Welcome to the first post in a new series — What's in My Cart — where I'll walk through the actual grocery stores I rotate through and what I throw in the cart at each one. I'm starting with Aldi because it's the one people don't expect from a wellness-focused nutrition practitioner, and honestly? It's one of my favorites.
Aldi gets underestimated. The store layout is small. The selection is intentionally limited. The Simply Nature organic line and the produce rotation have made it possible for me to feed our family well — without the Whole Foods price tag for every trip.
This isn't a comprehensive grocery list. It's what I actually grab at Aldi, why I grab it there specifically, and what I skip in favor of other stores.
Why I Shop Aldi
Three reasons:
- The price difference is real. Organic chicken, eggs, produce, and pantry basics are consistently cheaper than chain grocery stores or specialty markets — often by 20–40%.
- The ingredient lists are cleaner than you'd expect. Their store brands have been steadily cleaning up over the past few years. Simply Nature in particular has no synthetic colors, MSG, or hydrogenated oils as a brand standard.
- The small-store format is faster. Less time wandering aisles, fewer decisions to make. For a busy week, that matters.
What I Grab at Aldi
Produce
The organic produce section is small but solid. I rotate through whatever's in season and on the table that week:
- Organic berries — strawberries, blueberries, and raspberries when they look good
- Organic Bartlett pears
- Organic apples
- Organic cucumbers
- Organic broccoli
- Organic baby carrots
- Organic celery
- Organic zucchini
- Organic bell peppers
- Organic baby spinach and spring mix (Simply Nature)
- Bananas and avocados (non-organic, on the EWG Clean Fifteen)
Proteins & Eggs
- Organic whole chicken
- Organic chicken sausage
- Organic grass-fed ground beef
- Organic tofu
- Simply Nature Pasture-Raised eggs — when I haven't made it to the farmer's market that week
Dairy
- Organic Greek yogurt (plain)
- Simply Nature organic milk
- Pure Irish butter
- Emporium Selection grass-fed cheddar cheese
- Simply Nature organic white cheddar cheese slices
- Block cheese — parmesan and mozzarella
Pantry
- Simply Nature organic coffee — for Kyle's afternoon coffee, so he doesn't blow through our good stuff too fast 😉
- Simply Nature organic creamy peanut butter
- Simply Nature organic coconut oil
- Simply Nature organic raw cashews
- Organic quinoa and organic basmati rice when stocked
Aldi Finds
- Cleveland Kitchen sauerkraut when it shows up in the Aldi Finds aisle
Freezer
- Frozen organic veggies — broccoli, cauliflower, peas. Great for sheet pan meals and one of the simplest ways to keep dinner on the table without daily produce prep. (More on the freezer-first cooking system over at IHH.)
- Frozen wild blueberries for smoothies
What I Skip at Aldi — and Why
Aldi's store-brand food has been steadily improving for years. The categories below aren't about Aldi specifically; they're categories I'd skip at any grocery store, because the ingredient lists almost always tell the same story.
- Most packaged/ultra-processed foods. Even the cleaner-looking store brands tend to lean on refined seed oils, gums, "natural flavors," and refined sweeteners. The front of the package is marketing; the back is the truth.
- Most bread. Standard sandwich bread is one of the most processed things in any pantry — refined flours, dough conditioners, preservatives. I either grab Ezekiel from another store or make sourdough at home.
- The baking aisle. Most of the flours, baking mixes, and frostings here lean on industrial ingredients. I source specialty flours and clean-ingredient baking staples elsewhere.
- The hyped products in the Aldi Finds aisle. This is where greenwashing shows up the loudest. Clean-looking packaging, calming earth-tone branding, on-trend health buzzwords on the front — and a back-of-the-box ingredient list full of refined oils, additives, and gums. The cleaner the front, the more carefully I read the back.
- Supplements. Those come from my Fullscript dispensary, not the grocery store — I want to know exactly which form, dose, and quality I'm getting.
The pattern is the same wherever you shop: turn the package over, read the ingredient list, ignore the front label. For the specific ingredient red flags I tell every patient to scan for — refined seed oils, added sugars, MSG, artificial flavors, and the rest — this IHH piece on sustainable home cooking names the main culprits.
"You don't need a Whole Foods budget to eat well. You need a system — and a few stores in the rotation."
The Rest of the Rotation
This is post one of a series. Coming next: Whole Foods, Sprouts, Walmart, and the occasional Sam's Club run. Each store earns its place for a reason.
If you want the running list of everything I keep stocked across stores, the brands I trust, and the products I actually use — my Nutrition essentials page is the canonical source.
And if you're starting from a more depleted spot and wondering whether food alone is going to be enough to refill the tank, this IHH piece on minerals from food is the honest answer.
