a lot about organic produce and meats and what they all mean. The eggs I used to eat when I was a kid - the yolks were almost orange in color (more green feed?) that I see in eggs now - organic or not. Same with butter (unless grassfed.) The organic tomatoes at stores taste just like tomatos at Safeway - sometimes better than Safeway, but nothing like the tomatoes I grow myself (maybe they pick the organic ones green just like the non-organic ones for transport?) I'm sure many people eat organic foods because they use no pesticides, but I am not sold on doing it for the taste or for better nutrition.

all the Whole Foods around the US carry different products. the ones in the NYC have butter from grass fed cattle. my wife swears by it, i usually buy the Kate's butter. we buy the organic grass fed non-homogenized milk for our son. kind of cool how there is a layer of fat on top and clumps of it mixed in

The farmed salmon in Whole Foods is usually from Norway or somewhere else in Europe.

[haha]

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Originally Posted by randyman65 If you have access to imported French or Irish butter, you'll find them to be grass fed as well. Also incredibly tasty.

Trader Joe has Kerry Gold Irish butter.

Is the presumption that all Irish or French butter is grass fed that dairies in those countries do not feed grain? That is hard to imagine, though I guess it might be true. Kerry Gold at TJ costs 2x what their cheapest Trader Joe Brand American butter costs. But milk yields with adapted (Holstein) cattle fed grain are much, much higher than any cow on grass, so it seems a minor miracle that they could market that at only twice the run of the mill price.

If this is true, I guess it also implies that all Irish or French cows'milk cheeses are also from cows fed solely on grass.

ha

[randyman65]

Its not necessarily that all French or Irish butter is from grass-fed cows, but you stand a much better chance. With some exceptions, food in the US tends to be generic. On the other hand, several European countries have very, very strict controls on many regional foods. The ingredients, methods of production, and ages of these foods are all tightly regulated. The French AOC and Italian DOC systems protect the quality and production of traditional foodstuffs, and the ingredients and methods of production are pretty transparent and available to the consumer.

This is another illustration of my point that one should at least attempt to know where one's food comes from, if nothing else but to make an informed choice.

[al_bundy]

grain fed usually means corn, because it's the cheapest. but it's also one of the most nutritionally worthless foods there is. it's high in sugar and is used to feed cattle because it fattens them up faster so they can me made into steak faster

for grass fed it means you need a lot more space for the cows to graze and to rotate their grazing areas to allow the grass to grow back

[randyman65]

The US Farm Bill heavily subsidizes corn, so that's what we use for feedlot animals. Elsewhere, corn is not as often used. Candada typically uses barley, and Europe uses wheat or barley depending on the price spreads. I agree, however, that commodity corn is pretty much nutritionally bereft, especially when raised solely on NPK fertilizers.

[tmm99]

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Trader Joe has Kerry Gold Irish butter.

I just looked it up (Kerrygold website) and they do say their cattle are grass-fed. I just called TJ's and asked if it was grass-fed, and they said yes, and the price is only $2.69 (8oz) so $5.38/lb. OMG!!!!!! :-O
That is half price of what I pay to get Pastureland butter shipped to me. (Without shipping, it would be about $7/lb)

I will definitely go buy a block at TJ's this weekend and do a taste test against Pastureland.

I love this forum!! THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!!

tmm

[RonBoyd]

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Originally Posted by tmm99 Avoid farmed salmon (they feed grains and such that wild salmons won't eat, so the composition of the farmed salmon is full of Omega-6 and some dye to make the color pink. I heard farmed salmons in some countries like Norway are feed algea and such that wild salmons eat, but not in US that I am aware of.)

I wouldn't (knowingly) eat farm Salmon from anywhere -- including Norway, Chili & Australia. (Use Google for reasons why.)

Even Salmon from the Pacific Northwest is a little iffy. See The Bottom Line on Salmon.

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I have been saying this for 20 years and now it’s semi-official: When it comes to salmon, consumers don’t know what they’re buying.

Having said that, we eat a lot of Salmon -- to the exclusion of all other fish. That is about twice a week.

Omega-6, by the way, is one of the "good guy" essential fatty acids (EFAs) but you are probably thinking of the other "good guy"; Omega-3. See The Newsletter : Cutting-Edge Nutrition Articles about Essential Fats, Fish & Omega-3s : Babies, Children and Adults as a "take-off" point in gathering information on Polyunsaturated Fatty Acids (PUFAs).

In addition to the Salmon I eat, I take two 1200mg Fish Oil tablets every day. Fish Oil tablets, for what its worth, is the only supplement approved by the American Heart Association (among, I suppose, other medical groups).

[tmm99]

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Omega-6, by the way, is one of the "good guy" essential fatty acids (EFAs) but you are probably thinking of the other "good guy"; Omega-3. ]

Just to add, from reading, I learned that we are overdosing on Omega-6 in relation to Omega-3. I guess the main thing is the ratio between the two that matters. (The American diet in the modern days being about 20:1 ratio, 20 being Omega-6 and 1 being Omega-3).

