Table 1.

Food categories and healthfulness for ready-to-consume foods (contributing to a ‘grazing environment’) and foods requiring additional preparation (contributing to a ‘grocery environment’)

Food Category (healthfulness)	Examples of ready-to-consume foods	Examples of foods requiring additional preparation
Fruits and Vegetables (healthful)	Pieces of fresh fruit requiring no cutlery to peal or cooking to eat (e.g., apples, oranges, bananas, berries) Prepared fruit salads, green salads, or vegetable dishes Pop-top, peal-top, or screw-top fruit/vegetable items (e.g., fruit cocktail, humus, jars of salsa) Dried fruit (e.g., raisins, prunes, apricots) Toppings (e.g., lettuce and tomato for sandwiches, peppers and onions for pizza)	Uncut, thick-skinned fruit requiring cutlery (e.g., melons, pineapple, durian) Fresh fruits/vegetables requiring cooking (e.g., plantain, potatoes, winter squash, eggplant) Canned fruits/vegetables requiring an opener (e.g., canned peas, canned peaches) Dried fruits/vegetables requiring cooking (e.g., split peas, beans, lentils) Frozen items requiring defrosting or heating (e.g., frozen berries, frozen spinach)
Whole Grains (healthful)	Cooked rice or other cooked whole grains Prepared whole-grain pastas and baked good Whole-grain crackers and chips Whole-corn tortillas Baked whole-wheat pizza crust Granola bars and trail mixes Popped popcorn	Uncooked brown rice or other whole grains Unpopped popcorn Frozen tortillas and breads Unbaked whole-wheat bread or pizza dough
Nuts (healthful)	Shelled nuts, seeds, and peanuts Trail mixes Peanut butter and nut butters	Nuts still in their shells (except for “cracked” pistachios that could be opened manually or peanuts in their soft dried pods)
Refined Sweets (less-healthful)	Baked goods (e.g., cookies, cakes, brownies, donuts, muffins, pastries, pies) Candy bars and other candies Frozen novelties (e.g., ice creams, sherbets, sorbets, ices) Sugary breakfast cereals	Items requiring heating or baking (e.g., frozen pastries, frozen pies, cookie dough) Items requiring additional ingredients plus baking (e.g., brownie mix, cake mix)
Salty/Fatty Fare (less-healthful)	Bagged snacks that are not whole-grain (e.g., potato chips, corn chips, pork rinds) Processed meats and fast-food meats (e.g., hotdogs, hamburgers, sausages, cheese steaks, cold cuts/deli meats, jerky, bacon) Fried foods (French fries, fried chicken), Ethnic fast foods (e.g., tacos, empanadas, pizza slices, fried rice, fried dumpling’s, ramen, egg rolls)	Items requiring baking/warming (e.g., frozen pizzas, frozen burritos, microwave dinners, etc. Items requiring cooking (e.g., dried ramen, boxed mac and cheese, chopped frozen cheesesteak, etc.)