Dietitians Are Making A Difference With #GuidingStarsCA #PCStars

In an earlier post I gave you a guided tour of Guiding Stars Program.  This month Diane received a live guided tour of the program from Jennifer, the in store dietitian at the Stanley Park Kitchener Zehrs location. 

Did You Know That You Can Speak To An In Store Dietitian for FREE?

Many stores in the Loblaws chain have an in store dietitian that you can meet with.  All you need to do is contact your closest Loblaws affiliated location to find out if your local grocery store is included.  This FREE service is there to help with your dietary choices and can assist in raising your Guiding Stars level.

What Happened At Diane’s Appointment With The Dietitian

Meeting with a professional in any field can be intimidating so we thought we would walk you through Diane’s appointment.

 

1. First Diane filled out a questionnaire so the dietitian had an idea about her grocery choices
2. Diane also gave her a list of what she would eat on a typical
• Workday
• Vacation Day
• Weekend

Because as we all know we eat very differently in each of these situations so having examples to begin with can really make a difference.

3. Then they went on tour of the grocery store

In step 1 Diane learned that she was on the right track to healthy eating and with a few tweaks she could really get all the nutrition she needs.
 

 

In step 2 they went over some possible meal ideas to ease the strain on the age old question What Am I Going To Eat?

In step 3 Diane followed the dietitian through the store seeing exactly what aisles were the best to shop and what to look for when selecting brands.

How Did It Make An Impact?

As you can see it was an easy to understand process. Since then Diane has taken the advice and purchased so new items to boost her calcium intake and will be trying out some new recipes this summer. 




She was also able to email the dietitian with some follow up questions that she had.  She can track her impact using her PC Plus card with on the Guiding Stars website. YES those programs are FREE TOO!

 

Will You Be Trying The FREE Dietitian Service? If so let us know in the comments that you will be and we would love to hear about your experience too!

 

 

 

Guiding Stars And PC Plus Points Mean Healthy Savings

 

Getting A Guided Tour Of The Guiding Stars Program

We recently learned about the Guiding Stars program offered to PC Plus members. It is FREE to join and well worth it.  The Guiding Stars program works on an easy to understand algorithm.

 

Guiding Stars® scores foods based on a balance of credits and debits.

Foods are credited for vitamins, minerals, dietary fibre, whole grains and omega-3s, and debited for saturated fats, trans fats, added sodium and added sugars. Items are rated impartially using an algorithm based on information from the food package or a Canadian nutrition database.

The food items are given a 1, 2 or 3 star rating, with 3 being the highest nutritional value. For example all of these berries received a 3 star rating



and so did these avocados (and yes that is a good deal on avocados).



 

Not sure what I mean when I say they were rated 3 stars? Look at the price and listed on the items above and then to the right of the price you will see a strip of blue with 3 white stars!



If the shelf tag has no stars, it simply means either:

a.) The food doesn’t meet the nutritional criteria for a Guiding Star. Of course, you can still enjoy these foods.Nobody is expected to eat star worthy foods all the time. Just consider balancing eating the foods you love with a healthy, active lifestyle. And, as always, you can read the Nutrition Facts panel and ingredient list to help you make informed choices that work best for you and your family.

b.) The food is not rated. Products like bottled water, dried spices, coffee and tea are not rated by Guiding Stars because they contain fewer than 5 calories per serving.

c.) The food hasn’t yet been rated. There is a chance that a new item has hit the shelf and has not yet gone through the full rating process. Check back during your next visit!

A Map To The Stars

Also while wandering the store I noticed a little tag that said PULL. My curious mind wanted to see what I could find.  Have a look at what is was



It was an overview of the Guiding Stars program along with nutritional facts about the item displayed on the shelf, in this case it was about the nutrients that are found in nuts.

There is lots of  great information about the Guiding Stars program on their website GuidingStars.ca plus you will become knowledgeable while making your grocery list for the week. 
Head to the FOOD FINDER PAGE and type in some of the items on your list to see how they rated by Guiding Stars.

Additionally you can pick your local store from the list below and login with your PC Plus points login info and receive personalized information based on your purchases. Think of it as FREE ONLINE COACHING.

Where You Can Find The Guiding Stars Program?

Here in Kitchener Waterloo you can find the Guiding Stars Program at

• Zehrs
• No Frills
• Real Canadian Superstore

for those outside Kitchener Waterloo you can find it at the stores listed above as well as

• Loblaws
• Fortinos
• valu-mart
• Your Independent Grocer
• Provigo
• Atlantic Superstore
• Dominion
• Maxi
• Maxi and Cie
• Save Easy

 We think this program will assist families with the shopping. Obviously not every item in your shopping cart will be a 3 star item. As you know we are all about all things in moderation when it comes to snacks and sweets, so this tool will very helpful when it comes to balancing your daily meals.

 

How Do Your Rate Guiding Stars?

Have you used the Guiding Stars program? Let us know in the comments if you think it gets a 3 star rating!