{"id":119626,"date":"2018-05-30T02:00:05","date_gmt":"2018-05-30T09:00:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/fabfitfun.com\/magazine\/?p=119626"},"modified":"2018-06-12T10:03:24","modified_gmt":"2018-06-12T17:03:24","slug":"dont-buy-at-trader-joes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fabfitfun.com\/magazine\/dont-buy-at-trader-joes\/","title":{"rendered":"5 Things You <em>Shouldn&#8217;t<\/em> Buy at Trader Joe&#8217;s"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Ah, Trader Joe&#8217;s &#8212; you can&#8217;t beat the grocery chain&#8217;s wide selection of tasty snacks and healthy meals (and affordable prices at that). But, turns out, not everything at TJ&#8217;s is fair game when it comes to quality or price. Here is what you\u00a0<em>shouldn&#8217;t<\/em> bother throwing into your cart during your next Trader Joe&#8217;s trip.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Produce<\/strong><br \/>\nA lot of the produce at Trader Joe&#8217;s is packaged in plastic bags, which can cause it to spoil more quickly. Why? Produce needs room to breathe, and when it&#8217;s wrapped in plastic, air can&#8217;t get in. You&#8217;ll get more bang for your buck if you pick up your veggies at a big-chain supermarket where the fruits and veggies are out in the open.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Marinated meat<\/strong><br \/>\nThe next time you decide to throw that juicy meat into your cart, check the ingredients list. Trader Joe&#8217;s may be a health food chain, but that doesn&#8217;t mean everything is necessarily\u00a0good for you. The high sodium content in marinated meat isn&#8217;t worth picking up at an extra cost. Instead, try making your own marinade with more wholesome ingredients!<\/p>\n<p><strong>Pre-packaged meat<\/strong><br \/>\nYou might think that Trader Joe&#8217;s chicken breast or ground pork is the way to go, but in actuality, you&#8217;ll save more money by going to a local butcher shop. Plus, the\u00a0meat is fresher!<\/p>\n<p><strong>Frozen fruit<\/strong><br \/>\nTJ&#8217;s has the best blends of frozen fruit (Fancy Berry Medley and Tropical Fruit Blend, anyone?). But before you spend almost $5 on a bag of frozen fruit, consider the fresh fruit aisle instead. You can easily chop up the fruit and store it in the freezer for a fraction of the cost.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Pre-made salad<\/strong><br \/>\nIf you&#8217;re on a health kick,\u00a0skip TJ&#8217;s pre-made salads. While salad may seem like the more health-conscious option, most of the pre-packaged salads at TJ&#8217;s are jam-packed with sugar and other preservatives.<\/p>\n<p>xx, The FabFitFun Team<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":"Ah, Trader Joe's -- you can't beat the grocery chain's wide selection of tasty snacks ...","author":1427020,"featured_media":121059,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[268],"tags":[],"thumbnail_url":"https:\/\/static.fabfitfun.com\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/16141447\/shutterstock_1037183710.jpg","thumbnail_url_middle_card":"https:\/\/static.fabfitfun.com\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/16141447\/shutterstock_1037183710-386x200.jpg","formated_date":"May 30, 2018","category_name":"Food &amp; Drink","category_icon":"","author_name":"","trending":false,"sponsored":false,"random_color":"#e02fc5","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/fabfitfun.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/119626"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/fabfitfun.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/fabfitfun.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fabfitfun.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1427020"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fabfitfun.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=119626"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/fabfitfun.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/119626\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fabfitfun.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/121059"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/fabfitfun.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=119626"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fabfitfun.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=119626"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fabfitfun.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=119626"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}