most people just check the calories and that's it. but the calories are actually the less important thing on the food label. first of all, because the calories are usually per serving so it seems like the food is low in calories. second, because the caloreis don't tell you about the ingredients and nutrients the food contains.
manufactures often claim zero calories or zero trans fats.. but these are just the scams they use to persuade the consumers. as long as the food has less than 0.5g of fat per serving, it can be marked as 0-fat. same for the calories. if the food contains less than 5 calories per serving, it can be labeled zero-calorie food. the problem is that usually that serving is not your serving so you get 2, 3 or more of those servings and the calories rise.
so here's what you need to do:
1. don't just look at the calories. look at the nutrients. usually a food that contains less than 5g of sugar and 5g of fat per 100g can be considered a healthy choice. but we all know that nuts are a healthy food even though they contain 60+g of fats per 100g... so the that's just a general guidance.
2. the shorter the ingredient list, the better. the first ingredient on the ingredient list is the main ingredient for that food. a food with less than 5 ingredients can be considered healthy. but that again depends on the type of food. if you can't pronounce it, you can't eat it. simple.
3. compare claims to the actual values on the label. if the box claims 'rich in fiber', check the label and make sure that the food actually contains plenty of fiber and that is made of whole-grains. one trick manufacturers usually use is that they add fiber to already processed white flours. not good!
4. numbers near fat, sodium, cholesterol, trans fat, sugar, saturated fat must be low. keep in mind that an adult should limit his fat intake to 50-70g per day. sugar intake should be lower than 15g if you are not training.
5. check the serving size! usually 1 serving represents a very small amount of food... let's take bread for example. 1 serving is 130 calories. but that's just one slice. you need 2 to make a sandwich so that's already 260 calories which equals to 1 1/4 cup of cooked rice... that's a lot of rice! so are you gonna choose bread or rice?
6. don't bother about the RDA (recommended daily allowance). the RDA is not based on scientific research and the diet that the governments usually use as a base and comparison, can lead to more health issues than any other diet. but we all know well why.... it's again all about money. bad food/ bad diet leads -> addiction-> increased food consumption -> health problems -> increase in drugs consumption -> ka-ching!
#foodlabels #nutrition #groceryshopping
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