The more I converse with people about health and nutrition, the more I find that one of the fundamentals of healthy eating is considered somewhat intimidating. This basic concept is reading food labels.
How are you supposed to eat healthy if what’s printed on the package seems like a foreign language? My goal today is to show you how to take a quick glance and make an educated decision on whether or not the item makes the cart.
Before we get too deep into the label however, we need to make a few things clear.
1. Don’t shop on an empty stomach. I know you’ve heard it before, but here’s how it works: Studies show that not only do you buy more snacky/junk foods, but you also spend more money when you shop hungry.
2. Avoid processed foods. The more processed your item of choice is, the more artificial flavors, chemical alterations and preservatives are in it. Since your body was not made to digest these factory-produced chemi- cals, they make it difficult to maintain optimal health. If you start out with the least processed foods, label reading becomes much easier.
3. Low fat, reduced fat and fat free don’t always mean healthier. If the fat content is lowered, the taste of the product is usually maintained by adding sugar. Plus, a lot of times the "good fats" are removed instead of the bad ones.
For an example, let’s take Wheat Thins. If you look closely at the reduced fat Wheat Thins, they actually reduced the most beneficial fats and added more high fructose corn syrup (we’ll discuss this later). The bene- ficial fats (poly- and mono-unsaturated fatty acids, a.k.a. PUFAs and MUFAs) can actually help you stick to a healthy weight. They help to keep your circulatory system in check and keep creaky joints lubricated, among several other things we will discuss another day.
Red flags to watch for
All right, here we go: Labels 101.
The very first thing I do when choosing an item is look at the ingredient list. This way, I can usually rule in or rule out an item immediately. During a "quick scan," here are the red flags:
- High fructose corn syrup. This is chemically- altered sugar your body will immediately store as fat, especially around the mid-section. Watch out – it’s in everything from types of whole wheat bread to ketchup.
- Hydrogenated or partially hydrogenated oils. These are vegetable oils that have been chemically altered to stay solid at room temperature. This alteration causes them to act like saturated fats when digested.
- MSG (a.k.a. hydrolyzed vegetable protein) and aspartame. Both of these are known excitotoxins which are now being linked to obesity and nervous system dysfunction. These are things you don’t want floating around in your family’s system.
What you do want in your ingredient list are whole grains (unbleached wheat flour, whole oats, etc.), healthy fats (olive and canola oils) and natural sugars. Now for the Nutrition Fact Box.
Fat content is first on the list, and it’s pretty cut and dried. Look for absolutely zero trans fat (the stuff that’ll kill ya’), very little saturated fat (1.0 or less), and be sure most of the fat is coming from the MUFAs and PUFAs we discussed earlier.
The rest of the Fact Box can get tricky, depending on different diets, lifestyles and health histories – an entirely different discussion, so we will revisit that later.
You are now armed with basic label-reading ability. The key is to start slow, but definitely START. My prom- ise to you is this: If you gradually, yet confidently, make these changes to what is in your cupboard and refrigera- tor, you and your family will truly be healthier, happier, smarter and more energized for life!