We're really sorry that the Taco Bell Drive Thru diet hasn't been working for you like you wanted, but this new-fangled "Bodega Diet" might be just the thing to help you lose that weight while still avoiding actually cooking anything. While most of the time a bodega diet just consists of salty chips, old cans of soup and sandwiches with piles of fatty meat, nutritionist Janine Whiteson says you can live off the corner deli and still stay healthy.
Her main tips involve avoiding things like Drakes cakes and something called "Puff'n Corn," which are often displayed as impulse buys near the deli's registers. Instead, she suggests seeking out healthier snacks. "Have Sun Chips. It is lower in sodium and lower in fat," Whiteson told the Daily News. "Or Bumble Bee tuna. Rinse it out. It cleans your heart out because of Omega-3 fat. Have some with crackers." Unfortunately, this advice may be falling on deaf ears. Most of the city's unhealthiest neighborhoods are filled with bodegas that may not stock healthier snacks or fresh fruits. Bed-Stuy resident Gwen Small said, "I am killing my body. My mother says to buy bananas because it has potassium. I don't know what potassium is."
Along with the Green Cart initiative, the city rolled out a Healthy Bodegas initiative, urging bodega owners to sock healthier foods like low-fat milk and yogurt, unsalted nuts, canned fruit "in its own juice," and to display bottled water at eye level. It also helps if people actually buy the healthy stuff that's stocked. Big J Deli & Grocery in Harlem frequently stocks brown rice, soy milk and whole grain cereal, even though they're in what the city would call a "food desert." Employee Nancy Martin said, "People like the food. It is good for your stomach. People buy it."
