The past three years have brought a lot of change on how I look at food. In the past when I was on a "diet", I would pick a food off the shelf that said low fat or diet and I would assume it was a healthy choice. Why else would they use those terms? I now know that those words can be deceiving and if you truly want to choose a food that is healthy, you need to read the entire food label. From the serving size all the way down to the ingredient list. I'm going to break down a few labels and help you better understand the importance of reading them for every food you buy. Below you will see a label for Activia Greek Strawberry Yogurt. Yogurt is healthy right?
The first place you want to look is the serving size. This yogurt is one serving, but many products are more than one serving so you want to make sure you know exactly how much you are eating and if you need to adjust the nutrition information.
Next we will see the calories (190). Low calorie isn't always necessary. It depends what sources these calories are coming from. This is why we look at the ingredients to see exactly what we are eating.
The first macro-nutrient listed on a food label is fat. It usually has a total amount and then it's broken down into 2-4 other categories (saturated, trans, mono-saturated, and poly-saturated). This yogurt contains no fat, which is not always a good thing. Many products will add extra sugar to compensate for the flavor lost in removing all the fat.
You will see a second label for Special K Bars.
Another product that is marketed as a "diet" food. Yes, it is low in calories at 90 and even low in fat at 2 with 0 grams of trans fat (a manufactured unsaturated fat that has a hydrogen atom added to it to allow the product to have a longer shelf life). When a label says 0 trans fat, you need to check the label to make sure it indeed doesn't contain any. If a product has less than 1 gram, they can list it as 0 on the label. When you look at the label, you will see partially hydrogenated palm kernel and soy bean oil which is a trans fat. Trans fats are linked to heart disease, so you want to stay away from any amount of these fats.
The next thing listed on a food label is cholesterol. Try to limit your cholesterol intake to less than 300mg a day to help prevent heart disease. Foods higher in saturated fat (animal sources) have higher cholesterol levels.
Next you will see sodium listed. Sodium causes you to retain water and feel bloated, so limit your daily intake to 1500mg.
The second macro-nutrient on a food label is carbohydrates. This nutrient is very controversial. The FDA recommends 45-65% of your daily calories should come from this nutrient. Yes, I agree that it's very important to include in your diet because it is your main source of energy to get through your typical day and your exercise. However, it's important to see what source the carbohydrates are coming from. Is it whole grains? Dietary fiber? Sugar? Understanding this will help you choose your carbohydrates wisely.
To see if your product contains whole grains, look at the ingredients. The first ingredient listed should be whole wheat. You don't want to see enriched (un)bleached wheat floor. It sounds like wheat. It actually started as wheat floor, but then the nutrients were taken out and put back in on top of them bleaching the floor white for white products. Is this really necessary? The yogurt doesn't contain any flour and the Special K bar says "whole grain wheat" so that is great to see!
The next part of carbohydrates is dietary fiber. This helps you digest your food, lower your cholesterol, and feel full longer between meals. You want to have between 20 - 35 grams a day for these benefits. The Special K bar isn't doing to bad at 3 and the yogurt has none.
The final source of carbohydrate is sugar. You should not have more than 40 grams of added sugar a day. Added sugar is anything that doesn't come naturally in a food like milk, fruits, and vegetables. This is where food labels get tricky! Many manufacturers will list several different names for sugar so they can list it lower down the list. Some of the names you will see are sugar, fructose, sucralose, high fructose corn syrup, corn syrup, glucose, lactose, maltose, galactose. The yogurt has 29 grams of sugar! It's listed as sugar and fructose in the ingredient list. About 6 of those are natural in milk, so that puts you at 23 grams of your added 40 allowed for the day! Was all that added sugar really needed in that yogurt? I don't think so! Some of it was probably added because it is fat free. They needed to make up for the lost taste from having no fat. The Special K bar has fructose, sugar, corn syrup, and brown sugar in the ingredient list which counts for 6 grams of added sugar. Add that to the yogurt and you are almost 3/4 the way to your total allowance of added sugar for the day and you thought you chose two "healthy" snacks!
The last macro-nutrient on a food label is protein. 10 - 35% of your daily calories should come from this nutrient according to the FDA. You should have protein at every meal because it makes you feel full longer and it's important in building muscle. Greek Yogurt is a good choice for protein because it has 12-20 grams compared to your regular yogurt that has 6-9 grams. The Special K bar only has 1 gram. Which food item would hold you over until lunch? Choosing a plain or vanilla Greek yogurt is a great snack with minimal added sugar and a lot of protein!
The final piece of information we will discuss on a food label are the ingredients. Ingredients are listed from the ingredient you will find most in the food to the least. My rule of thumb is the less ingredients listed the better. Also, if you can't read the ingredient you probably shouldn't be putting it in your body. So many things are added to brighten up the colors, keep the food on the shelf longer, and make it taste the best it can. These are many times chemicals that just aren't good for your body! There may be another post at some point with more information on this! Look at the ingredients in both the yogurt and Special K bar. There are definitely several on each that I can't pronounce. If you ever need something to do, Google some of them and see exactly why they are in the products you love.
Thanks for reading this very long post and I hope you are now at least a little more educated on food labels and what you should be looking for when choosing products for both you and your children to eat!
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