[ERD50]

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Originally Posted by haha I didn't know these things, but I have been a Trader Joe customer for about 10 years and I like it very much. ... As far as customers being nice, I think that is likely more neighborhood dependent than store dependent. ha

Well I can give you my viewpoint. Here, the TJ's is essentially in the same 'neighborhood' as our other choices (suburban shopping centers just are different from city neighborhoods, where you can go from upscale, gentile to crack-heads within a mile).

When I go to TJ's I kind of feel like I'm in some kind of time-warp, Mayberry RFD general store. The staff is nice and helpful, the people are nice. Generally very good products, some a bit more unique than your average grocery chain. Some prices seem high, many seem very reasonable.

DW actually had a staff member chase her down in the parking lot, and handed her (gratis) the product she was looking for, but he couldn't find on the shelf or the back room after HE asked her if he could help her find something (he just noticed her looking through the shelf - she didn't even ask for help). It wasn't even something she needed that day, she could get it next time she was there. But he looked again and found it.

That kind of service is rare. This might sound corny, but having a TJs nearby makes me feel a little more 'civilized'. Really.


As far as the organic/GMO/pesticide debate, I'll only say...

http://www.early-retirement.org/foru...k-30257-2.html

Enjoy

-ERD50

[al_bundy]

i get that kind of service at Whole Foods. One time i was there to buy milk for my son. All the milk on the shelf had expiration dates that i thought was too soon. Asked someone and they got me a gallon out of the back with a later expiration date

[ERD50]

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Originally Posted by al_bundy i get that kind of service at Whole Foods. One time i was there to buy milk for my son. All the milk on the shelf had expiration dates that i thought was too soon. Asked someone and they got me a gallon out of the back with a later expiration date

I've only been to Whole Foods a few times, it's a little further down the road for us, and TJ's is right were we would do any other shopping, so TJ's is kind of a 'default' stop for us.

But Whole Foods had good 'ambiance', too and some interesting products. I thought the prices were generally high (hence the nickname "Whole Paycheck"), but just like TJ's, it might be a matter of getting familiar with what is a deal and what isn't.

It's good to have choices. Especially good ones.

-ERD50

[al_bundy]

TJ has that killer wasabi mayo

secret to whole foods is stock up on the on sale meat and that will be most of the savings. have the same mentality as if you're shopping at costco

[CuppaJoe]

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Originally Posted by al_bundy TJ has that killer wasabi mayo secret to whole foods is stock up on the on sale meat and that will be most of the savings. have the same mentality as if you're shopping at costco

Yeah, Whole Foods meat and seafood are the best, I trust them but never thought about freezing even though I do freeze supermarket chicken.

My delivery market stopped stocking the "killer wasabi mayo" so I bought a tin of powdered wasabi and just stir it in.

I just discovered a new TJ near me, wow, what's the scoop on the low prices, is it a non-union shop?

[Bestwifeever]

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Originally Posted by CuppaJoe ...I just discovered a new TJ near me, wow, what's the scoop on the low prices, is it a non-union shop?

TJ's is now owned by the same German company/brothers that owns discount Aldi. There are a lot of similarities--almost everything is private label, limited number of items, careful selection of store sites, etc.--that help keep prices low.

I don't know if TJ's (or Aldi) is non-union, but according to a previous post the TJ people are well-paid.

[randyman65]

TJ's is non-union. When LA grocery storee employees went on stirke several years ago, TJ's was the only one which remained unaffected (unless you count the extra business).

Contrary to popular belief, unions do not guarentee quality or better wages for their employees. TJ's pays its non-union employees more than other chains pay their union employees, gets better service and more productivity. If a union became active among TJ' employees, it would likely kill the company, as they tend to do with most companies.

[FUEGO]

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Originally Posted by randyman65 Contrary to popular belief, unions do not guarentee quality or better wages for their employees.

Being from the non-union south, I don't have hardly any experience dealing with unionized industries. But is there really a popular belief that unionized work forces guarantee quality goods or services?

I have always assumed the opposite. I mean you have a group of employees who are highly immunized to termination for producing substandard quality goods or services. Isn't the logical outcome that you would have a lower quality end product?

[randyman65]

I believe a more appropriate term would be that there is a lot of union-generated propaganda that unions guarantee quality and safety, an assertion which has not been borne out in my experience (I'm in NY, so I have lots of experience with unions).

Not to politicize the argument, but unions have often devolved into serving their own interests rather than those of workers. The most striking example is a housekeeper (non-union) that we hired. We pay her $12-13/hr, plus free, generous benefits. Her previous job was working as a cleaner at JFK airport. She made $6.50/hr, minus parking, minus union dues. Her union membership actually meant that she was making less than minimum wage.

[al_bundy]

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Originally Posted by FUEGO Being from the non-union south, I don't have hardly any experience dealing with unionized industries. But is there really a popular belief that unionized work forces guarantee quality goods or services? I have always assumed the opposite. I mean you have a group of employees who are highly immunized to termination for producing substandard quality goods or services. Isn't the logical outcome that you would have a lower quality end product?

bit OT, but there is a lot of variety in unions

the most unionized company in the USA is Southwest Airlines

unions like the UAW are having a hard time because they bankrupted their employers. unions like the SAG and a lot of the skilled worker unions are doing just fine because the extra pay their people get is balanced out by the fact that they finish a job faster and do better work and save their employer money in the long run.