Food labels can be baffling; with so many ingredients with long names and numbers that don’t always make a ton of sense, how are you supposed to know what you’re really eating? Here are six things to know to better understand your food labels.
Calorie Intake
Calories often have a bad rep, being associated with unhealthy eating and weight gain. But truthfully, calories are just a measure of energy.
Understanding the calorie content helps you manage your energy intake, which is crucial whether you’re trying to lose weight, gain weight, or maintain your current weight.
Look at the calories per serving and calculate how many servings you’re likely to eat. Calories are by no means the only thing to look at for healthy eating, but they’re a good place to start when reviewing the label.
Check the Serving Size
The serving size is the foundation of any food label. It tells you the amount of food that the nutritional information is based on. They’re also, unfortunately, quite misleading.
A good example might be a bag of chocolate-covered pretzels that say they’re only 100 calories per serving. Great, right? That is, until you realize a serving is two pretzels. Ask yourself, are you really going to eat just one serving?
Turn Your Focus to Key Nutrients
Some nutrients are essential to get more of, while others you might want to limit. Nutrients like dietary fiber, vitamin D, calcium, iron, and potassium are beneficial and often under-consumed.
On the other hand, limiting saturated fat, trans fat, cholesterol, and sodium can reduce the risk of chronic diseases. Aim for a higher %DV of the beneficial nutrients and a lower %DV of those to limit.
Keep Your Eyes Peeled for Hidden Sugar
Sneaky sugar is often hiding in plain sight under a different name. Glucose, fructose, sucrose, and high-fructose corn syrup are essentially all just fancy ways to say sugar.
At the very least, the FDA now requires labels to list “added sugars,” which makes it easier to differentiate from naturally occurring sugars. Still, it’s ultimately up to you to decipher whether something has too much sugar for you or not.
Stay Skeptical About Marketing Ploys
Terms like “natural,” “organic,” “low-fat,” or “gluten-free” can be misleading. “Natural” doesn’t necessarily mean healthy, and “organic” doesn’t mean low-calorie or low-sugar.
Always check the nutritional facts and ingredient list rather than relying on these claims; they’re designed to entice you to buy just as much as they’re there to inform you. For instance, “low-fat” products might be low-fat, as they say, but then they’ll often have added sugars to enhance flavor.
Understand the Ingredients List
Ingredients are listed in descending order by weight. The first few ingredients make up the majority of the product. If sugar or unhealthy fats are listed among the first ingredients, the product might not be the healthiest choice.
An example might be buying whole wheat bread and noticing that“whole wheat” is the first ingredient rather than refined flour. That’s a good sign, showing that the primary ingredient in the bread is whole wheat, which is what you want!
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