You’re standing in an aisle at the grocery store. A product catches your eye. It may make claims to be “Reduced calorie”, “Heart Healthy”, or “Non-GMO”, but does this make it a healthy, smart purchase?
Time to cut the confusion. In line with my recent blog post on the health benefits of “JERF” comes a missing element in our educational system: teaching people at a young age how to read a nutrition label. Sure, we may learn to examine the caloric content to or hear why we should buy “Fat-Free” products (a bad idea that I touch upon in this article). While calories, macronutrients, vitamins & minerals all provide important information about a product, we need to delve deeper…
Aside from specialized nutrition courses, most Americans are left in the dark on what to do when it comes to eating for health. Rather than run through the exact details of every word on a nutrition label, this article presents a practical 3-step strategy for how to read a nutrition label on a food item to make a healthy choice. Read it, learn it, and share it! As this consumer report explains, many food companies claim to be “All-natural” and trick consumers into believing their products are healthy. Often this is not the case–you are being fooled. Ignore the broad range of claims made on the front side of a label. Direct your attention to the back, as shown below:
Step 1) IGNORE ALL HEALTH CLAIMS & Look at the Ingredients. Above is a Dannon light & fit Greek Blueberry Yogurt label. On the left, the nutritional facts combined with the name–“Light & Fit”–can signal a healthy purchase. Not so. Look to the right at the ingredients. Do you recognize these names? How many are chemical fillers, artificial sweeteners, or preservatives? What effects do they have on the human body? These are just a few of the questions we need to start to ask ourselves when it comes to food, now causing auto-immune diseases and chronic illness. The processing of our foods leads to the integration of numerous non-foods into what we consume on a daily basis.
What you can do: Try to eat real, whole, unprocessed foods that do not require a nutritional label for us to know what is in them. When buying foods with a label, look at the food additives first! There are many helpful guides as to what which chemicals can do the most harm. Men’s Fitness provides a list that is worth your time to read. The Scary Seven list is pictured below, and can be read about in detail here. Added sugar can be in all kinds of names–click here for a list and familiarize yourself in recognizing some of these names. Minimizing your intake of added sugar is critical in maintaining good health. 
Step 2) Look at the serving size. This is another way food manufacturers manipulate our minimal knowledge of food and nutrition. This comprehensive PDF discusses the way in which companies pick serving sizes to present on their product. It may appear low in calories, but in reality people tend to consume much more than the listed portion!
What you can do: Pay close attention! Some mental math is required to generate the actual amount of calories and nutrients in the package, bag, box, or can. But this is well forth your time in the grocery store–especially when it is a food item that may fall in the category of a “treat”!
Step 3): NOW, look at the nutrition facts–especially the sugar content . You may have noticed that a “Daily Value” is listed next to nearly every nutrient on a nutrition facts list–except sugar. Why has sugar been getting a free pass? 
The Documentary Fed Up delves into the role that sugar and big food companies play in sabotaging the health of Americans and is well worth your time to see. Click Here to watch the trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aCUbvOwwfWM
A mind-blowing eighty-percent of food in grocery stores has added sugar. It is literally everywhere. Our chronic over-consumption is linked to type 2 diabetes, obesity, and the rapidly declining health of numerous Americans around the country. Just yesterday, an NPR story was published on the topic. Keep in mind, we are discussing sugar content of food(s) other than fruit, where the naturally occurring sugar is processed much differently in the body. Aside from sugar, look at the amount protein, carbohydrate, and fat . Depending on your dietary preferences, it is important to see the how much of each macronutrient is in each food you intend to buy. In regards to fat, it is especially critical to ensure it is from a healthy fat source. Fat does not make you fat, and many successful eating plans revolve around lower amounts of carbohydrate and higher fat in the diet. Below is a helpful info graphic via The Bulletproof Exec blog: 
What you can do: Strive to choose healthy fats and pay special attention to the ingredients. When purchasing a food high in carbohydrates, seek to pick foods high in fiber, which slow the rise in blood sugar levels and help to prevent immediate fat storage. Higher amounts of protein in foods have been shown to raise your metabolism, prevent fat storage, and help to build and/or maintain lean muscle tissue. To Recap:
- Look at the Ingredients FIRST. Minimize/avoid unwanted crap.
- Address the serving size–mainly for less-healthy foods or desserts.
- Choose foods with less added sugars. Pay attention to the Big 3: Protein, Fats (from a healthy source) and Carbohydrates (with ample fiber in the food).
Once again, please feel free to contact me with further questions or comments.
Win For Wellness 