Shepherding a group through the grocery store, Stacy Klone knows the question will come. Excuse me, a bystander will ask, but are you teaching these people how to shop?

"Yes, I am," Klone responds, and the inevitable Pied Piper phenomenon will begin as other shoppers start to trail along behind the group. "They watch to see what we're choosing, then choose that, too," she said.

"Shop Smarter" is one of several classes that Klone offers through Kitchenwerks, a business that she likens to having "a personal trainer for the kitchen." From how to organize a kitchen, to how to shop, cook and entertain, Klone draws on her past work in restaurants and her 18 years with Dayton's (and Marshall Field's/Macy's), where she was director of operations for the Marketplace deli.

Last year, after Klone found herself laid off, a friend asked for advice on a kitchen remodeling, which led to conversations about kitchen skills and meal planning, then to a job preparing meals. "I realized that I had a business here," said Klone, 46, who lives in Plymouth. "I'm not a chef, but I've worked with a lot of nutritionists who say their clients don't know how to prepare or purchase the right foods."

Now she gives brown-bag wellness presentations to metro-area companies on how employees can make better food choices, in addition to her classes at local Byerly's, Lakewinds Natural Foods in Minnetonka and the community center in Plymouth. (For a class schedule, visit kitchenwerks.org.)

A recent "Shop Smarter" class attracted mostly women, but also several men who learned about the sometimes surprising disconnect between how a product is marketed and what truths lurk on the ingredients label. For example, Klone said, low-fat foods do have fewer grams of fat, but often more sugar and salt -- not to mention the unpronounceable chemicals.

She has two rules of thumb for choosing nutritious food: Every item on its list of ingredients should be something you can actually find on grocery store shelves. And the fewer the ingredients, the better.

Watch the fine print

Carbohydrates also carry a hidden toll. "Every four carbs break down in the body like one teaspoon of sugar," she said, because they're rapidly digested and converted to glucose, which can be stored as body fat. She held up a Lean Cuisine meal: "This has more carbs than a Lunchable." But if shoppers just read fat grams and calorie counts, they may think the diet meal is a wise choice.

As the group strolled the food aisles, Klone explained how to tell if fish is fresh, why chicken bones should look white, why frozen produce can be better than fresh and that Cheddar cheese isn't naturally yellow.

As to economics, she said, learn how to store foods properly. "Buy-one-get-one-free is only good if I don't end up throwing some away later," she said. Shopping from a weekly menu can cut food costs dramatically. Think of how you want to use the food: Broken crab legs in the freezer case sell for far less than the eye-catching legs on ice in the fish counter. Are you making crab cakes or a spectacular entree?

Vicki Weber of Minnetonka came with friends, and left with information she'd never imagined, such as that a fist-sized apple actually counts as two portions. Good to know, but she was more conscious of the bottom line.

"If you can save some money on your food bill, why not?"

Kim Ode • 612-673-7185